Our interviews show that claimants did not have the information they needed or wanted to understand how moving to UC would affect them. Such misinformation and misunderstanding are likely to be reasons some people are not moving to UC despite having a strong financial incentive to do so.
Two-thirds of people sent a migration notice between November 2022 and March 2023 made a successful UC claim before their migration deadline. A further 5 per cent made a claim after their deadline had passed. And 28 per cent did not claim UC at all and had their legacy benefit payments terminated. We are concerned that a sizeable minority of claimants are falling through the gaps.
The DWP’s research during the discovery phase of managed migration to universal credit (UC) concluded that ‘on the whole households are able to make the move to UC.’ But we are finding that, when issues do arise, the consequences can be serious for claimants causing stress, budgeting difficulties and debt.
Today we publish our third annual report ‘The Cost of a Child in 2014’, written by Donald Hirsch from the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University and funded by JRF. It draws on the Minimum Income Standard project (MIS) to establish how much families need to cover their basic needs like food, clothes and shelter, and to participate in society.