If we’re on benefits but not yet on Universal Credit, we need to keep an eye on our post

The government is continuing to move people from legacy benefits over to Universal Credit (UC).

The process is called ‘managed migration’ and it means that those of us who are on ESA, Working Tax Credits or Child Tax Credits, income-based Jobseekers’ Allowance and Housing Benefit or Income Support, will be moved on to UC by the end of 2024.

We’ll get a letter labelled ‘Migration Notice’ – we then get three months to follow the instructions for moving on to UC.

If we don’t move over in the time limit, our legacy benefits will stop before our UC claim has been processed. We’ll end up out of pocket. So it’s really important to open all our post and apply for UC as soon as our letter comes in. 

Protecting our payments

The government is making sure nobody who’s part of this managed migration will be worse off when they move over. It’s a process called ‘transitional protection’ and it applies to people on managed migration only. The protection tops up our UC to the amount we were receiving on legacy benefits. 

We don’t have to ask for this – it should be added automatically. We’ll lose it gradually however, as it’ll be taken off the annual increases to our UC.

Managed migration isn’t the only way to move on to Universal Credit. If our circumstances change we’ll move over, and we can also ask to be transferred.

But before asking, we should do a benefits calculation to make sure we’ll be better off. There’s a calculator on the Quids in! website. (It’s also a handy way to make sure we’re claiming everything we’re entitled to – more important than ever as our bills keep skyrocketing).

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