If MN is cancelled, no transitional protection for future UC claim

Reading through the ‘Third-Party Guide - to support households required to make a Move to Universal Credit’.

I had not realised that the following was the case:

‘Customers must understand that if the Migration Notice is cancelled and the customer needs to make a claim to Universal Credit in the future, they will not receive any transitional protection. This means they might not receive the same amount of money or might not be entitled at all. • The cancellation request will be considered and if approved DWP will make sure that the customer understands the impact of a Migration Notice cancellation. A Migration Notice cancellation letter will be issued to the customer to inform them of the decision and that they will no longer be eligible for transitional protection. • If they need to make a claim to UC in the future, they may find that they get less money on UC than they receive from current benefits, unless a new Migration Notice is issued, and transitional protection is appropriate’

Wot? I had rather foolishly assumed that a new MN would be issued when the circumstances requiring cancellation no longer applied. But of course, there is no such provision in the Regs. Never let your imagination fill in the gaps.

Of what use, then, is cancellation to the people it purports to protect? Is this not just a punishment for not fitting in with DWP’s plans? 

Ah, perhaps they are referring to the perils of natural migration here?  They refer to a new MN being issued, but are presumably covering a change of circs before that happens.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg.

I had this conversation with a colleague and similarly got worked up about it - but I think it is just a little poorly expressed.

The point is that if your migration notice is cancelled but you then claim UC anyway without a further migration notice having been issued, then you would be a natural migrant and wouldn’t qualify for transitional protection.

However if you look at the last sentence - if the first migration notice is cancelled but then a further migration notice is issued, transitional protection will be available.

So, if you get your migration notice cancelled and then two weeks later you move to another LA area and need to make a claim for UC, you are doing so as a natural rather than a managed migrant and you don’t get TP. That is, if you think about it, obviously correct - your migration notice is cancelled so you can’t be a managed migrant.

But if you are given a second migration notice in the future because your circumstances are no longer within one of the carve-outs, then you will get your TP as a managed migrant in the ordinary way.

Phew, thanks.

Yes, it is actually very poorly expressed (he said, trying to get of the hook). I wonder if DWP would consider a re-write?

I will say in your defence that the original is a very densely packed powerpoint slide and that the words “will not” and “no”  in relation to transitional protection are in bold - so they’re the bits that draw attention when you skim through it.

As Elliot points out, the ‘third’ paragraph confirms that TP is not lost if a claim for UC is eventually made within migration deadlines, assuming cancellation is allowed. Trouble is that rapid readers of the DWP powerpoint (including housing providers,LAs and everyone else), may only notice the big messages in the earlier paragraphs and may end up believing or even asserting that any cancellation would be toxic to TP. I wrote a little note to Neil Couling this morning on the wording in the powerpoint and humbly sought a clarification. I will let you know what the outcome is.

Splendid, thank you.

Both!

I think it is clear that if a new MN is sent, then they will get TP. The question is only if we can be sure that a new MN will be sent in all cases.

We have had many cases where clients are being told, when getting their MN cancelled, that they will not be entitled to TP in future. In one case, a client was told that their agreement to this was akin to a ‘verbal contract’ being signed agreeing to forego TP!!!

On the recent Housing Systems conference, I did ask the person from DWP to confirm that new MNs would be sent to such claimants, and she pretty much confirmed that they would be.

I have also submitted a FOI request about this as well, but not had any luck to date, but I have made a complaint to the ICO.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/updated_guidance_for_teams_worki#outgoing-1590832

With the Resolution Foundation suggesting that 71% of families are worse off in real terms on UC, I wonder if claimants need to worry if they never see another Migration Notice again once a previous one is cancelled! That would only mean more time on Legacy, I guess until the lights are finally switched off, as tax credits seems destined to be next year.

That is the worry though, that the “lights are switched off”, and they don’t receive another MN before that point!

I’ve heard unofficially DWP intends to close Income Support down ‘within six months’ (six months of when, I’m not sure).  The number of staff who deal with it (and understand its rules) is apparently diminishing rapidly.