DWP plans for both managed move to UC and voluntary move to UC

Daphne - 17 November 2022 01:38 PM

Just out of stakeholder meeting - Neil Couling says purely fiscal measure - nothing to do with not being ready or not knowing how to manage vulnerable claimants - apparently they will save £1bn principally due to LCWRA element being more than support group component.

Also they will be publishing results of first cohort of discovery soon - it will ‘surprise sceptics’!

Some very brief notes of meeting attached

Very interesting, thanks!

£1b figure matches the figures on Page 45 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1118364/Autumn_Statement_2022_Policy_Costings_.pdf#page=49

I had assumed that TC claimants would still be moved over because they wanted to close down TCs completely.

I see they’ve also delayed folding HB into PC for pensioners until 2028 as well.

Daphne - 17 November 2022 01:38 PM

Just out of stakeholder meeting - Neil Couling says purely fiscal measure - nothing to do with not being ready or not knowing how to manage vulnerable claimants - apparently they will save £1bn principally due to LCWRA element being more than support group component.

You ever get that feeling where someone is saying things but you can’t shake the sense that they don’t quite exist in the same plane of reality as you?

UC is being delayed again because it’s just too dang generous and it’s incredibly fiscally efficient to delay phasing out the infrastructure for all those benefits we abolished a decade ago for another five years.

‘Thank-You Cards’ says he will surprise sceptics?

Is he finally going to answer the questions about the cards?

Anyway, I’m not a sceptic but a hard-boiled cynic.

As I have probably said before, I retire in 2030. I bet UC will not be fully rolled out before I roll off.

Charles - 17 November 2022 01:54 PM

Very interesting, thanks!

£1b figure matches the figures on Page 45 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1118364/Autumn_Statement_2022_Policy_Costings_.pdf#page=49

I had assumed that TC claimants would still be moved over because they wanted to close down TCs completely.

I see they’ve also delayed folding HB into PC for pensioners until 2028 as well.

Couling said that HMRC are keen to close down TC’s asap as the ICT is very creaky (is how I think he described it).

So ESA with TC’s will still be migrated across as will pure TC claimants.

I note with relief that DWP has conceded the need to talk to Adult Care providers, and agreed the danger of fraud is real. I have asked my management to talk to social work colleagues so they are aware of this.

Thank you to all who attended the meetings and got this point over to DWP.

Daphne - 17 November 2022 01:38 PM

Just out of stakeholder meeting - Neil Couling says purely fiscal measure - nothing to do with not being ready or not knowing how to manage vulnerable claimants - apparently they will save £1bn principally due to LCWRA element being more than support group component.

Talk about saying the quiet part out loud.

Another thought: there will be some people moved to UC who are on Income Support on the old ‘disability’ grounds.

I have no idea how many, but I came across a case the other day (in which, as posted in another thread, they are being pestered to ‘migrate ’ to the brand-new benefit known as ESA. I’m not sure how they could claim IRESA now)

Someone on IS will never have undergone a Work Capability Assessment, in spite of being long-term disabled and accepted as such by the benefits system - until it changed its way of assessing disability.

Will they go on to UC with transitional protection, be treated as capable of work by eager Work Coaches until they go through the WCA (we know this happens to disabled claimants, we have been complaining about it for some time), and then have their transitional protection eroded by any late-arriving LCWRA awards?

Has anything been put in place for people in this situation?

Or am I just losing the plot at the end of the week…..?

Just reg.22 of the UC (TP) Regs I think Andrew. Erosion won’t be a concern but they will have to be assessed for LCW and LCWRA.  I also have no idea how many people are in this situation, I’ve asked DWP and will see what comes back

A few brief notes from latest stakeholder meeting today - do put any questions for me to take forward on here as I can keep asking them

Thanks Daphne.

Further to their confirmation that they get most of the information from HMRC in order to calculate the “indicative UC amount”, I would appreciate if you could ask them why the TP calculator used by DWP requires the input of “Other household income” from HMRC’s records, as this should not have any affect on the TP calculation.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/uc_managed_migration?nocache=incoming-2193846#incoming-2193846

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/completing-the-move-to-universal-credit-learning-from-the-discovery-phase

CPAG now has funding for a managed migration policy project to run over the next 16ish months.
We’d be very grateful to hear about any MM cases you have now seen and what kinds of issues they involved. My email is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Reading the above update from DWP on the first 499 Discovery phase ‘notified persons’

Well we all suspected that some ESA claimants would either need a lot of support to claim UC or would not claim before the deadline - is this the news that Mr Couling thought would pleasantly surprise sceptics? I am pleased to read they have not terminated their ESA.

Interested in the 51 Tax Credit claimants (as DWP are as well). I wonder if they have capital and don’t understand the 12 months protection?. Or are low earners who would be hit by either MIF or conditionality?

Are any of them disabled workers who had in their TC award a disability or higher disability element? It would be good for DWP to ask HMRC that question eg - for a breakdown of the TC awards so they understand the circumstances of those people.

‘30% do not have access to the Internet / device / unable to an online claim’.............