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DWP plans for both managed move to UC and voluntary move to UC
Anyone else come across a migration notice giving a 4-month deadline?
It’s a couple case, so I assume it’s part of the discovery phase taking place in Greater Manchester.
Yes I had a basic just single working tax credit claimant who got 4 month notice.
Dated 7/9/23
Deadline 7/1/24
I assumed they were just being nice as it was Christmas?
Any one else?
You’re probably right that it’s due to Christmas.
On a separate point, I’ve now seen multiple cases of couples being sent migration notices. Is this now being rolled out more widely, or are the cases I’ve seen all part of the discovery phase?
We’ve just had a meeting with the DWP in Bassetlaw and the Partnership Manager has informed us that MM was rolled out to couples from 02/10/2023. I’m not quite sure whether this is national or area dependent.
Couples are in scope in all MM areas now
I don’t have access, unfortunately. :(
Is it everywhere at once?
Yes I think so Charles, that is, everywhere that is affected by managed migration - couples will also get letters (and in Manchester I suppose that will include those not just on tax credits)
CPAG’s third public managed migration briefing has been published: https://cpag.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/briefing/managed-migration-3
It includes a couple of easily overlooked footnotes so I thought I’d post them here too:
https://www.z2k.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MM-FOI-non-claims.pdf
https://cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/files/post/Response_to_FOI_on_managed_migration_9Oct23.pdf
Thanks Owen.
UC migration date for Mercia district has been brought forward at short notice - we were preparing for migration for Tax Credits claimants to start from 5th February. DWP sent an urgent email yesterday (17th Jan) to say the date had been brought forward to 22nd January - that’s Monday!
Birmingham were also due to start from 5th Feb, I’ve asked but haven’t yet had confirmation of whether their date is affected.
I know we’re towards the end of the roll-out but these are large areas to bring forwards with only a few days’ notice.
UC migration date for Mercia district has been brought forward at short notice - we were preparing for migration for Tax Credits claimants to start from 5th February. DWP sent an urgent email yesterday (17th Jan) to say the date had been brought forward to 22nd January - that’s Monday!
Birmingham were also due to start from 5th Feb, I’ve asked but haven’t yet had confirmation of whether their date is affected.
I know we’re towards the end of the roll-out but these are large areas to bring forwards with only a few days’ notice.
Reports now coming in that migration notices have already been received by some Coventry TC claimants.
We were advised in Move to UC stakeholder meeting yesterday that some areas had their date for starting migration notices brought forward a week of two ’ to keep a steady flow of migration notices’
We did feed back that some notice of that would have been helpful so that adviser knew to expect migrations notices appearing.
Some more up to date guidance courtesy of Charles: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/updated_guidance_for_teams_worki#incoming-2557448
While there may have been a tiny bit of notice that the Move to UC date was to be brought forward in the Mercia JCP District, it seems that the North East Scotland district wasn’t so lucky. Letter from DWP Minister Paul Maynard to Wendy Chamberlain MP includes -
Whilst we endeavoured to notify key stakeholders of alterations to planned go-live dates in advance, I understand that the notification advising of this change of plan wasn’t received until just after the activity had commenced. I can only apologise for this, as our intention was to give you the opportunity to raise any questions ahead of the go-live date.
https://depositedpapers.parliament.uk/depositedpaper/2286133/files
Friday afternoon grumpy thoughts arising from:
‘[F]or Discovery cases in September 2023, the proportion of telephone claims was much higher in comparison to the wider universal credit service, at 15 per cent compared to 3 per cent’
So is DWP going to do as Mr Couling says and change its gatekeeping attitude to phone claiming?
What is the ‘enhanced support journey’ and how does DWP decide who gets to ride?
Why haven’t we been told more about this? Had anyone heard of it prior to this?
What is ‘contact with the local community’ in this context?
What are the resource implications of having to provide more support calls and home visits as UC draws in more and more vulnerable claimants?
Why has DWP never approached Adult Care providers to discuss vulnerable claimants? (sorry to clank on, but this gets me really cross)
‘[P]eople claiming income-related ESA have a lower claim rate by initial deadline/pre-support checks in comparison to other benefit combinations, and are also the group who were more likely to say they required help with making their claim’
Winner of the Basil Fawlty ‘The Bleedin’ Obvious’ Award 2024
- so what is DWP going to do?
And the following is, in part, quite frightening.
‘Respondents frequently undertook their own research into the managed migration process, including looking on GOV.UK, calling the dedicated Move to UC helpline, speaking to friends/family, using an online calculator to estimate their entitlement to UC and searching social media.’
Online calculators could, owing to the complexity of TE rules, lead to people thinking they are not entitled when they are. And as for social media…..
No mention of ‘advice’ outside of HTC.