HMRC’s plans to support Move to UC delivery plan

Among the issues discussed in January’s tax credits consultation forum was HMRC’s approach to supporting DWP’s Move to UC plans…

There is increased involvement and engagement at a senior level in HMRC and a real drive to progress this further with more focus on the plan and how it will be implemented. The voluntary aspect is focussing on those who are likely to be better-off following the change to the UC taper rate. A large proportion of claimants could be better off on UC, especially now the taper has reduced. We have to exercise caution as we don’t want to misadvise claimants that they would be better off on UC.

We are adding 3 lines on UC migration in the renewal letters for 2022 which will go out towards end of April. We can share the details with you when they have been formally signed-off. HMRC are sampling TC cases within various customer segments so we can consider which segments may be better off financially on UC.  Phase 2 [of DWPs move to UC plans]  started 3 weeks ago with 30 new and experienced people from both DWP and HMRC now involved in the managed move to UC testing.  It starts with a 3-month discovery phase and we won’t see any cases moved as part of this phase until May..

The question and answer session also covered new UC claimants being unaware of old tax credit debts and HMRC’s easement of the 31 January deadline for confirming actual income if Covid is a reason for lateness.