The Government has revealed that a whopping 600,000 households will be shifted onto Universal Credit way ahead of schedule.

In a dramatic acceleration of plans, those on income-related Employment Support Allowance (ESA) are set to be transferred to Universal Credit by April 2025, slashing the original timeline by three years. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is on a mission to transition Brits from "legacy benefits" to the more modern Universal Credit system through a process dubbed "Managed Migration".

Right now, the focus is on individuals receiving Tax Credits, with those on Jobseekers Allowance scheduled to switch later in the year.

The 2022 Autumn Statement had initially pushed back the move for income-related ESA and housing benefit claimants to 2028. But in a recent twist, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's "Welfare Reform" act has flipped the script, prompting the DWP to gear up for contacting all 600,000 affected households within this year.

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This game-changing update was dropped by the DWP on X. Hot on the heels of the PM's speech, they tweeted out: "The Prime Minister's welfare reform speech earlier today announced the acceleration of the Managed Migration of legacy ESA/ESA and HB cases to #UniversalCredit. All migration notices will now be sent by the end of December 2025. We will work with stakeholders on the detailed plans.", reports the Mirror.

The DWP is axing the old-school "legacy" benefits, which include:

  • Working Tax Credit
  • Child Tax Credit
  • Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)
  • Income support
  • Housing Benefit
  • Income related Employment Support Allowance (ESA)

The phase-out of these legacy benefits has been on the DWP's agenda for years, and after a brief hiatus due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the process kicked back into gear last year. At the point when managed migration resumed, there were still a whopping 2.6 million Brits on these antiquated benefits.

Those on the chopping block are being nudged by the DWP via post, with letters urging them to switch to Universal Credit. This massive shift is happening in bits and bobs, and when it's your turn, you'll get a "migration notice" through your letterbox.

Bag one of these and you've got a three-month countdown to stake your claim for Universal Credit, or risk having your benefits cut off.

To lodge your claim, hit up the web, buzz the Universal Credit Migration Notice hotline at 0800 169 0328, or have a chinwag at your nearest Job Centre. Once you've thrown your hat in the ring, brace yourself for a five-week wait for your first Universal Credit payment, which will keep coming unless life throws you a curveball.