UC Migration Notice

Why might it be of interest?

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is a legacy benefit.  What that means is that while some of our young people may still be receiving it a young person can no longer apply for it – they would be applying for UC instead.

This is not the same as new-style ESA, credits only.  That is a current benefit for people who have been working but are currently unable to work and who have been making national insurance contributions.  What?  I hear you say – didn’t you tell us we had to apply for this for our young person to enable them to claim UC later?  Yes, I did and yes you should.  It also happens to be a benefit that disabled young people in receipt of PIP or DLA should apply for post 16 to establish that they have a limited capability for work.  And as the rules stand today having this established will allow them to claim UC when they leave school even if they are going on to college.  More information here:  https://ruils.co.uk/article/quick-overview-of-universal-credit-and-a-limited-capability-for-work/.

Back to migration to UC!  All legacy benefits are coming to an end and being replaced by UC.  If you haven’t received a migration notice yet you are likely to get it by September 2025 as the aim is to have everyone migrated by March 2026.

I don’t believe there is anything to be worried about here – not for our young people where the process should be relatively straightforward.  It gets more complicated when claimants are couples, have children, claim a range of other benefits.  But for most of our young people they will be claiming ESA alone, possibly Severe Disability Premium, but probably no other benefits.

However, this is the DWP and not everything is clearly explained and they do get things wrong.  So, hopefully these notes will help you along the journey.

These notes are written with the likely situation of a disabled young person in mind.  If you are on legacy benefits yourself please get more information from a benefits advisor about how you might be affected by migration as I am not attempting to address the many and varied situations an adult on benefits might be in.

 

Quick overview of timeline

• Migration letter
• Deadline to apply for UC about 3 months away
  • (Further final deadline another month after the deadline date – not mentioned in the letter)
• Apply for UC
  • This triggers legacy benefits to stop
• Legacy benefits ‘run-on’ for 2 weeks after the stop notice
• First UC payment 5 weeks after application
• Further UC payments every month thereafter

Example of timeline

• Migration notice dated 18 March with deadline of 19 June to claim UC
• You make a UC claim on 18 June
• UC issues a stop notice to ESA
• Your ESA (plus other benefits, if relevant) run-on for 2 weeks
  • you will receive a legacy benefit payment for the next 2 weeks until 3 July
• After that there will be no further legacy benefit payments
• Your first UC payment will be on 24 July – 5 weeks after your UC claim
• It will backdate so you won’t lose any money
• If you miss making your claim by the deadline in the letter (19 June in this example) you do, in fact, have another month – basically a grace period – to make your claim without losing transitional protection

You usually make a claim for UC online – and there is a link in the letter.  There is also a phone number if you can’t make an online claim.

Managed migration offers transitional protection

• What this means is that if you would be better off on the legacy benefits your UC will be topped up with a transitional element to the same amount of your legacy benefits
• You may not be worse off – in fact many people will receive more under UC
• But you are only eligible for the transitional protection if you apply within the migration notice period
  • If you apply before you receive the migration notice
  • Or you leave it too late and apply after the migration period
  • You will not receive transitional protection

Why might my UC be lower than legacy benefits?

There are a number of legacy benefits that don’t exist under UC.  For example, if you receive the severe disability premium – this is not a benefit under UC.  To ensure that you are not financially worse off if you transfer to UC via managed migration the process will add up your current benefits and top up with a transitional element if you would be worse off under UC.

Let’s work an example:

Young person over 25 in the ESA support group receives a total of £161.75 per week

They also claim severe disability premium which is £82.90 per week

Their total legacy benefits amount to £244.65 per week

Multiply this by 52 (weeks) = £12,721.80; and divide by 12 (months) = £1060.15

UC is paid by calendar months so we need to convert weekly payments into the equivalent monthly amount

What will I receive under UC?

Young people in the support group for ESA will receive 2 elements of UC:

• Basic (£316.98 for under 25s; £400.14 for over 25s)
• LCWRA (may be called the health element) (£423.27 for everyone)

So, in our example, under legacy benefits we would have received £1060.15 per month but under UC (assuming we’re over 25 in this example) we would receive a total of £823.41 per month.  That’s a difference of £236.74 per month.

Under managed migration this difference will be added to your UC as a transitional element so your UC will be topped up by £236.74 per month.

I believe that each of the elements will be paid separately so it won’t come as one single figure.  This certainly makes it easier to check that you are receiving all the relevant elements.

If your young person is in the ESA support group they should automatically receive both the UC Basic element and the LCWRA element from the first UC payment.

If your young person is in the ESA work group then they will only be receiving the UC Basic element.

What do I need to do?

You do not need to do anything until you receive the migration notice.  This will be a letter addressed to you if you are your young person’s DWP Appointee or to them if you are not their appointee.

The letter will tell you when you need to apply by – usually about 3 months – and it will say which benefits will be stopping.  This is likely just to be ESA unless your young person has additional benefits.  If they are in Supported Living their Housing Benefit should not be one of the benefits that stops.

You can choose to move your young person to UC before you receive a migration notice.  If you do this you will not have any transitional protection.  Transitional protection is where UC guarantees that the young person will not be worse off on UC than they are on ESA.  And you may need to provide evidence of their eligibility for the LCWRA (or health) element.  For most of our young people on ESA this is not the case – they are likely to be the same or better off on UC but if your young person does claim any additional benefits then you should check with a benefits advisor before claiming UC prior to receiving a migration notice.

When you do receive the migration notice you don’t have a choice to stay on ESA.  If you don’t apply for UC within the timeframe the ESA payments will stop and UC payments will not start to replace them.  And once you are outside of the migration timeframe your young person will not be entitled to transitional protection when they apply for UC.

 Migration period

The letter comes with a deadline date – usually about 3 months hence.  If you can’t complete the application for UC in this timeframe you can ask for an extension but apparently the UC helpline is not being helpful about this and is telling people they can’t have an extension.  This is legally wrong but it’s difficult to see what you can do about it.  An extension is usually for 4 weeks.

You need to have a good reason for requesting an extension as it is discretionary.  A good reason could be something like you need support but can’t get an appointment in time; your advisor or supporter is away.

If you feel that you will have any difficulty I would recommend you make an appointment with a benefits advisor asap to get the help you need well ahead of the deadline.

There is a 2^nd deadline (final deadline) which is not mentioned in the letter – probably because the DWP expects that everyone would leave their application right up to the 2^nd deadline!

This is basically a grace period.  So, if you haven’t started your application for UC before your deadline you do actually have another month to start the application and have it backdated to the original deadline date – and still qualify for transitional protection if relevant.

 Enhanced Support

Everyone on ESA is entitled to enhanced support but it’s not clear how well this system is working and it only kicks in 12 weeks after the migration notice – which means you are not offered the support until almost your deadline date.

People are falling through the cracks and not receiving the help they are entitled to.  It will likely only trigger if you don’t start your claim.  There doesn’t seem to be a way to request the support earlier.

ESA payments ending

The application for UC triggers the end of payments of ESA.  If you don’t make an application for UC the deadline date also triggers the end of legacy benefits.

You get a 2 week run-on from the trigger.  That is the legacy benefit continues to be paid for another 2 weeks from the moment your UC application triggers the end of ESA payments.

UC will be paid for the first time 5 weeks after your application.  That means there will be a gap in payments.  The payment will be backdated but there will be a gap.  For example, if you apply for UC on 10 July you will receive ESA for a further 2 weeks but the first UC payment won’t be until 14 August.

UC is paid monthly, unlike ESA which is usually paid fortnightly.  You can request a more frequent payment if you can’t manage monthly payments.  Your UC will be paid every calendar month from the date you made your application.

Sometimes the trigger is slow to reach UC so there is the potential for an overpayment here.  You will most likely have to pay back any money overpaid so don’t make the assumption that you can keep it because it’s UC’s fault!

Timing

It is usually best to start your UC claim right after an ESA payment.  This reduces the gap between payments which might make budgeting easier.

For example, if you receive an ESA payment on 10 July, make your UC claim right after.  The ESA payment will run-on for 2 weeks – up to 24 July – and your first UC payment will be 3 weeks later on 14 August.

Erosion of transitional element

Your transitional protection erodes over time.  Basically, when there is an uplift in the UC rates that amount will be deducted from your transitional element.

In our example, the transitional element is £236.74.  When the rate of UC rises – as it will in April 2026 – the amount of the rise will be deducted from the transitional element.  So if the rise is £10 per month the transitional element will reduce to £226.74.  And so it will go on until the transitional element no longer exists.  At that point you will benefit from any increase in UC.

Students

Students on ESA should be able to migrate to UC even if they would not normally be considered eligible to apply for UC.  Their entitlement to the benefit should remain until their course ends.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, there’s a question!  The most likely problems are that the letter has the wrong benefits listed and that the LCWRA element doesn’t get paid in the first UC payment.

Check that you know what legacy benefits your young person is claiming.  Which ESA group are they in – work or support; are they claiming any other benefits?  Are these listed in the migration notice?

If there is a mistake in your migration notice you may not need to do anything to correct it as the questions you have to answer during the UC application should make it clear what benefits you are actually receiving.  However, if you are concerned I would recommend getting advice from a benefits advisor asap.

There have been instances where the LCWRA element has not be paid in the first UC payment to young people in the ESA support group.  The advice from the workshop was to wait for the 2^nd payment and if it’s still missing to request a mandatory reconsideration.

Other things to know

ID Validation:  as part of the UC claim your young person will have to confirm that they are who they say they are.  There are a lot of documents they can use to prove identity but despite that there will be young people who don’t have enough to prove their identity online and will have to use an alternative route – which might just delay the application a bit.

UC is an online benefit:  while benefits payments will be made to the nominated bank account a record of payments will be kept in the journal.  You should probably get used to checking in occasionally to ensure the record is correct and to respond to any messages.  I say ‘occasionally’ as without having any work related requirements there shouldn’t be much need to be communicating with a work coach through the journal but as it is all online you should be keeping an eye on it.

Visit to the Job Centre:  your young person may be asked to attend the job centre for an interview.  If they can do this then go ahead – and go with them.  There should be alternatives offered if this is not something your young person can do.

Appointee:  if you are your young person’s appointee then you should be able to manage this claim as well.  It may be a good idea to have your appointeeship letter to hand in case you have to prove it.