Households claiming income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) still need to be moved to Universal Credit – we explain when you’ll likely receive a letter from the DWP in the post
Thousands of benefit claimants are being urged to keep an eye out for letters from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The DWP is replacing older benefits with Universal Credit in a process called “managed migration”. The majority of people affected by this change should have already been moved over to Universal Credit by now.
Existing claims for Tax Credits, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and Housing Benefit have now been closed – but households claiming income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) still need to be moved to Universal Credit.
When it is your turn to start claiming Universal Credit, you’ll receive a “migration notice” in the post. This will give you a three-month deadline to move across to Universal Credit.
If you don’t claim Universal Credit by the end of your three-month deadline, your existing benefits will stop. The DWP is increasing the number of migration notices sent each month to 83,000, according to The Sun.
The aim is for all remaining ESA claimants set to be contacted by September 2025. The DWP wants everyone moved to Universal Credit by March 2026.
This deadline was originally set for the end of 2028 but has been brought forward. You can choose to move over to Universal Credit earlier, if you think you will be better off on Universal Credit – but you need to do your research first.
You cannot move back to your old benefits once you have started your claim for Universal Credit. These benefits calculators will give you a rough idea of what you could claim on Universal Credit:
If it looks like you’ll be better off, seek advice from Citizens Advice or Turn2Us before applying for Universal Credit, as they’ll be able to talk you through exactly how your payments will change.
This can include how often you’ll be paid, how payments can be reduced if you fall into debt, or any work commitments you’ll likely be required to sign up to.
The DWP claims 55% of people will be better off on Universal Credit, and 35% would be worse off. The rest will see no change. If you’ll be worse off on Universal Credit, you can get monthly transition payments which make up any shortfall – but only if you wait to be moved across through “managed migration”.
The transitional protection lasts until there is no difference between your new Universal Credit award and what you received before under legacy benefits.
You should also note that you’ll have to wait five weeks for your first Universal Credit payment, although some legacy benefits including income-related ESA will “run on” for two weeks to help bridge that gap.