Thousands of households still claiming income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) are being sent letters in the post, telling them to move to Universal Credit
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is in the process of sending important letters to thousands of benefit claimants. Universal Credit has now replaced most older benefits, in a process called “managed migration”.
The DWP has closed claims for Tax Credits, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and Housing Benefit. But now, households still claiming income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) are being sent letters in the post, telling them to move to Universal Credit.
When it is your turn to start claiming Universal Credit, you’ll receive a “migration notice” in the post – and this will give you a three-month deadline to move across. 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, will 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. So far, around 200,000 claimants have moved to Universal Credit, leaving approximately 400,000 still to be transferred across.
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, as you can’t move back to your old benefits. 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 the “managed migration” process.
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.
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