Considering stopping Child Tax Credit to stop 2024 Migration to UC

Dear Moderators and fellow members,

I am thinking about calling Child Tax Credit (CTC) to ask them to stop my CTC.
Why?

Because it seems that if one gets Income Based Employment and Support Allowance ( ib-ESA) (or Income related ESA : ir ESA) and Child Tax Credit (CTC),
then that person (myself as it is my case) will receive in a mandatory migration notice to move to Universal Credit (UC) between July and September 2024 according to my email newsletter received today.
But when I click on your ESA TO UC Manager Migration - Quick Reference, under “When will I have to move to UC’ it reads :
“If you receive irESA and Tax Credits, you can expect to be asked to migrate to UC in 2024 or 2025.

Do you know which one it is, July till September 2024 or between 2024 and 2025?
Thank you.

However it seems that if one receives ib-ESA only
Or ib-ESA with Housing Benefit (which is my case) that person will be asked to migrate to UC in 2028 or 2029 only, which is 4 to 5 years away.


I am a single parent on:
- ib-ESA Support group
- Housing Benefit
- Child Tax Credit
- Child Benefit
- and Personal Independence Payment with Higher Mobility rate and Lower Daily Living.

Do you think dear Moderator that if I stop my Child Tax Credit (without giving them a reason or if they need one, telling them because I do not want to be migrated to UC) that this will prevent me getting the migration letter to UC in the next few months, or that UC will say that the fact I stopped getting CTC is a change of circumstance and that they will migrate me to UC anyway.

Or do you think that if I wait till I get the migration letter to UC, then it will be too late to cancel Child Tax Credit?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

what are the reasons you don't want to claim UC?

I appreciate that if you get tax credits now you'll want to keep claiming them for as long as you can, but there are transistional payments arrangments for UC so the amount of money you'll get should stay the same in theory, there are some rules about savings over £6k on UC which CTC doesn't have, if you've got over £16k you'd still get UC for 52 weeks under transistional arrangments

there's a 13 week gap between being able to enter the LCW or LCWRA groups, if you were classed as LCWRA which you might be because of your PIP claim, then that extra money would reduce the value of the transitional payment, the idea is that you shouldn't get less than you were on legacy benefits

Thank you very much for your reply.

It seems that if one gets Income Based Employment and Support Allowance ( ib-ESA/ ir- ESA) and Child Tax Credit (CTC),
that person will receive in a mandatory migration notice to move to Universal Credit (UC) between July and September 2024 according to my email newsletter received 14/02/24.

But when I click on your ESA TO UC Manager Migration - Quick Reference, under “When will I have to move to UC’ it reads :
“If you receive irESA and Tax Credits, you can expect to be asked to migrate to UC in 2024 or 2025.

Do you know which one it is, July till September 2024 or between 2024 and 2025?
I really appreciate your help.
Thank you very much.

those are approximate dates for transfers, these things sometimes take years longer than they think, I was just transferred onto UC, I signed up for WTC at the last possible moment pretty much and it lasted for nearly 10 years, there will be a new government soon who will hopefully make some changes to benefits again (fingers crossed)