Manage migration from IRESA no transitional protection yet

Hi I’m supporting a vulnerable member of our charity who received a managed migration notice deadline 31st October 24. Previously in receipt of IRESA. Her youngest child was in full-time education at college until end of of last school year, child tax credits ceased 30 August 2024. Her UC payment is over £50 less per fortnight than she was receiving previously, and they are also not paying the same rent she was receiving previously. I’ve pointed out the need for them to provide transitional protection given this was an enforced migration and quoted government guidelines on this. They are adamant they are powerless to calculate her indicative UC amount and therefore the transitional protection she is entitled to until they hear from HMRC to confirm the last date and amount of her tax credit payment to avoid her receiving potentially a large overpayment. I have not come across this before and wondered if any members have it can assist? I have asked them to escalate matters with the HMRC & tell them they are putting a vulnerable person into debt – she is already being chased by her housing association landlord and various utilities and also to provide contact details to HMRC so we can complain to them direct, but they are ignoring this so far. This is an example of the type of reply they are providing on the journal to my complaints: –We are still waiting for a resolution to allow us to calculate any Transitional Protection that may be due.
The issue is that the information about Tax Credits from HMRC has not been provided, and they have to confirm the end of your entitlement to Tax Credits as well as the period you were last paid for by them - the two are not always the same, and we cannot assume.
Any guidance would be very much appreciated, thank you

I can promise that once the details have been received we will get the calculations done - everything on our side is set up and ready to do this.
What I cannot say is exactly how much longer this will take - it is being dictated by HMRC, and we cannot use an estimate as it could create a large overpayment of Universal Credit if it is wrong.

We will let you know just as soon as we know ourselves; again, I am sorry for time it is taking and the obvious distress this is causing, but we will resolve the issue as soon as we are able to.

Thanks, David. This is very helpful and I will action forthwith and let you know what happens. Kind regards, Rachel

Hi again David, your advice has proven very helpful so far, making the complaint to Amy Pond has resulted in some improvement in the payment, but they are still less than previously, and showing on the statement that the applicant is having deductions which do not make any sense. They uploaded a letter apparently explaining this over a month ago, but it cannot be opened even by the Work coach and we’re still waiting for them to upload a copy that can be opened! I therefore arranged for another complaint to go to Amy Pond about this today. Also, another vulnerable member of our charity is having similar problems after their compulsory migration to UC from contribution based ESA again having large deductions made as UC say that they are still in receipt of housing benefit (they are not) and they also incorrectly were deducting the full amount of ESA rather than just the contribution based amount. The latter seems to have been corrected now, but the housing benefit deduction has still not been corrected. Is there a different person to complain to in relation to this applicant’s situation as they live in East Cheshire, not Greater Manchester please? Also despite having completed the section on Health needs providing full details of the severe lifelong difficulties from a long-term neurological and MH condition and explaining why fortnightly payments were required rather than monthly, they are requesting that further justification for this is provided, which I think is unacceptable and potentially discriminatory. Are there any guidelines I can quote in relation to this aspect as in all of the cases where I’ve supported people with this request before it has simply been accepted straight away without any queries. By the way, the applicant also has LCWCA which they will be aware of from their contact with ESA office, so it seems ridiculous that they are asking for further justification. Any guidance would be much appreciated. Thank you.