The DWP revealed in oral evidence to the work and pensions committee last week how long most people delay after receiving their managed migration letter, before making a claim for universal credit.
Neil Couling, head of UC at the DWP said that there are two peak periods for claiming in the three month window after a claimant receives a managed migration letter:
25% claim as soon as they get the migration notice
60% to 70% claim in weeks 12 to 13.
In other words, two thirds of claimants leave it as late as possible after getting a migration notice before putting in their UC claim.
Couling was explaining why the “enhanced support journey” in which the DWP put in additional support for potentially vulnerable claimants, does not begin until week 12 after an ESA claimant has received their migration notice.
The enhanced support journey involves the DWP making three attempts to contact a claimant by phone, if they have not made a claim for UC by week 12. If these attempts fail, a home visit is arranged. In the meantime, the DWP say they do not end the legacy benefits claim.
According to Couling “What we do not do at week 13, if we have not made the phone calls or the visit has not happened, is cut the claim off. We have the facility to extend claims, and in those circumstances we extend the migration notice period.”
The DWP say that the number of visiting officers has doubled from 350 to 700 and that overall they are now carrying out around 30,000 home visits a month.
Meanwhile, Citizens Advice Help To Claim Service is supporting around 5% -7% of all managed migration claimants.
Many claimants who get a telephone call from the DWP are simply referred to the Help To Claim Service, but of 69,000 who have gone through the enhanced support journey so far 28,000 have been referred for a home visit.
Couling told the committee that these 28,000 “have not responded to the telephone calls, perhaps we have not been able to contact them, or they have just said that they do not know what to do, so we have put them out for visits and we are now working our way through those visits.
“The plans for the rest of this year and the coming year have this enhanced support journey at their core because we must do everything we can to ensure that claimants on ESA, who are typically more vulnerable than the previous cohorts we have been working through, make their way safely on to Universal Credit.
“We are very focused as an organisation on making sure that happens. We have put the resources behind all this activity. We are ready to do it.”
One issue that was not clear from the evidence was, if a claimant responds to a phone call and is given details of Help To Claim but still fails to make a claim, will there then be a further follow-up?
Benefits and Work would be very pleased to hear from claimants who have been on any part of the enhanced support journey.
You can read the full transcript of the evidence session here.
