Thousands of benefit claimants who are being moved over to Universal Credit have seen a key deadline extended by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Universal Credit is replacing six older legacy benefits, including Tax Credits, for most people by the end of March 2025. The process of transferring people over from the old benefit system started again in May 2022, having been paused due to Covid.

Those who need to move are being contacted in stages - when it is your turn to be transferred to Universal Credit, you’ll be sent a “migration notice” in the post. Once you have received this letter, you’ll have three months to move over, or you could lose your current benefits.

But in the latest DWP Touchbase newsletter, it has been confirmed that some people are having this deadline extended by 30 days. The DWP said: "For migration notices that would have had a deadline date that fell between December 11 2023, and January 5 2024, 30 days has been automatically added to the claimant's deadline date." Universal Credit is replacing the following six benefits:

  • Working Tax Credit

  • Child Tax Credit

  • Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)

  • Income Support

  • Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

  • Housing Benefit

Those who claim income-related ESA and do not get Tax Credits will be moved over slightly later, and will be transferred across by 2028. The DWP claims 1.4million people (55%) will be better off on Universal Credit, and 900,000 (35%) would be worse off. The other 300,000 benefit claimants will see no change.

If you will eventually need to move over to Universal Credit, you should use one of the following free benefit calculators to get a rough idea about whether you will be better off.

If you think you will be better off, seek expert advice first before switching to Universal Credit - once you make the move, you can’t go back to your old benefits. If you are moved over to Universal Credit through managed migration, and you'll be worse off, you will get monthly transition payments to cover any financial shortfall. The transitional protection lasts until there is no difference between the amount awarded under Universal Credit and what you received before under legacy benefits.

The DWP is due to start sending “migration notice” letters to those on Tax Credits living in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire. The following locations should have already received a “managed migration” letter in the post:

  • Avon
  • Central Scotland
  • Cheshire
  • Cumbria
  • Derbyshire
  • Dorset
  • Durham
  • East Anglia
  • East London
  • East Rising
  • East Scotland
  • Gloucester
  • Greater Manchester
  • Hampshire
  • Isle of Wight
  • Kent
  • Lancashire
  • North London
  • North Yorkshire
  • Northern Ireland
  • Somerset
  • South London
  • Southeast Wales
  • Southwest Scotland
  • Southwest Wales
  • Staffordshire
  • Tees Valley
  • West Scotland
  • Wiltshire