Moving to Universal Credit if you've got a migration notice

Universal Credit is replacing older benefits. These are called ‘legacy benefits’. Legacy benefits are:

• Housing Benefit

• income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)

• Income Support

• Child Tax Credit

• Working Tax Credit

Most people’s legacy benefits have ended.

You might still be getting income-related ESA and Housing Benefit if the DWP thought you might need an ‘appointee’ to help you claim Universal Credit. An appointee is someone who has the legal right to sort out someone’s benefits for them.

You’ll need to move to Universal Credit if you get a letter telling you to claim by a certain date. This is called a 'migration notice'. 

If you’re not sure if you need to claim Universal Credit, you can check if you should move to Universal Credit from other benefits.

Claim Universal Credit by your deadline

You should claim Universal Credit by the deadline on the letter to keep getting financial support.

If you claim Universal Credit before the deadline, the DWP might pay you extra to make sure you’re not worse off than on your legacy benefit. This is called ‘transitional protection’. You can only get transitional protection if you got a migration notice before you claimed Universal Credit.

If you can’t claim by the deadline

If the deadline day hasn’t passed yet, you can ask the DWP to extend it. You can only ask for this before the original deadline in the letter. If the DWP agree, they’ll send you a new deadline day. 

If you missed your deadline day

You can still get transitional protection if you claim Universal Credit up to a month after the deadline on your letter. The end of the month is called the ‘final deadline’.

If you claim after the final deadline, you can still get Universal Credit - but you can’t get transitional protection.

If you miss the final deadline, there might be other things you can do to make sure you get all the Universal Credit you’re entitled to. Talk to an adviser because this can be complicated.

If you're worried you'll be worse off on Universal Credit

If you’d get less on Universal Credit than your old benefits, you might get transitional protection. This means that you’ll get an extra amount to make up the difference - called a ‘transitional element’.

The transitional element will reduce over time. When some other parts of your Universal Credit payment increase, your transitional element will decrease by the same amount - so you’ll eventually just get what you normally would on Universal Credit. This doesn't apply to the childcare element - it won't affect your transitional element.

Transitional protection also means you might be able to get Universal Credit when you wouldn’t usually be entitled to it. For example if you are a full-time student who wouldn’t usually get Universal Credit, you might be able to get it until the end of your course.

When you’ll get your first payment

If you claim Universal Credit, you’ll usually get one payment each month and you usually have to manage your claim online. 

It will usually take 1 month plus 1 week to get your first Universal Credit payment - but it could take longer. 

If you won’t have enough money to live on while you wait for your first Universal Credit payment, you can ask for an advance payment. The advance payment is a loan - you’ll have to pay it back.

When your legacy benefits will stop

If you claim before the deadline from the DWP, your old benefits will stop 2 weeks after you claim Universal Credit. 

If you claim Universal Credit after the deadline from the DWP, your old benefits will stop 2 weeks after the deadline.

You’ll only get the extra 2 week payments if you’re still eligible for the benefit. You won’t need to pay back the extra payments and they won’t affect how much Universal Credit you’ll get.

If you get any contribution-based ESA

Before moving to Universal Credit you might be getting contribution-based ESA and income-related ESA at the same time. You'll keep getting a separate payment for your contribution-based ESA once you move. Your Universal Credit payment will be reduced by the same amount to reflect this. For example, if you keep getting £100 in ESA payments, your Universal Credit will be reduced by £100.

Starting your claim

When your Universal Credit starts also depends on when you claim.

If you claim before the deadline from the DWP, your Universal Credit award starts from the day you claim. 

If you claim after the deadline from the DWP, but within a month of the deadline, your Universal Credit award starts from the original deadline day.

You’ll usually have to apply for Universal Credit online on GOV.UK. If you can't apply online, there are other ways to apply. Get started with your Universal Credit application.