Call for evidence on Universal Credit ‘managed migration’ regulations

Following its initial scrutiny of the draft Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) (Managed Migration) Amendment Regulations 2018 on June 20, the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) has decided that it will examine them more closely under formal reference.  

The wide-ranging draft legislation sets out the government’s proposals on: 

• requirements for claimants on existing benefits to make a claim for Universal Credit (including the deadlines for doing so) and arrangements for ending their existing benefis
• the calculation, award and ongoing treatment of transitional protection

As the task of safely moving around 3 million claimants (in around 2 million households) from legacy benefits to Universal Credit raises important questions about the delivery challenge facing the DWP and the potential impact on claimants, the SSAC has launched a consultation seeking insight into and/or experience of the following aspects of these proposals:

• the overall migration timetable
• arrangements for contacting claimants and inviting claims from them
• issues associated with making a claim, and ending legacy benefit claims
• the calculation of transitional protection (including the treatment of earnings and capital)
• the impact of proposed transitional protection (including how easily it will be delivered and the degree to which it will be understood by claimants)
• the impact on workers, including the self-employed
• equality impact (whether there will be particular effects for different groups and how these can best be addressed), for example are there any groups that will not be covered by transitional protection?
• monitoring and evaluation

The consultation will remain open until 20 August.  The SSAC aims to get its report to the Secretary of State at the end of September (the regulations are affirmative so will be debated in both Houses).

A link to the call for evidence, together with an explanatory blog by the outgoing chair of the SSAC, Paul Gray, are given below.  

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-proposal-to-move-claimants-on-legacy-benefits-to-universal-credit-consultation-announced

https://ssac.blog.gov.uk/2018/06/22/universal-credit-next-steps-have-your-say/ 
 
The draft regulations and explanatory memorandum are also available on the SSAC website.

The SSAC has also published a paper on reforming social security for working-age claimants. Entitled Reforming working-age social security – lessons for policy-makers.  This is a report on which Nick Timmins and Paul Gray collaborated, having previously brought together a group of former ministers, other Parliamentarians, civil servants, special advisers, academics etc. at a workshop (co-hosted by the Institute for Government and SSAC) to discuss their experiences from the past 30 years.