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https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/claimants-face-destitution-over-failure-of-universal-credit-migration-safeguards-letter-warns-minister/

Many disabled people are “suffering intensely” and face the threat of destitution because they cannot meet the government’s deadline for moving onto universal credit from their existing “legacy” benefits, campaigners have warned a minister.

Disabled people’s organisations and allies have written to Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, to warn him that safeguards “are not being followed” as the migration process from employment and support allowance (ESA) to universal credit nears its end.

They are particularly concerned about ESA claimants who are unable to start their universal credit claim by phone or online.

Many of these claimants are too unwell, experiencing domestic violence, or face other access barriers.

Some claimants report being left panicked by DWP staff who leave incomplete messages on their phone, or by receiving reminder calls despite telling DWP they are receiving medical treatment.

The letter (PDF) appeals to Sir Stephen to re-open the cases of the many thousands of former ESA claimants who are believed to have failed to make a universal credit claim and were “unable to engage in the migration process due to being in hospital or unable to cope in other ways”.

It also calls on him to take action to protect claimants in vulnerable situations through the migration process, and to scrap any deadlines imposed on disabled people who still need to migrate from ESA to universal credit (UC).

Among those behind the letter are WinVisible, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Disability Rights UK, Disability Poverty Campaign Group, Disabled People Against Cuts, Fightback4Justice and Inclusion London.

In the letter, the disabled women’s organisation WinVisible tells Sir Stephen about a disabled woman it is supporting who is terminally ill with cancer.

WinVisible says staff from DWP’s Move to Universal Credit complex cases team have been harassing the woman and have labelled her “uncooperative” even though she is now too ill to complete a claim for universal credit.

WinVisible says she is only being granted 15-day extensions to her deadline for completing the claim process, despite her MP intervening in the case with DWP.

Tin another case, the welfare rights advocacy organisation Fightback4Justice is supporting a man who has been sectioned dozens of times and frequently refuses entry to his home to professionals, but has been told his new universal credit claim will be closed because DWP cannot complete the identity check process with a home visit.

The letter stresses the “devastating” impact that cutting off a disabled person’s benefits can have, pointing to deaths such as those of Tamara Logan, Errol Graham and Jodey Whiting.

It says the failure to safeguard claimants through the migration process is “systematic” and “a recurrent factor that stops people making a successful UC claim”.

And it points to the complicated and stressful nature of completing a UC claim, and how advice and advocacy organisations have been “overwhelmed” by the number of requests for help and “aren’t able to give the level of support required to everyone needing to migrate who requires support”.

Even those who successfully migrate to universal credit later face other problems, due to the complexity and flaws of the system.

DWP told Disability News Service yesterday (Wednesday) that a response to the letter would be sent in due course.

It has developed what it calls an “enhanced support journey” for ESA and income support claimants moving onto universal credit, and it said that it remained confident that this provided effective support for its most vulnerable customers.

A DWP spokesperson said: “The department has been migrating people from legacy benefits to universal credit since 2022 and most have now moved.

“We understand there are certain difficulties people can face when moving over, and we urge those to speak to our dedicated helpline or speak to Citizens Advice.

“Help is at hand for those making the move to universal credit, including our dedicated helpline, guidance on gov.uk, and Citizens Advice’s free and independent Help to Claim service.

“All legacy benefit claimants who have received a migration notice continue to receive their legacy benefit up until the point they move over to universal credit, or the deadline passes.”

Despite that statement, DWP has extended the deadline for all means-tested ESA claimants to be migrated onto universal credit beyond the end of this month.

The migration – which ends the roll-out of universal credit that began under work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith in 2013 – had been due to end on 31 March, and that deadline is set to remain in place for claimants of income support and jobseeker’s allowance.

But the lengthy rollout now looks set to continue because of the complexity of many of the remaining ESA cases.

In its regular bulletin for local authority welfare teams, first reported by the social welfare legal advice and information charity RightsNet, DWP said ministers have now “granted a brief extension to allow the department to focus on a safe transfer of the remaining Employment and Support Allowance cases, many of which are complex”.

Government could face legal action over cuts to ‘neglected’ Access to Work
Disabled campaigners are hoping to take legal action over government cuts to the Access to Work scheme, a campaign event has heard.
The A Thousand Cuts event, organised by disabled-led arts company Touretteshero, and supported by Graeae Theatre Company, saw Access to Work recipients and allies expose the scheme’s cuts, flaws and lengthy delays while also discussing ways to ensure its survival.
Those attending Friday’s “knowledge exchange” event heard about legal moves to seek a judicial review of the government’s cuts to the scheme; plans for an inquiry into Access to Work (AtW) by a group of parliamentarians; and ongoing efforts to produce research that would demonstrate the vital importance of the scheme in supporting disabled people’s employment.
Jess Thom (pictured), co-founder of Touretteshero, told the event – held online and in person at Graeae’s headquarters in east London – that she and colleagues were in discussions with a legal firm over the possibility of taking a judicial review case against the government.
They are seeking a disabled person whose AtW support has been cut or refused, and who has gone through the reconsideration process and is eligible for legal aid.
She said: “[I am] thinking about the action that we can take and what we can learn from other fights that have gone before, because while it feels exhausting and hard, we have been here before as communities, and we have challenged really bleak sets of circumstances.
“It is important that we do that so that future generations have the benefit of Access to Work because… it changed my life and I have a career because of it.
“It rescued me from my own preconceptions.
“I am devastated to think that that might not be there for newly-disabled people or younger disabled people or people experiencing impairment for the first time.”
She told the campaign event: “The principle of it is great but it is under-invested in and [has been] neglected and run into the ground over years.
“How it’s currently being delivered is a **** show.
“Sometimes it feels like it is easy for them to point at it and say it’s not working, when actually it’s not working because it is not being properly supported and delivered.”
Cathy Waller, chief executive of contemporary dance company and arts consultancy Cathy Waller Company, highlighted the huge delays with applications and the inconsistency of AtW case managers.
Six years ago, her company set up the Decode partnership with Disability Arts Online, to support disabled people in the arts and creative sector with their AtW claims, because she was “so annoyed by it, and so fascinated by how inaccessible it was”.
Waller said AtW had experienced a high turnover of case managers while training had been drastically cut, and delivery of the scheme was “constantly changing”, which had led to inconsistency among case managers because of the “trickle down of information”.
She said: “No two case managers will say the same thing… there’s no consistency and Access to Work know this.”
And, she said, case managers are now “cherry picking” what they want to take from assessment reports as they decide how large a grant to offer, which is “hugely problematic”.
Echoing concerns reported by Disability News Service last week, she said that self-employed claimants were having to wait 78 weeks just to hear back from a case manager after applying, compared with 37 weeks for those who are employed, before a further lengthy wait for a decision from that case manager.
Asking for a reconsideration of the grant decision leads to another 33-week wait, according to AtW.
She said the difference compared with pre-2024 was “night and day”.
Of the 170 people supported by Decode in the last two years, three-quarters of them (77 per cent) had put in a reconsideration because they were unhappy with the grant awarded, but only 19 per cent of this group had their grant increased.
Before 2024, maybe two people in a year would not have their decision changed, she said, so it had “completely switched”.
And she told the event that the disabled people Decode has worked with in the last few years had seen an average cut of 53 per cent to their AtW grants.
Jacqueline Winstanley, co-founder of the Access to Work Collective, now has more than 6,000 members – including disabled people claiming AtW, as well manufacturers, trainers, and support workers – after launching last year.
She told Friday’s event that the collective, which has now become a disabled people’s organisation, was “trying to get across to the Treasury the return of actually investing in Access to Work” by producing academic research and evidence from disabled people’s lived experience.
She said: “When they say they can’t get any more money from the Treasury, it is not because there is no money, it is because the DWP don’t have the data they would need to take it to the Treasury to evidence why they need more money.”
Winstanley said the minister for social security and disability, Sir Stephen Timms, had spoken at the Naidex exhibition the previous day and although he “accepts there’s an issue, [he] does not accept the devastation that is being caused or have a willingness to halt it” until he announces the government’s AtW reforms later this year.
But she said: “We will be able to turn this around if we continue to work as a collective.
“You only need to see how many U-turns this government has done… but we have got to be of the numbers that will make them consider doing that.”
The collective has set up an all-party parliamentary group with a focus on Access to Work, chaired by disabled Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling, which is planning to launch an inquiry into the impact of changes to the system.
Disabled musician and activist John Kelly told the event there were similarities between the cuts and changes to Access to Work and how successive governments had slowly dismantled the Independent Living Fund.
He said: “I started getting Access to Work just when I started working with Graeae in 2009, and it changed my life, it really worked.
“I never thought I would be able to tour and do all of that sort of stuff, and Access to Work helped me to do that.”
He said the campaigning needed to bring together academic research, guidance, political and legal work, and direct action.
He said: “I think a collective of all of those is what is going to make the difference. Not one of them does it on its own.”
Amelia Lander-Cavallo, co-founder of Quiplash, taking part online, told the event: “I am an immigrant to this country and I don’t know if folks here realise how kind of unique this programme is, even with ATW in the state it is currently in.
“It doesn’t really exist in other countries.
“And for me it is the difference between me being unable to work vs running and owning my own company.
“ATW is literally one of the reasons I decided to settle in the UK.
“It is wild to me that the UK government doesn’t shout proudly about how amazing this programme is in principle and that it doesn’t bolster it and make it stronger so that it can function properly.”