Transitional protection confusion

(b) Previously the Department were following a step by step iterative approach – does that original philosophy still hold? Yes. The Department is determined to go at a pace that allows us to learn to transition to different phases properly. The pace in the discovery phase will be careful and considered, as with small volumes one can slow down, stop, and correct. [Redacted]. 

(c) How does the gradual, iterative approach work with the political pressure to get through the massive transitional caseload? If there was a way to go faster whilst still making sure the system works that would be the approach. [Redacted]. The Senior Responsible Officer’s (SRO’s) view is that 2024 is still a reasonable target. The SRO would be content to regularly update SSAC during this process. 

(d) What are the key lessons learned from the Harrogate trial? There was originally a three-phase plan – first Jobseeker’s Allowance cases (JSA), then Housing Association (HA), then Tax Credit cases. The JSA cases were underway, and the HA were about to start when lockdown happened. The main learning from the JSA cohort was that claimants are anxious about moving to UC. Personal contact helped address negative preconceptions and informed claimants when payments would fall in the calendar which helped claimants understand when best to make their UC claim within the period they are required. There were very few TP cases, but the people in this cohort were less likely to have a lower entitlement on UC. It is not possible to move individuals across to UC or set up a gateway to identify them by using data from the legacy systems. It would take years of system development and would still be unreliable. People need to participate, and clean data is essential. Also, whilst it may be perceived that the JSA cohort are simpler on paper, they often had complex lives and the cases contained much complexity. 

(e) Are the learnings from the huge pandemic claimant increase and the Harrogate pilot transferable to the ESA and Tax Credit cohorts? The experience so far is that tax credit claimants are reluctant to engage with UC and DWP, they don’t like the brand, they see it as a jobcentre experience. The issue therefore is how can it not be like a jobcentre experience? More must be done on communications, to build confidence with current legacy benefit claimants. The changes to the taper rate and work allowances introduced after the Budget will help as they do mean that a large majority of tax credit claimants will be better off on UC. 

(f) A particular concern of SSAC in 2018 was that the risk of a failed transition was borne by the claimant. With that in mind is the 2024 a target or a commitment? The Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Amendment Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/****) 37 It doesn’t help running all the different legacy benefit and IT systems, so the sooner we can complete the move to UC the better [Redacted]. It is a Manifesto commitment to complete the UC move. Initiating all transfers by the end of 2024 is a valid target, subject to not being impacted by other policy priorities or external events. 

(g) One of the commitments in 2018 was to explore automatic transfers of claims – has DWP explored any options since? Automatic transfer is not impossible, but it is very hard. One area where there is some possibility is on tax credits – aspects of HMRC tax credit claims may be able to be used to build UC claims. We had previously planned to test this before the pilot was paused. We want to explore with HMRC if there is scope for certain information to be ported across.