Good morning

The Autumn Budget, delivered by Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was disappointing for many benefit claimants, particularly those under pensionable age (66), with the news of April 2025 increases being pegged at just 1.7% for benefits like Universal Credit, PIP, ESA, and Child Benefit.

Pensioners fared better with both State Pension and Pension Credit rates increasing by 4.1%.

Recipients of Income-related Employment Support Allowance, previously excluded from the requirement to claim Universal Credit until 2028 can now expect to receive a “Migration Notice” (MRN) by December 2026. Around 800,000 could be affected by this move.

DWP promises to invest a further £15M in Citizens Advice services to help ease these claimants’ transition. I expect many will be reluctant to make the move, believing they will be financially worse off doing so. Many will, no doubt, seek advice and assistance from your frontline services and expect that staff will assist with the claim completion and validation exercise. Based on experiences to date, I also expect a minority (10%) will fail to comply and will be at risk of losing entitlement and accruing rent arrears.

The Government has provided DWP with £240M to allow it to run area-based pilot schemes, designed to encourage claimants back into work. For those that resist this move, benefit sanctions are likely to apply, causing personal income loss and rent arrears.

One of the changes that has not yet received coverage is DWP’s plans to increase the number of agents involved in targeting benefit overpayments and combatting fraud, which last year accounted for a £10 Billion loss. You will be aware from previous bulletins that “reviewing” existing awards, especially those made during COVID, has been ongoing since 2022-23. The additional recruitment of 3,100 agents will allow DWP to expand the exercise of targeting 8 million current awards between April 2025 and 2028.

DWP maintains its approach will include introducing activities and controls that protect the benefit system from overpayments and fraud, including:

  • Up-front checks that prevent incorrectness from getting into the system at the claim start, such as verification of claimant-provided information and basic conditions of entitlement such as identity.
  • Processing of changes of circumstances reported by claimants, whether reported on time or late or identified through the automated use of Real Time Earnings information from HM Revenue and Customs.
  • Pro-active counter fraud and error activities, including Targeted Case Reviews.

DWP is at pains to underline the positives. It also offers assurances vulnerable claimants will be protected from benefit suspensions, cancellations, and sanctions. But those are exactly the type of cases I have been dealing with, during the past 18 months, with many experiencing processing delays, suspension of awards for months, with no income, and demands for repayment of housing costs for up to £60K. I expect DWP to release more details of this exercise in the New Year and will endeavour to keep you appraised.

If you require more information or clarification on any of this, drop me a note bill@ucadvice.co.uk or phone 07733 080 389.

Regards

Bill Irvine

UC Advice & Advocacy Ltd

www.ucadvice.co.uk