The UK Government is currently rolling out the nation-wide move to Universal Credit (UC). Universal Credit is replacing six ‘legacy benefits’ with a single monthly payment.
These are:
– Housing Benefit
– Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
– Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
– Child Tax Credits (CTC)
– Working Tax Credits (WTC)
– Income Support
Those affected will have to move onto Universal Credit by 2029. Those receiving legacy benefits will prompted when they get a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), telling them to claim UC by a certain date. This is called a ‘Migration Notice’. The DWP have now started to issue these notices from April 2024.
Thousands of working-age Southwark residents will be affected by Move to UC. For many who receive this migration notice, Move to UC will be their first interaction with universal credit and the application process. If residents do not apply for UC by the date stated in their ‘Migration notice’ they risk losing their benefits.
Southwark Council are appealing to those who offer digital and/or I&A services as part of their work with residents. Could you help Southwark Residents apply for UC? Please get in touch with Lauren – Lauren.Stocks@southwark.gov.uk
Your organisation does not need special skills or expertise in completing the form. Southwark residents may struggle to claim UC due to poor literacy skills, lack of awareness, lack of digital skills, or access to a computer/ internet connection.
If you are a voluntary or community group in Southwark who can help then these are the next steps:
- Register your interest by contacting Lauren.Stocks@southwark.gov.uk.
- You will be then contacted for a conversation to discuss suitability and capacity and once approved you will be provided with an induction.
- After the induction, Southwark Council will provide you with a list of Southwark residents with their contact details impacted by the move to universal credit. You will reach out to them to ask if they need support in completing the form. If they do, you can arrange a mutually convenenit time or if you are arranging a group session then invite them to a workshop to help them complete the forms.
- After you have supported the residents, you will need to complete an update form so Southwark Council can update its system of who has been supported and by whom, and ensure payments are paid during the grace period while applications are being processed.
Alternatively, you may want to do a separate call out to your service users whom you work with to inform them if they have been affected by this move to reach out to you for support. You may be still be asked to complete an update form from Southwark Council so they can make payments to residents until they are on UC.
The Council knows who those residents are because the Government DWP will instruct the Council to terminate their benefits. When we terminate those benefits, we will write to the resident to let them know their benefits have stopped, explain the consequences of failing to claim UC and set out the support that is available if they need help to claim UC. At the time the Council contacts those residents, they enter a one-month grace period to apply for UC so that their UC claim is continuous with the claim for legacy benefits they had received previously.
If your organisation has previously supported residents with cost-of-living fund then the process will be somewhat similar but the form to complete would be different as it is by DWP. You do not need formal training to support residents to apply for universal credit but if you feel you would benefit from this training then this can be arranged by Southwark Council. The next training session is on 27th June.
If you require support in recruiting volunteers to help you with this please contact ruth@communitysouthwark.org.