Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 33
33
Accepted
Government delayed moving income-related ESA claimants to Universal Credit until 2028 to save £1 billion.
Conclusion
In the 2022 Autumn Statement, the Government announced that it would delay the move of claimants on income-related ESA to UC until 2028 to save £1 billion.66 The Department told us that the economic circumstances at the time had been such that there was a need to find fiscal savings and an interest in finding reductions in spending on benefits.67 The delay in moving ESA claimants is expected to generate savings in benefit payments because, taken as a whole, the people involved would have received more under UC than under ESA.68
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the implicit recommendation, confirming a recent policy change to bring forward the migration of ESA claimants to 2024-25 instead of 2028. It states it has existing learnings and further plans to monitor the enhanced support journey for these claimants, with initial findings expected in 2024.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 7.2 The department acknowledges the need to be ready for migration of the Employment and Support Allowance cohort in 2024-25 as opposed to 2028. This is in-light of the recent policy change to bring the migration of the Employment and Support Allowance cohort forward and deliver this element as part of the current Universal Credit Programme. 7.3 The department has existing learnings from the Discovery phases run in 2022 and 2023 which included claimants on Employment and Support Allowance. There are further plans to build upon this by capturing how effective the enhanced support journey is at supporting claimants on Employment and Support Allowance to Move to Universal Credit. 7.4 This monitoring will include, but is not limited to, claim rates and channel, time to claim and additional support needed. Initial findings based on Employment and Support Allowance claimants with Tax Credits will be emerging this calendar year, 2024.