You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Northern Ireland delays Universal Credit migration
Officials in Northern Ireland have announced a delay to the roll-out of Universal Credit for existing benefit claimants.
The UK government is due to begin the managed migration of its flagship welfare reform programme in July this year, to complete by the end of 2023.
This will bring more than three million people who are currently claiming benefits through the legacy welfare system onto Universal Credit.
Northern Ireland was also due to work to this schedule.
However, Northern Ireland’s Department for Communities (DfC) this week revealed it will postpone beginning managed migration in the region until 2020, while still aiming to complete the switchover by December 2023.
READ MORE
The department – which is being run by civil servants in the absence of a government at Stormont – made the announcement in a letter dated 8 January.
It said the delay is a response to decisions by Westminster’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to run a preliminary managed migration pilot for 10,000 people and push back the finish date to 2023.
The letter reads: “In light of these changes, and to ensure Northern Ireland has the opportunity to consider learning from the pilot in Great Britain, the Department for Communities will not now commence managed migration in July 2019.
“Instead, we will defer the beginning of this phase until 2020 and aim to complete by the end of 2023.”
There has been some speculation over whether the controversial six-in-one benefit will continue to roll-out across the UK as planned, or whether there will be further slowdowns to its heavily delayed schedule.
Work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd this week said she is “still considering” when to give MPs a vote on the full managed migration of Universal Credit.
The DfC letter said it will “monitor progress in DWP” during the pilot managed migration and “shortly begin an extensive programme of stakeholder engagement in preparation” for the next phase.
Roll-out of full digital service Universal Credit for new claimants completed on 5 December in Northern Ireland, finishing with Ballymena and Antrim job centres.
