Guidance

Move to Universal Credit statistics: release strategy

Updated 13 February 2024

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

© Crown copyright 2024

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/move-to-universal-credit-statistics-release-strategy/move-to-universal-credit-statistics-release-strategy

1. Introduction

This release strategy acts as the formal notice of the confirmed and proposed developments for Move to Universal Credit Official Statistics and a formal notice of confirmed and proposed developments to the statistics over time. This has been designed to ensure that statistics are placed into the public domain in a clear and orderly way.

The first release of Move to Universal Credit statistics was published on 15 August 2023 and will be published quarterly thereafter, see upcoming statistics in our statistics release calendar.

Following guidelines set out by the UK Statistics Authority, statistics are designated as experimental official statistics.

2. User engagement

The department engages with users in the following ways:

3. Initial release of statistics

New quarterly Official Statistics under development on the number of people who have been sent migration notices in relation to Move to Universal Credit.

The initial release of statistics was published on 15 August 2023.

The initial release of statistics covered the following:

The number of people who have been sent a migration notice in relation to Move to Universal Credit by:

  • month migration notice sent
  • age band
  • gender
  • Great Britain and standard geographical region
  • whether previously claimed DWP legacy benefits or tax credits

Amongst those who have been sent a migration notice in relation to Move to Universal Credit, the number who have not yet claimed Universal Credit but were still within the 3 month period for making a claim by:

  • month migration notice sent
  • age band
  • gender
  • Great Britain and standard geographical region
  • whether previously claimed DWP legacy benefits or tax credits

Amongst those who have been sent a migration notice in relation to Move to Universal Credit, the number who had not claimed Universal Credit and whose legacy benefit had been closed by:

  • month migration notice sent
  • age band
  • gender
  • Great Britain and standard geographical region
  • whether previously claimed DWP legacy benefits or tax credits

Amongst those who have been sent a migration notice in relation to Move to Universal Credit, the number who have made a claim to Universal Credit and who had been awarded transitional protection by:

  • month migration notice sent
  • age band
  • gender
  • Great Britain and standard geographical region
  • whether previously claimed DWP legacy benefits or tax credits

See the background and methodology document for detailed explanations of terminology.

4. Intended developments to the statistics and timeline

The UK Statistics Authority code of practice for official statistics states that ‘Users of statistics and data should be at the centre of statistical production; their needs should be understood, their views sought and acted on, and their use of statistics supported. To understand user views and best meet those needs, we would like your feedback on the development of these new statistics.

Intended developments of the official statistics, all subject to assessment of feasibility, are:

Household characteristics

  • whether the household contained at least one child under the age of 18
  • additional geographical breakdowns, including:
    • parliamentary constituency of individuals within the household
    • other geographical breakdowns based on the ONS Census Output Area classification
    • jobcentre plus geographical breakdowns

Legacy benefit breakdowns

  • the detailed DWP legacy benefit type (Jobseekers Allowance, Income Support, Employment Support Allowance, Housing Benefit) and tax credit type (Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit)
  • the combination of legacy benefit types where applicable
  • the amount of legacy benefit in payment at the time that the Migration Notice was issued
  • the length of time the legacy benefit had been claimed for

Migration notice process and claims to Universal Credit

  • the number of households who have had a reminder sent
  • whether an extension to claim deadline was made and how many extensions were made
  • whether the Move to UC notification was excluded, cancelled or deferred
  • whether a UC claim was made before original deadline, within any extended deadline or within the period in which transitional protection is considered
  • whether the UC claim was closed before the first UC statement
  • whether the UC claim received a payment in the first Assessment Period
  • the amount of transitional protection initially awarded as part of the UC claim

Dissemination

The Move to UC official statistics are released via a Statistical Bulletin and accompanying Excel / ODS statistical tables.

As more breakdowns of the statistics are released, the feasibility of adding Move to UC as a dataset within Stat-Xplore will be assessed.

In addition, an assessment of the feasibility of identifying Move to UC cases within the wider UC caseload datasets within Stat-Xplore will be carried out.

5. Feedback

We welcome user feedback on plans for the release of these new statistics and their scope. Comments and queries about the statistics are welcome and can be sent by email: ucad.briefinganalysis@dwp.gov.uk

ISBN: 978-1-78659-539-3

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