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The Universal Credit Roll out will resume its roll out July 1, 2019. This new phase is called “managed migration”, and it is expected to last until March 31, 2023. The process will start as a pilot scheme on July 1. However the roll out has been slow to date and further delays in the roll out are to be expected.

Anyone who is on benefits now, and that will be impacted by the next migration, should start to plan now. Save any extra money, look into local charitable aid, turn to free food banks or churches for help, get free advice from Citizens Advice, and plan on the new welfare benefit to hit you. Three years is a significant amount of time to save, plan, and get ahead of the changes.

The reason that planning should be done now is there has historically been a delay in when the first Universal Payment is made to new claimants; many wait multiple weeks for their money. It can take 35 to 56 days. While the aim of the new July 1, 2019 Managed Migration is to limit or reduce the delays, there is not telling who may be impacted and if the roll-out process will be improved.

Who is impacted in 2019 Universal Credit Roll Out

It is estimated by the central government that 2 million people will be moved to the new benefit starting July 1. It is a pilot scheme and will start with families or individuals in Harrogate in North Yorkshire only, and about 10,000 will be impacted. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will notify you. As the results come in, the scheme will be rolled out more so over subsequent years.

It will bring everyone onto the new benefit that is still eligible and that has not been moved to it yet. It is estimated that about 700,000 to 800,000 disabled people or sick people will be transitioned. The New Roll out will also impact over 1 million people that are on a low income (not including the disabled/ill of 750,000). Of course the final tally’s will vary as peoples income can go up or fall over the next 3 years, and some people may enter the queue or fall out of the queue.

The Universal Credit aims to replace the various government welfare benefits with one monthly payment. This makes it easier for the payments to be processed, but puts more responsibility on the family to be able to manage their finances and bills on their own. As a remined, the UC scheme combines Child Tax Credit, Working Tax, the Housing Benefit, Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), as well as Income Support. Anyone on those government assistance programmes will eventually be enrolled into the Universal Credit, and if they have not been impacted to date they will be in the next roll-out which starts July 1, 2019.

As noted, the scheme will start as a pilot. Then, if successful, more and more families will be enrolled over the next 3 years with up to 2 million people moved to Universal Credit. The Department for Work and Pensions will be in contact.