Overview
- All legacy benefits are scheduled to end by March 31, 2026, concluding the government’s managed migration programme.
- Claimants have three months to respond after receiving a migration notice, with missed deadlines triggering automatic termination of legacy payments.
- By December 2025, the DWP had issued about 2.35 million migration notices, moved roughly 1.70 million people to Universal Credit, and recorded 8.34 million total UC claimants.
- Official figures show 356,521 people have already had benefits stopped for not switching, while 808,633 households received transitional protection to prevent immediate income drops.
- New Universal Credit claimants typically face a five-week wait for the first payment, with two weeks of legacy benefits after claiming and helplines available for support or deadline extensions.