Universal Credit (UC) is a monthly benefit designed to replace the 6 ‘legacy’ benefits listed below:

• Housing Benefits
• Child Tax Credit
• Income Support
• Working Tax Credit
• Income based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Income related Employment and Support Allowance

What triggers a claim for UC?
Anyone expecting to make a claim for any of the 6 legacy benefits that UC is replacing will have to claim UC instead and full UC rules and systems will apply. 

Glasgow Life can assist you with your UC application with in person support available by appointment in selected libraries. Please see Glasgow Life’s information sheet 

Universal Credit – Managed Migration

In 2024/2025, the DWP aim to contact all current recipients of “legacy benefits”. This includes:

• Working Tax Credits
• Child Tax Credits
• Income Support
• Income-Based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
• Housing Benefit
• Income-Related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

The DWP have announced that all of the aforementioned benefits will be phased out by 2028 and replaced in-full by Universal Credit.

What does this mean for you?

If you have received a migration notice, it is important that you don’t ignore this.

Once the notice has been received you have three months to apply for Universal Credit. This process takes approximately 1 hour to complete and can take a further five weeks to process.

Once the date on the migration notice has been reached, your benefits will end, regardless of if you have applied for Universal Credit or not.

Once the letter has been received, please contact our Welfare Rights team immediately on 0141 331 6650 for an appointment and we can book you in for an appointment. Alternatively, you can reach us at welfarerights@glasgowwestha.co.uk.

There are also some useful resources available online:

Opening a Account (Universal Credit in Action)

Making a Claim (Universal Credit in Action)

Keeping your Information Updated
It is very important to keep your journal updated with any change of circumstances, such as rent increase details or changes to employment. We have found some useful resources that can help answer some questions you may have about updating it:

Your Journal (Universal Credit in Action)

Your Online Journal - Learn My Way

Coronavirus and Universal Credit
You can check the most up to date information of how Coronavirus will impact your Universal Credit claim, existing or new, here.

The Benefit Cap
The benefit cap is a limit that has been placed by the UK government on the amount of benefit that can be paid to people who are receiving Housing Benefit or Universal Credit.  

The current benefit cap was reduced in November 2016 to £20,000 per annum (£13,400 for single people without children). The cap is applied by reducing the amount of Housing Benefit or Universal Credit that you are entitled to. This has the effect of leaving you with a shortfall between the rent you are charged and the benefit you receive to help you pay rent.  

Please contact us on 0141 331 6665 if you are affected by this as we may be able to help you apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) from the Council.