Universal credit is modernising the social security system, improving value for money for taxpayers and ensuring people are better supported to move into work where they can.
As I set out in my statement on 20 April, the full transition from legacy benefits is due to complete by the end of June 2026, with the exception of a small number of customers who require time to find an appointee.
The Department’s “Move to Universal Credit” official statistics, published in May 2026, show that—as of 31 March 2026—2.4 million people across 1.8 million households have been notified of the need to make the transition to universal credit. Of these, over 1.5 million households went on to make a claim and approximately 815,000 households have been awarded transitional protection.
In 2020 the upper tribunal court determined that a customer claiming UC, even where a decision that resulted in benefits ending was later reversed, should not be reinstated onto legacy benefits. However, it also identified some such customers experienced a financial loss where their benefit entitlement was lower on UC.
Today we are launching the successful legacy appeals scheme. This compensation scheme follows the upper tribunal decision in R (on the application of TD, AD and Patricia Reynolds) v. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2020] EWCA Civ 618. It aims to compensate certain people who had to claim UC due to a decision to end their means-tested legacy benefits including housing benefit, tax credits, employment and support allowance, jobseeker’s allowance or income support, and on claiming UC received a lower entitlement than their previous legacy benefit entitlement, and who later had the decision to end their legacy benefit reversed.
The scheme constitutes the response of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to the determination of the upper tribunal and means that customers affected by similar circumstances do not need to seek redress through the courts or a tribunal.
[HCWS1176]