Reality on the Frontline of Designing Out Poverty – An Advisor’s Perspective (Part 1)

Universal Credit Migration: A System Failing Its Most Vulnerable

An advisor from St Andrew’s Community Network (the Network) reflects how she has been advising people on benefits for over a decade. Her work has extended to supporting people  through welfare reform, austerity, sanctions, and appeals. But she acknowledges that she’s “never felt as scared for them as [she does] now”.

The current migration of clients from legacy benefits to Universal Credit is riddled with errors. And not just occasional blunders; advisors at the Network are seeing systemic, repeated failures that are costing people hundreds of pounds and, in some cases, their mental wellbeing.

Clients who are being migrated from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), especially those in the Support Group, are experiencing serious administrative failures at the hands of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). These are individuals who have already been recognised as too unwell to work, often facing complex health conditions and deep financial insecurity. Yet when they transition to Universal Credit, the very system that’s supposed to support them is, frankly, breaking them.

Here are just some of the recurring issues the Networks advisors are seeing, in case after case:

  • The Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) element is being left off in nearly 90% of claims supported. That’s a cut of over £400 in their first payment, a devastating amount for people already surviving on very little.
  • ESA income-related claims aren’t being closed properly, despite clients applying within the required deadlines. The result? They’re accused of being overpaid by Universal Credit, through no fault of their own.
  • When LCWRA is eventually added (after weeks of chasing), Universal Credit then incorrectly reduces the transitional element. It’s as if the client’s circumstances changed, when they haven’t , it was the DWP’s mistake. But again, the claimant pays the price.
  • Messages go unanswered. Clients leave countless queries on their UC journals,  often met with silence, or vague and generic replies that do nothing to resolve the issue. In most cases, Network advisors have to get clients into the charity’s office just to phone DWP themselves and hope someone picks up.
  • For those on contribution-based ESA with an income-related top-up, the confusion is even worse. They’re being told to migrate, then discovering their ESA continues at a reduced rate while UC ‘tops it up’. There’s no explanation from DWP. Clients are left completely in the dark about what they’re supposed to receive from which benefit.

 

The system isn’t just flawed, it’s dangerously opaque. Most claimants have no idea what DWP has done wrong or how to fix it. And without advisors like those at the Network,  someone who knows how the benefits system should work, they’re left without help, without clarity, and without money.

The advisor continues to reflect how she has “had clients come to me in tears, too afraid to make the claim in the first place. We sit with them, walk them through it, reassure them it will be okay. But then it isn’t okay. They come back devastated, stressed, and increasingly unwell, because yet another part of their claim has gone wrong, and no one from the DWP will take responsibility”.

This work is always intense. But right now? Advice services like the Network are stretched to capacity. People are squeezed in because the consequences of saying “no” feel unbearable. The advisor explains how she has “had moments where a family member asks me to call, and [she’s] genuinely scared about what [she] might hear. That’s how serious this has become”.

This is no longer about one-off bureaucratic delays or accidental omissions. This is about a system that is actively harming the very people it was designed to protect.

It’s hard to explain the emotional toll this takes. We’re supposed to be here to help people find stability, security, and dignity. But when every path leads to a dead end, when you see clients’ mental health unravel because they’re being failed over and over again, it feels like we’re trying to hold back a flood with a teaspoon.

And this is only the beginning. In the next post we’ll share a case study of one of the clients affected, because behind every line of policy failure is a real person bearing the weight of that failure.

Series continues: Next up – A Case Study from the Frontline.
Follow along for further reflections and insights from those on the ground, witnessing the true human cost of welfare reform.

Angels Connect

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