DWP publishes Completing the Move to UC policy document

The Department for Work and Pensions published official statistics on 17 February 2026 covering the move from legacy benefits to Universal Credit for migration notices sent between July 2022 and December 2025¹. The figures relate to the department's Completing the Move to UC policy document, published in April 2022, which set out three tracks of migration: natural, voluntary and managed¹.

Over the period, 2,352,886 individuals in 1,821,989 households were sent migration notices¹. Of these, 1,985,703 individuals in 1,574,075 households made a claim to Universal Credit¹. A total of 356,521 individuals did not claim and had their legacy benefit claims closed, while 10,667 individuals were still going through the process at the data cut-off¹. Couple households accounted for 530,903 of the migration notices sent, or 29% of notices sent to households¹.

Transitional protection is awarded on a household basis and can consist of a transitional capital disregard or a transitional element¹. Of the 1,523,510 households eligible for transitional protection, 808,633 were awarded it, which the department gives as 53%¹.

DWP advises that claim and non-claim rates should be calculated on the cohort where at least three months have elapsed since the notice was sent¹. For notices sent up to the end of August 2025, 99.8% of customers had completed the process¹. Among that group, 86% of households and 84% of individuals claimed Universal Credit, while 13% of households and 15% of individuals did not claim and had their legacy benefits closed¹.

Source: DWP, data to end of December 2025¹. [z] indicates not applicable.

The department notes that customers may be sent one or more reminders and that the claim deadline may be extended¹. A claim completed within a month of the deadline can still be considered for transitional protection¹. DWP also states that customers sent a migration notice to date will not be representative of the complete population who will be sent one¹.

Why it matters for households

The statistics cover people claiming the six legacy benefits that Universal Credit replaces: Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Housing Benefit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support and income-based Jobseeker's Allowance¹. Anyone in that group who receives a migration notice has three months to claim Universal Credit, and their legacy benefit claim ends if they do not¹. Transitional protection is intended to keep a household's Universal Credit award at the level of the legacy benefits it replaces where circumstances are unchanged, though eligibility and the amount can change if circumstances change during the claim¹. The figures show that just over half of eligible households were awarded it¹. The practical effects of moving, including how housing costs are treated and how advance repayments work, are set out in the department's guidance rather than in these statistics.

What happens next

The statistics were extracted from DWP administrative systems on 5 January 2026 and published on 17 February 2026¹. DWP says further breakdowns, including time series and demographic data, are available on its Stat-Xplore website under "Move to Universal Credit"¹. An ad-hoc statistical release on complaints recorded in relation to Move to UC was published on 14 May 2024, updating an earlier release of 11 March 2024¹. No further publication dates are given in the statistics.