DWP stops benefits of nearly 23,000 ESA claimants — Disability News Service

Thanks to Disability News Service for this update.

See also our joint letter and earlier action raising the alarm about people being cut off in the Move to Universal Credit.

Fears of another safeguarding catastrophe after DWP stops benefits of nearly 23,000 ESA claimants

By John Pring on 14th May 2026   Benefits and Poverty

New government figures show nearly 23,000 disabled people have failed to “migrate” from employment and support allowance to universal credit and have had their benefit claims closed, raising concerns over whether many of them have been left destitute.

Disabled campaigners warned this week that the figures highlighted an “appalling safeguarding failure”, with many claimants harassed through the migration process, and unable to cope, and fears that thousands of disabled people could have been left without any income-related support from the state.

The figures were released this week by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), although the department did not make it easy to access them*.

They show that, of about 880,000 claimants of the out-of-work disability benefit employment and support allowance (ESA) who were told between July 2022 and March 2026 that they would have to make a fresh claim for the replacement universal credit, 22,687 failed to do so and had their “legacy benefit” closed.

Although there could be several reasons for a disabled person failing to make a claim for universal credit after being contacted by DWP, it potentially leaves many thousands of former ESA recipients without any income-related support from the state – and possibly without any financial support at all – and at risk of destitution.

The figures show that 2.6 per cent of ESA claimants who were told to make a claim for universal credit (UC) through a “migration notice” had failed to do so and had their ESA legacy benefit claim shut down.

There are about another 800 ESA claimants who received a migration notice and have yet to make a claim for universal credit but have not yet reached the deadline for doing so.

Two months ago, disabled people’s organisations and allies wrote to Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, to warn him that safeguards were “not being followed” as the ESA migration process neared its end.

They were particularly concerned about ESA claimants who were unable to start their universal credit claim by phone or online.

Many of the claimants were too unwell, experiencing domestic violence, or faced other access barriers, they warned.

The letter appealed to Sir Stephen to re-open the cases of those former ESA claimants who were “unable to engage in the migration process due to being in hospital or unable to cope in other ways”.

Among those behind the letter were WinVisible, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Disability Rights UK, Disability Poverty Campaign Group, Disabled People Against Cuts, Fightback4Justice and Inclusion London.

The letter stressed the “devastating” impact that cutting off a disabled person’s benefits can have, pointing to deaths such as those of Tamara Logan, Errol Graham and Jodey Whiting.

It said the failure to safeguard claimants through the migration process was “systematic” and “a recurrent factor that stops people making a successful UC claim”.

And it pointed to the complicated and stressful nature of completing a UC claim, and how advice and advocacy organisations had been “overwhelmed” by the number of requests for help and were unable to “give the level of support required to everyone needing to migrate who requires support”.

Julia Modern, co-chair of the Disability Poverty Campaign Group, which is convened by Inclusion London and Disability Rights UK, told Disability News Service (DNS) this week that many of those who have now had their payments stopped would simply have been “unable to cope with the admin involved” in the forced move from ESA to universal credit.

She said: “We have come across cases of people being told they must reapply immediately or face having their money stopped, even while in hospital or going through horrendous circumstances such as terminal illness.

“The DWP don’t appear to know who is being impacted by these problems – and worse, they’re not even trying to find out, even though a large percentage of those whose payments have been stopped without a UC claim starting are likely to now be experiencing destitution or worse.

“This is another appalling safeguarding failure.

“We believe the DWP should create an auto-enrolment option for the remaining ESA recipients who cannot complete the process and urgently investigate the cases of ‘failed transition’ that have already happened to ensure that no-one is left destitute.”

Claire Glasman and Ariane Sacco, from the disabled women’s organisation WinVisible, said: “We are constantly having to prove our disability needs, and live in insecurity and stress because the money we rely on can be suddenly stopped or reduced – due to punitive government policy, discriminatory benefit reassessments or the DWP saying we are not entitled because we are immigrant. “Being cut off is particularly shocking to disabled mothers worried about feeding children, and people with mental distress, including traumatised survivors of violence and abuse.” WinVisible fears that the ESA to UC migration policy has led to many thousands of disabled people facing destitution, homelessness, and despair. They believe disabled people wrongly found fit for work and so claiming legacy benefits other than ESA are among many thousands of others who will have been cut off in the move to universal credit.

Rick Burgess, from Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, said the figures showed the government was not “appreciating the damage being done”.

He said GMCDP agreed with a letter written to the Commons work and pensions committee in March by the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers (NAWRA), which called for an automatic migration process for ESA claimants with ongoing awards.

NAWRA said in the letter that its frontline evidence showed the migration process was “not currently safe for vulnerable claimants” and without urgent action it expected to see “rising homelessness, worsening mental health, and long-term financial harm”.

Burgess said DWP needed to “proactively” trace the 22,700 ESA claimants whose claims had been cut off and offer them all automatic migration onto UC.

DWP told DNS this week that it had made every effort to contact claimants or their representatives before terminating their legacy benefit, and remained confident that the extra support offered to ESA and income support migration claimants through its “enhanced support journey” – including phone calls and a home visit if needed – had provided effective support.

A DWP spokesperson said: “The department has been migrating people from legacy benefits to universal credit since 2022 and we are now in the final stages of this process.

“A small percentage of households on employment [and] support allowance have not completed their migration to UC.

“However, all customers on ESA receive additional contact through the enhanced support journey to ensure anyone who has not made a claim to universal credit is offered the support they need.

“Every effort is made to contact a customer or their representative before DWP considers terminating the legacy benefit, which includes the 24,000 ESA households** who did not make the transition to universal credit.”

*To view the figures, visit DWP’s own data platform, Stat-Xplore, access the “Move to Universal Credit” dataset, and click on the “MtUC Individuals 3 – migration notices by legacy benefit and move status” table

**This includes those whose claims have not yet been closed