Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has received any representations on technical and administration problems regarding the transfer of claimants from employment and support allowance to universal credit.

Our Ministerial Correspondence Team has not received any letters relating to claimants facing technical or administrative problems when transferring from Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) to Universal Credit.

However, Universal Credit Programme colleagues have received representations from various customer support groups seeking clarification of the ESA to UC journey for their service users. These concerns have been raised informally at engagement events as well as through more formal routes into the Programme.

As a result, the Department has worked to produce a set of communications, to help local partnership managers better explain the ESA to UC journey to our stakeholders.

In addition we are improving the learning for work coaches and case managers to better understand the process and how to support claimants effectively.