Our current plans will see all new benefit claimants claiming universal credit by 2016, with most existing benefit claimants moving on to universal credit during 2016 and 2017".
December 5, 2013 Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) most existing benefit claimants will be moved over to UC during 2016 and 2017.
The Universal Credit will replace most existing benefits and limit the total amount of benefit that claimants can get.
Extending this to existing claimants is new and important.
Final deal: This reduction would apply to new claimants straight away, but to existing claimants only after 2020.
According to the BBC, a proposal to restrict the carers' allowance to universal credit claimants could save £1bn, with 40% of existing claimants losing out.
The withdrawal of tax credits to existing claimants is ideologically driven.
The system has been in place for new claimants since 2008, but will be expanded to retest existing claimants from the end of this month.
The figures cover new claimants, and not the stock of existing claimants that have mainly been switched from Incapacity Benefit to ESA.
