CONTINUING THE MOVE TO UNIVERSAL CREDIT

Rating: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 24/25-Q4 increased from AMBER to GREEN. This is primarily due to the following factors. The overall Delivery Confidence Assessment Rating remains Green, reflecting the completion of the 2024/25 migration plan enabling the successful closure of Tax Credits, the positive and sustained progress with exceeding Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and ESA & Housing Benefit (HB) monthly profiles and agreement to an accelerated profile to support completing all migrations by March 2026. Given the excellent progress, and supported by the IPA Gate 5 Assurance GREEN confidence rating, the Programme was formally closed on 31 March 2025 with oversight of the continued safe delivery of UC transitioning to the newly formed Working Age Services Directorate.

Schedule: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the project's end-date at 24/25-Q4 remained at 31/03/2025. This is primarily due to the following factors. Given the continued excellent progress, including enabling the successful closure of Tax Credits and sustained progress with exceeding remaining monthly profiles, the Programme was formally closed as planned on 31 March 2025.

Cost: Compared to financial year 23/24-Q4, the project's departmentally agreed Whole Life Cost at 24/25-Q4 (measured in £m) remained at 17305. This is primarily due to the following factors, Latest HM Treasury approval point was set in the Full Business Case in December 2022. There has been no variation or amended from this viewpoint

Source: NISTA Annual Report 2024-25 (data)

Rating: The Infrastructure Project Authority's Delivery Confidence Assessment rating at 23/24-Q4 is Amber. This is primarily due to the following factors. The overall Delivery Confidence Assessment Rating remains AMBER. The migration of the remaining in scope Legacy claimants commenced as planned from April 2024, whilst achieving the significant milestone of issuing over 500,000 Tax Credit only notifications six weeks early. The latest IPA (Gate 4) review reported an AMBER delivery confidence with work now focussed on delivering against our plan, ensuring claimants are moved safely and securely alongside preparing for the next few months as we quickly start migrating additional legacy benefit groups claimants.

Schedule: The project's end-date at 23/24-Q4 is 31/03/2025. This is primarily due to the following factors. Plan for 2024/25 confirmed and delivery remains on track including successfully commencing the migration of remaining in scope Legacy benefit claimants, as planned, from April 2024. It should be noted that following this reporting period’s conclusion, the Prime Minister announced the acceleration of the Move to UC timeline. The impact of this will be reflected in the 2025/2026 report.

Cost: Compared to financial year 22/23-Q4, the project's departmental-agree Whole Life Cost at 23/24-Q4 remained at 17305m. This is primarily due to the following factors. Policy decisions have led to an increase in operating costs by putting more claimants into full conditionality which is more expensive to run, however, as a consequence benefits of the programme are now over 70bn, more than offsetting any increase in investment costs.

Source: IPA Annual Report 2023-24 (data)