Social Security Legislation 2023/24 Volume II: Universal Credit, State Pension Credit and the Social Fund

Universal Credit, State Pension Credit and the Social Fund is Volume II of the restructured series Social Security Legislation 2023/24. Volume V: Income Support and the Legacy Benefits 2021/22, as updated in the Cumulative Supplement is located at the end of this volume.

Universal credit has now become the default means-tested working-age benefit for new claims in the social security system. It is practically impossible to make a new claim for any of the so-called “legacy” working-age means-tested benefits replaced by universal credit. Numbers of recipients as a result of such claims remain significantly higher than they were before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the process of transfer of existing recipients of legacy benefits to universal credit at the behest of the Department (“managed migration”) has re-started with the aim of completion by the end of 2024.

Thus, universal credit has taken the central place in the volume of this series dealing with means-tested benefits. Volume II covers not only universal credit, but also state pension credit as the means-tested benefit available to those over pension age and social fund provisions for maternity and funeral expenses and for cold weather payments, plus associated rules on persons subject to immigration control.

The editorial team has brought together its academic and practical expertise and knowledge of social security law to produce a guide that will be essential for tribunal judges, members and staff, barristers, solicitors, welfare rights advisers and students.