Universal credit: Former tax credit claimants
This section of the website looks at how former tax credit claimants were affected by Universal Credit (UC).
Tax credit claimants continued with their tax credit awards until they either:
- made a claim for UC because they chose to do so; or
- had to claim UC because of a change in their circumstances; or
- were selected in DWP and HMRC’s formal migration exercise to move tax credit claimants to UC; or
- were issued with a tax credits closure notice and invited to claim pension credit.
The tax credits system ended on 5 April 2025. There are no live awards after that date. Anyone remaining in the tax credit system on 5 April 2025, which included those who would not be entitled to universal credit or pension credit, had their payments stopped from that date.
The schedule for tax credit claimants who had reached their state pension age (for couples, where both have reached state pension age, broadly followed two paths:
- State pension age claimants claiming working tax credit (with or without child tax credit) and not claiming pension credit, were issued with migration notices and invited to claim UC, with some specific rule changes in UC to allow them to claim.
- State pension age claimants claiming child tax credit and not entitled to working tax credit along with state pension age claimants claiming tax credits and also pension credit at the same time, were issued with tax credits closure notices and, if not already doing so, were invited to claim pension credit instead of tax credits.
In both scenarios transitional protection was available.
Last reviewed/updated 20 June 2024