Legislation – The Welfare Reform Act 2012 (Commencement No. 35) (Abolition of Benefits) Order 2025

This Order is a further stage in the replacement of six benefits with universal credit (“UC”).

The Order appoints the dates for ending future entitlement to income support and income-based jobseeker’s allowance for all claimants and for ending future entitlement to income-related employment and support allowance in relation to claimants currently receiving only the contributory allowance in an award of old style ESA. It also ends awards of housing benefit where working age claimants cease to occupy temporary or supported accommodation.

The references in this Order to “old style JSA” and “old style ESA” are to awards of jobseeker’s allowance and employment and support allowance in respect of which the amending provisions have not yet come into force. The amending provisions include subsection (1)(a) and (b) of section 33 (abolition of benefits) of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 (“the Act”) and amendments to the Jobseekers Act 1995 (c.18) and Part 1 of the Welfare Reform Act 2007 (c.5) that remove references to the income-related elements of those benefits.

The amending provisions are the mechanism for terminating awards of income-based jobseeker’s allowance and income-related employment and support allowance. They come into force when the claimant makes a claim for UC or forms a couple with a universal credit claimant. They are treated as coming into force when a claimant who has been issued with a migration notice fails to make a claim for universal credit by the deadline.

Article 2 brings the amending provisions into force on 1st December 2025 for awards of old style ESA where the amount the claimant receives is wholly attributable to the contributory allowance (including where they have entitlement to both the contributory and income-related allowance but the former is greater). This will prevent entitlement to the income-related allowance arising in future if the claimant’s circumstances change. It will also convert the award to the “new style” employment and support allowance. Where an award of old style ESA is not wholly attributable to the contributory allowance on 1st December 2025 but is so on a subsequent day, for example if the claimant’s income increases so that they no longer have the income-related entitlement, the amending provisions will come into force on that day.

Article 3 deals with the obligation on the Secretary of State to prepare a claimant commitment where an award of old style ESA is converted to the new style allowance under article 2. That obligation is delayed for such period as is necessary to protect the efficient administration of the allowance.

Article 4 deals with old style JSA. The amending provisions come into force for any remaining cases on 1st April 2026. This does not affect the two week run-on period in the case of a claimant who has made a claim for UC or been issued with a migration notice and failed to claim by the deadline.

Article 5 deals with income support. Section 33(1)(c) of the Act (which provides for abolition of income support) is brought into force for any remaining cases, except those in a run-on period, on 1st April 2026.

Article 6 deals with housing benefit. Claimants who occupy temporary accommodation and certain types of supported accommodation (referred to in this Order as “specified accommodation”) are not covered by the housing costs element in UC and may therefore claim housing benefit by virtue of regulation 6A of the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2014 (S.I. 2014/1230).

Where a claimant who is already entitled to UC moves from such accommodation into general accommodation, housing benefit will automatically cease and they may qualify for the housing costs element of UC. Article 6 provides the mechanism for ending housing benefit in a case where the claimant is not already entitled to UC and is not being moved to UC by managed migration. Where the move to general accommodation occurs on or after 14th November 2025, section 33(1)(d) (which provides for abolition of housing benefit) is brought into force in relation to the existing award. This terminates the current award but does not prevent a new claim for housing benefit if the claimant subsequently qualifies under regulation 6A.