EWS eBulletin - 2025 year in review
The Early Warning System collects case studies from welfare rights advisers and members of the public. We use this evidence in CPAG's campaigning, policy and legal work.
A huge thank you to those who contacted the Early Warning System this year.
In January, your cases featured in CPAG’s written evidence to the Public Accounts Committee Inquiry into the use of AI in government, highlighting the risks to vulnerable families of the use of AI in fraud investigations.
In February, we raised concerns with the DWP about migration notice extensions and breakdowns of transitional element calculations after you told us you were having difficulties obtaining both.
In March, your cases were included in CPAG’s written evidence to the Work and Pension Committee inquiry into reforming Jobcentres, demonstrating the problems experienced by claimants when engaging with the Jobcentre. We also published our eBulletin on supersessions and the transitional element during managed migration, based on your evidence of the DWP changing UC awards from the wrong date.
In April, we shared your cases on problems surrounding the claimant commitment with a DWP policy team, including issues with negotiating work-related requirements and ‘claim closures’ for failing to accept a commitment.
In May, more of your cases on claimant issues with Jobcentres featured in CPAG’s written evidence to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry into Jobcentres. Early Warning System insight also informed our response to the Pathways to Work green paper.
In June, your cases on delayed ID verification on UC informed our eBulletin on how overpayments of legacy benefits work during managed migration. You also alerted us to the issue of LCWRA elements missing for ESA claimants who had migrated to UC. We were able to raise this directly with the DWP.
In July, after receiving lots of submissions of SSWP v MJ ‘lookalikes’, we shared cases with the DWP where the judgment was not being implemented and asked it to provide guidance. After raising concerns over the accuracy of the guidance, the DWP provided an updated version in October this year.
In August, we published our briefing for ministers, based on lots of your evidence, outlining the poor experiences of ESA claimants migrating to UC and our recommendations. We also submitted your cases to the DWP as part of their review into parental leave and pay.
In September, we raised the issue of long work capability reassessment delays with the DWP.
In October, your cases of claimants undergoing cancer treatment having problems getting LCWRA due to earnings prompted us to write an eBulletin on the issue and raise it with the DWP. Your examples of the reality of the benefit cap for claimants were included in CPAG’s latest briefing on scrapping the policy.
In November, we shared insights from the Early Warning System with a DWP research team about the reasons for underclaiming on universal credit.
In December, we’ve been spending time thinking about how best to structure Early Warning System updates and preparing cases to submit as part of the UC review in the New Year.
We look forward to hearing from you in 2026.
If you have any ideas about what updates you’d like to see from the Early Warning System, please email [email protected].
Do you have something to tell us?
Hearing about your cases has a profound impact on our work.
Some of the topics we are looking out for include:
- Self-employed UC claimants – we want to know about any difficulties self-employed claimants have claiming and receiving UC. Including issues with the minimum income floor, surplus earnings, and reporting income.
- Sanctions – we want to know about claimant experience with sanctions and barriers to challenging them.
- Budgeting - what aspects of UC make it harder for people to manage their finances and how do you feel some of these could be resolved?
Submit a case online or email [email protected] to tell us more. We can also be reached by phone on 020 3955 4493.
If you know an individual who would like to contact us directly about their own case, please let them know about our contact form for non-advisers.
Do you need CPAG's advice?
This briefing is funded by the Legal Education Foundation and an Improving Lives Through Advice (ILTA) grant from the Access to Justice Foundation and the National Lottery Community Fund.