Up to 500,000 Housing Benefit claimants could continue to receive their money in the same way up to four years after the implementation of Universal Credit.
Speaking at Capita's 8th National Conference on Welfare Reform in London, Stefan Czerniawski, Customer and Service Design Manager of Universal Credit at the Department for Work and Pensions said:
"By April 2013 we aim to have most of the working service that we can test on a substantial scale.
"Full introduction will take place from October 2013 - six months later - and parallel with that we will start natural migrations."
Mr Czerniawski also confirmed that new Benefits claimants on Job Seekers Allowance would be the first to switch to universal credit in October 2013 along with those those whose circumstances change and therefore have to make a new claim.
The programme then allows for people in work with new claims for other benefits (e.g tax credits) to switch next - possibly in April 2014.
All other claimants claimants would be included in a 'managed migration' programme that could take up to up to 2017 to complete.
As yet, there is no definite timescale for the 400,000 claimants who only claim Housing Benefit.
[Link2] Westminster council proposes to link tax benefit to behaviour.
An article in the BBC's News London reports on how Westminster City Council wants to cut or refuse Council Tax Benefits unless "certain levels of behaviour" are maintained.
The Council has launched a consultation paper that sets out its vision for the running of the city and how public services should be delivered. It states that "at its heart lies civic responsibility, the idea that everyone who lives, visits or works in the City can contribute to making it a successful place".
To be fair, the document includes a wide range of proposals. However, one of the areas of question posed has caught the media's attention:
