The Department has provided significant support to claimants as part of the Discovery Phase of the Universal Credit Programme. For the Discovery cohorts, claimants were granted an automatic one-month extension to their deadline date. If a claimant did not claim by their extended deadline, they were notified that their current benefit(s) would be terminated unless they had significant support needs requiring a further extension. To encourage and support claimants to claim Universal Credit, the Department sent text messages and phone calls during the one-month extension period. Where appropriate, the Department provided enhanced support, including home visits, to engage claimants face-to-face. For those claimants who require significant support, the Department holds case conferences with local Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders who provide local expertise, working with different organisations to take a multi-agency approach to supporting our most vulnerable claimants. For claimants who have their benefits terminated, if they then make a claim to UC within one month of their benefit(s) being terminated, their claim is then backdated to their deadline date and they will still receive Transitional Protection where entitled.