Received letter to go over to UC from ESA

longtallsally67

Hello

I’ve received my letter to transfer over to uC from esa, I am in the support group and have tried to read as many threads as I can with regards to what I need to do and don’t do.

I’m of the understanding because I am in the support group I don’t need to provide a fit note? Is this correct? And will I still need to attend an initial interview even if I don’t have to provide fit notes?

I currently get full housing benefit and that gets paid directly to my local housing association, would I need to re apply for housing benefit and council tax support or would this carry straight over with my uC claim?

I’m unsure if I would fit into a qualifying catagory for an APA , I do have depression, anxiety, PTSD, self harm, fibromyalgia, psoriatic arthritis and an acoustic neuroma. I have also had many a problem managing money and got myself into debt and arrears with council tax and water rates, among many others.

I’m not sure if I’ve missed anything else off I need to ask and any advice is greatly appreciated.

poppy123456

You will not need to provide a fit note. However, it's standard procedure to ask you to provide one when you claim UC as part of the claims process but please ignore that.

You'll be entitled to the LCWRA element from the start of your claim. Once you have access to your journal please put a message on there to tell them that you're in the Support Group. It can take a few weeks for ESA to send your details across, once this is done your claim will be updated and your commiments will change. You will just need to agree to report all changes.

You will be asked to attend an appointment at your local job centre but if you're unable to do that you can ask for a telephone appointment.

Does your ESA include the Severe disability Premium?

Once you submit your claim your Income Related ESA and housing benefit will stop after 2 weeks. If any part of your ESA is contributions based this will continue but be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

Your rent will be paid in with your UC known as housing element (not housing benefit) unless you are either living in temporary or supported housing and then housing benefit will just continue to be paid as normal.

You can ask for an APA and you will be considered for that. Please be aware though that once this is set up it can be difficult to manage to start with because you will have been waiting a month for your money and then your first payment will only be for half of your entitlement and then 2 weeks later you will receive the other half. More information here.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-alternative-payment-arrangements/alternative-payment-arrangements#more-frequent-payments

You can also ask for your rent to be paid straight to your landlord.

WhatThe

I do have depression, anxiety, PTSD, self harm, fibromyalgia, psoriatic arthritis and an acoustic neuroma.

My advice to you and anyone else is to not include too much personal information on this forum (unless you want to!) because you do not need to justify to us why you should qualify on account of your conditions.

longtallsally67

thank you so much poppy. My esa includes a payment for severely disabled and another for disability income guarantee?

Thank you @WhatThe i will take that onboard. I’m just so used to having to explain and justify myself to the outside world I never gave it a second thought. Muchly appreciated