Nearly £3,000 worse off after migration to Universal Credit?

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B1AVENGER

Why is Universal Credit so much lower financially then ESA?

Singler Person 25+

ESA, Support, and Disabled Premiums £240 a week x52 is £12,480 per year

Universal Credit, LCWRA is £809 a month x12 is £9,708 per year

Thats nearlly a £3,000 difference!

Is this correct?

Am i missing something else that can be added to UC in premiums etc?

Ive not included any Housing in the above.

I realise there is transitional protection to begin with which will top up to same amount as old ESA, but as this erodes away with increases overtime in rent and benefit hikes. Eventually that will get to zero and you would be 3k worse off than now.

OverlyAnxious

Yes that's correct. The system was designed to save the government money.

There are no additional premiums on UC.

So people who got SDP with their ESA will be worse off (before transitional protection). But this is balanced because the people who did not get SDP will be better off on UC than ESA alone.

You are right that eventually we will end up at the same rate as everyone else due to the TP erosion. That goes back to the original point, UC was designed to save the gov't money, it now just takes a bit longer to achieve that goal.