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New Style ESA

daisy001

hi I’m really confused and I hope some people on here might be able to help me. I have been made the appointee for my son who has learning disabilities and epilepsy he has had these conditions since birth and I am his main carer. He has been claiming ESA and recently received a letter saying he had to apply for Universal Credit as part of the migration process from legacy benefits to UC. I’ve filled in the claim and decided to become his appointee due to him not real understanding the process and why he has to move over etc…we now have a telephone interview in the new year for him to complete New Style ESA commitments. I never applied for NS ESA only UC like the letter said I had to do. Looking at the criteria for NS ESA my son doesn’t meet them it says you need to have made National Insurance contributions for the last 2 years my son has never had a paying job he went to a special school then college then he aged out of the system and he has been home with me ever since. If he doesn’t meet these criteria why is he been asked to make commitments for a benefit he can’t claim and I never made a claim for. I’ve asked for clarity on the appointment because I feel that it’s not warranted and a waste of time. He was awarded a lifetime claim on his old ESA due to the fact that his condition will never improve and may get worse as he gets older. Could someone explain what is happening here is it just a mistake on the DWP’s side or does he have to just go through the process as a box ticking exercise. These sort of things make him very agitated which is why I’ve taken over dealing with it but even I’m stuck. Can someone help me sorry for the long message.

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Comments

charlie79

If it's a migration letter then he'll be fine if nothing has changed regarding circumstances or health. Mension migration letter though so he gets the transitional protection. Make sure they are aware he is migrating and not starting a new esa application .

poppy123456

The reason for this is because part of his ESA was contributions based, (CB) even though he or you may have thought it was all Income Related. My guess is that he was either originally claiming Incapacity Benefit and then migrated to ESA when this was introduced many years ago. Or he claimed ESA as part of ESA in youth sometime in or before 2012.

When a ESA claim is part CB this automatically reverts to New Style ESA. (NsESA) The letter that you received is a standard letter that's usually sent when anyone claims for the first time or reverts to NsESA from CB ESA. He doesn't need to provide any fit notes because he's already in the Support Group so you can ignore the part that asks you to provide a fit note.

It would be less confusing for everyone if they changed the wording of those letters for those that are reverting to it from CB ESA but it's unlikely they would do that.

The commitments appointment is nothing to worry about and for this as his appointee you will just need to agree to report all changes. They do not need to know that he has been claiming ESA for a long time because they will already be aware of that.

Going forward the ESA payments will be £276.40/fortnight. This will be deducted in full from any UC entitlement. The amount deducted will seem like it's more than what he receives but ESA is a weekly benefit and UC is monthly and there's 4.3 weeks in a month, not 4 weeks. The amount that will be deducted in £598.86/month. He will then receive a UC payment once a month.

As he was in the Support Group for ESA he will be entitled to the LCWRA element of UC from the start of his claim.

poppy123456

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/960303#Comment_960303

ESA do not need to know he's migrating because they will already know. The ESA claim is reverting to New Style ESA as I explained above.

Regarding Transitional Protection, he will only be entitled to this if his UC entitlement is less than what his previous benefits were. Not everyone is entitled to this because some are better off by claiming UC.

daisy001

thank you i know they are just doing there job but if everything was basically staying the same apart from what the befit was called why didn’t they just switch him over instead of putting us through all these form etc..I know nobody can answer that.

Kimi87

Migration can be stressful at the beginning, but the claims will settle down and reach a point soon where they basically run themselves.

poppy123456

There's no forms to fill in for New Style ESA and it's just automatically reverted to it. The form is for UC, which everyone has to fill in when they claim, including those that migrate across.