Esa and universal credit under payment

hopefull50

hi everyone. I recently moved to universal credit from income related esa. I was also getting contribution based esa. they have moved me from that to the new style esa.

I currently get 276 every two weeks. but UC takes that out as a monthly payment. they say on average. at the moment they are taking off about 45 more than I get. but in march I will get 3 payments of esa. does that mean in that month it will still count as an average and that will be when I get the 45s back?

it looks like this.

esa average 598

Uc 809 - 598 = 210

what i get.

276 x 2 = 552

809 - 552 = 257

that is 47 more taken than I get. but in march will it look the same as any other month which would give me the difference back because of the 3 payments. does that make sense?

I don't know if I should say anything. at the moment they are deducting more than I get but if I get the 3 payments in march it should sort it self out.

any advice would be great. thanks.

poppy123456

No, they are not deducting more than you receive. ESA is a weekly benefit but UC s monthly. There's 4.3 weeks in a month, not 4 weeks.

To work out the deduction you times the weekly amount by 52 and then divide by 12.. so.. £138.20 x 52 = £7,168.40 divided by 12 = £598.86/month deduction.

There will be 1 month a year where you will receive 3 ESA payments but the deduction from UC will be the same as it always is.

When claiming both ESA and UC together, the UC tops up your income. Your benefits entitlement would be the same even if you weren't claiming ESA. There's no financial gain or loss when claiming ESA at the same time.

For this reason there isn't anything to complain about.

Edit to add, I see from a previous thread that the reason you claimed UC was because you were financially better off than you were when you claimed Income Related ESA because you weren't entitled to SDP. UC with LCWRA pays about £120/month more than ESA Support Group, without the SDP. (for those that are aged 25+)

hopefull50

thanks for the reply. I thought that was what will happen.