Long time ESA (Income based) to forced UC migration. Worried about the SDP/Transitional Element.

ascopeuser
ascopeuser Online Community Member Posts: 4 Listener
in Benefits and income

Hello all,

I have been in receipt of ESA/PIP (enhanced on both) since around 2017. I dread any type of change and assessment related type things. Friday is the deadline for making my UC claim and I have done it tonight, and I had a few questions that are hopefully fairly straight forward.

I read that ESA is paid in arrears - does that mean I would receive one final ESA payment between now and switching to UC? Or does the claim I made today stop any future payments and the next money I can expect to be in the form of UC on the 28th of April?

In the forms I just completed there was no question (that I can recall) about the SDP premium that I receive on top of my ESA, which I think is due to being in the support group and being in receipt of PIP. I think it's £81.50 a week or so, so it's quite a lot of money. As there was no mention of this in the forms, I can only assume the case worker will see that I am eligible for this and apply the correct figures to my account/payments?

Finally, I put all of these details into the turn2us calculator. The calculator seems to suggest I'll be £40 ish a month worse off, just from the change to UC alone.

I also believe I lose the following at some point:
The SDP is £81.50 per week (before my UC claim)
The transitional element is £53.71 a week.

If the above assumptions are correct then I'd be looking at potentially being about £145.21 a week worse off than I am on the current "legacy" benefits.

I appreciate this may have been asked a fair few times, but I am a single guy, and many of the posts I've seen involve people with kids, or couples, etc.

TL:DR.

- I'm just trying to work out how much worse off I'll be after this forced migration.
- If there is a final ESA payment as it's paid in arrears.
- There was no mention of the SDP premium (£81.50 pw) in the forms I just completed.
- How long is the £53.71 a week transitional protection going to run for?
- The turn to us calc says I'll be £40 worse off. I think I read SDP and the Transitional Element only run for period of time, but if I also lose SDP and the transitional element after a period of time I'll be down by about £145 per week?

Once I did the application I was offered an advance of about £830, with my first UC payment not being for 40 days.

Finally, I just want to add that I am glad that there are communities like this because the gov guidance on this is awful. They called me a few days ago and asked why I hadn't done it yet and if I needed help there was a YouTube video I could watch.

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