ESA to UC - not quite as simple as it's made out to be?

ascopeuser

Hello all,

I'm one of those that were being 'taken off' of the 'legacy' benefit of ESA (Income Based). I received my letter with nothing other than a warning about needing to complete a UC claim before x date.

I did this.

I get a call a couple of weeks after my completion date from someone at the local job centre whose entire purpose of the call was simply to tell me that I would still receive about £140 a week in ESA (which was contribution based), even though my claim is almost 10 years old, it was taken from the year before when I was working up until my health issues.

He wanted to let me know now that I had to report any/all changes to ESA/UC and PIP. I thought the whole idea was to take people off of ESA and get them into UC.

The amount I get in ESA will be deducted from my UC claim, but they cannot be switched over so I can be rid of ESA.

Many of you know that ESA comes with rather strict rules around "permitted work". Should you want to do any form of work, you need to contact them and they will decide if it's allowed under permitted work and my guess is likely trigger a reassessment if you were in the support group.

The gov complain about the costs of the system, yet they make it almost impossible for anyone in transition to understand what their first UC payment is until 4 days before the payment date. They keep them partly on legacy benefits, which we were being told we're taken off of.

It leaves me, and probably many others in this perpetual cycle of worry that reporting any sort of change will trigger a cascade of reassessments and loss of money, so people just don't bother - they stick with what they have and stay where they are regardless of capacity.

I had really hoped that going onto UC might allow me to do some work in the future if things improve and I could just report that, and they'd adjust accordingly, if necessary. Instead, I still have the ESA handcuffs on, and even if UC decide that's fine, ESA might decide whatever I want to do isn't fine for permitted work and bye bye to the £134 a week or whatever it was.

The person that called today wasn't calling to help me through the process, the call was to remind me of my EXTRA obligations because I'm not actually fully leaving ESA and going to UC. It was nothing more than a tickbox exercise so that in the future, should you fail to report a change in time they can give you the old finger wag and let you know "3 years, 4 months and 27 days ago we called you telling you that you'd need to report x, y and z to three different entities, even though most of them have obscene waiting times."

I completed my UC claim on the 27th of March and the first time I'll know what I'm getting paid will be the 21st of April. This goes for the UC stuff as well, the guy on the phone kindly let me know "there's no crystal ball, and not even us staff can see anything until 4 days before payment".

IMO they've really cocked this transfer of benefit up - for everyone.

Migrations needed to be handled as such, and not as a new claim, which comes with a waiting period and makes me liable for rent almost instantly. I've already had the council on the phone telling me I'm going to be receiving arrears letters and that they want a payment plan to try and get me to a point I'm paying ahead instead of arrears (as that's how UC pay them).

The advance they offered me was £835, which was less than what I would receive from ESA alone for the month, before housing benefit is considered. If I take the full advance it leaves nothing to go toward the housing benefit side of things for the month.

I'm 40, I'm not stupid, but I can only imagine the stress that this places on to people that might struggle to navigate the system. I'm not saying for a second I understand **** is going on, because even the staff can't tell me what I'm due to receive until the same day I can see it myself.

I apologise if this comes off as a rant in places, but frankly all I've heard about is my rights and responsibilities and literally zero information on what the advance was so low, why I'm already being hassled about arrears, why forced migrations come with waiting periods like it's a new claim.

Genuinely sick of it and dreading the day I get to see my statement. I guess I'll set aside the entirety of the day to be prepared to make phone calls to fix the next problem that rears it's head.

Kimi87

Please see this thread (click on the purple text View Post) to understand what happens and why, when moving from mixed ESA to UC.

Entitlement to CB ESA stays with you as long as you qualify for the Support Group.

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/130268/ive-already-moved-to-universal-credit-but-ive-received-a-letter-from-esa

Advance amounts offer the current entitlement the system has for you. UC rely on multiple pieces of information from multiple places to calculate your final entitlement. Different things get confirmed at different times and the advance amount is subject to change.

All UC claims are treated as new claims even migrations, this is why everyone has to prove ID etc.

Re rent & your landlord, this is typical my council does the same, my UC payments now put my account one month into credit.

Holly_Scope

Hi @ascopeuser thank you so much for taking the time to share this with the community. It was a really inciteful read.

ascopeuser

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1015624#Comment_1015624

Hello @Kimi87

Thank you for the link to the post.

I just wish the government would explain things to people, many of whom on these sort of benefits are vulnerable or may have learning difficulties in addition to physical problems.

The letter we all get is to tell is that we are being moved from ESA to Universal Credit, it makes no mention of contribution or income based types of ESA, nor that there's a new type of ESA.

The gov complain about the spending in social care, but to be quite frank, people are stuck. They are scared to death to try and better their situations. The minute someone hears you did something for one day it's reassessment time.

I now have to report to three different bodies who (the person that called me, told me this verbatim: they don't share information) meaning I need to report any change of circumstances to all three or face whatever punitive measures are in place for not doing so.

Their attempt at simplifying a system has just made it worse, and anyone that is transferring has missed out on a few weeks worth of money whilst they're treated as a new claimant.

The systems are not the problem, the management of them are.