REGULATION 19 ignored

Bellyboy

Hi all, I'm desperate for advice, Citizens advice haven't really been very helpful and i feel so alone, on the 14th may i started UC i had migrated from IRESA/housing Benefit, to UC. ESA sent me a letter stating 12/04/05 ESA WILL STOP after successful UC migration.

The 14th came and my UC award was only basic UC £400 and housing £400 no limited work element or TP. I contacted CAB and they wrote me a paragraph asking for MR.

This was answered with the following from UC "we are currently awaiting documents from ESA and any underpayments, additional awards will be reviewed when this is received"

Out of the total £800 award, they deducted £605 ESA. This has stopped, today now i have a payment of £281.10 from ESA my fear is they have not followed regulation 19 and moved me over like for like, and instead put me on contribution style new esa, i have never worked due to illness, so today, after 4 ignored messages from last Wednesday i have resent the Mandatory Reconsideration request siting regulation 19 to see if i get an answer.

Kimi87

What's happened is correct, you were previously getting both Income Related ESA & Contributions Based ESA.

Lots of people don't know what their ESA was until migrating. I myself answer this question multiple times a week.

Incapacity Benefit, and CB ESA (at the beginning) had special Youth Rules, where a claim could be made without having worked.

When IB changed into ESA people were transferred to CB ESA with an IR top up if applicable.

Please read through this thread (click on the purple text View Post) for an explanation and reassurance.

New Style ESA is currently £281.10 a fortnight with the deduction from UC £609.05. ESA is a weekly benefit and this gets converted to a monthly amount as UC is a monthly benefit and there are 4.3 weeks in a month.

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

I'm also seeing lots of people very recently having a delay in getting their ESA award confirmed with UC. As more migration letters go out problems with this are increasing.

Once everything is confirmed a letter will be added to your Journal stating the amount owed due to underpayment. Payment will then be made within a few working days.

Bellyboy

Thank you for explaining that, i had no idea, the issue i have now then is they failed to award me TP and Limited work aspects due to "Not having ESA documents" last Wednesday, all requests about this are ignored so i sent them a mandatory reconsideration request hopefully today they reply

Vulcress

This has stunned me,

Does being in receipt of severe disability premium make any difference?

Main reason for asking I finally had the invite letter,

having become disabled at 12 years old owing to the Genetic nature of the condition

never worked, 1st it was SDA, then ESA/Support group with SDP/

I was under the impression like Belly posted the migration was all going to be UC

with the added elements for limited cap for work etc, if part of ESA is still being kept why in gods name are they doing this?

I hope this make sense I really was under the impression ESA (new style) was there for new claims or people who are expected to be on it a short time.

This has deeply upset me badly, what I have noticed i tend not to bother CAB unless its something really important and now instead of just the same person getting back like before its different people you have to explain the situation and they keep giving different explanations so you end up coming off the phone more confused than when you started,

nic21

@Bellyboy I too have been through all of this and had no idea what was going on but the kind people on here really helped me understand it better.

Today I finally got my LCWRA element paid from my first statement 1st-30th April, so I’m hoping my next statement it will all be finally sorted out!

It’s all been very confusing for so many people I do feel it should of been handled better.

I migrated from IR ESA in Support Group and Housing Benefit to UC and had no idea what was going on and couldn’t get hold of anybody by telephone for information.

I always thought I was on ESA IR and it would be a straight swap over, unfortunately not, I had no idea about NS ESA and also because of no longer getting ESA IR I have a Council Tax bill when I was getting a 100% reduction before, I was not aware these things would happen!

I really hope you get this sorted asap.Its hard dealing with all this when you already have so much to deal with.

Bellyboy

@nic21 They dont make it easy do they, none of us in this situation want or need this stress, the lack of communication is staggering ESA sent a letter saying its all stopped, no follow up about still being on it, ESA arent talking to UC as they didnt have the info to award me the right claim….its disgusting. Thanks for the info friend.

nic21

@Bellyboy completely agree with everything you are saying .My migration started 1st April and only on Saturday 17th May did I finally receive a letter from ESA telling me about NS ESA, everything is so delayed and causes so much anxiety 🤯

nic21

@Vulcress I have found reading through posts on here really helpful to try and understand what is going on but I do feel this shouldn’t be the case we should all of been informed better about what to expect with the migration.

I just hope I can now help other people a little from my experience if possible.