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UC/ESA(new?) migration confusion

Chris_Dee

I'm confused..

On 28/05 I made a claim for UC after getting a managed migration letter (I was in the Support Group for ESA). Attended my appointment and provided identity and housing evidence as required. I'm due to find out my UC entitlement tomorrow. However, on Wed I got a letter from the DWP saying my 'contribution based ESA will change to New Style ESA' from the 11/06/2025 and that they will arrange an appointment with a work coach to tell me how to make a claim and create a 'claimant commitment'. Then yesterday I got an entry on my UC journal titled "other benefits affecting your UC" saying "our records show you are getting ESA", a list of benefits which can effect a UC claim, and "If you are also getting one or more of these benefits as well as the ones we already know about, you must contact the office you claim them from. Tell them you're now getting Universal Credit and to update their records."

Can anyone tell me what is going on? My understanding is that UC was to replace my ESA claim as indicated in the migration letter and info' provided at the interview. Utterly confused, thanks.

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Comments

OverlyAnxious

Hi,

Your old ESA was partly Contributions Based, but you may never have known that.

You will now get New Style ESA at a rate of £281.10 per fortnight.

And that will be deducted from UC at a rate of £609 per month. (Slightly more than 2x fortnights in each month).

You won't have to go through another assessment or discuss work, that is just a generic letter. You will have to accept the Claimant Commitment, which is just to notify ESA of any changes, separately to UC.

Chris_Dee

Thank you for your clear explanation, though why they couldn't have made this clear themselves at an earlier date is ridiculous. All previous communications indicated my claim was income based, no mention of a contribution element. Will this continued new ESA element to my claim be likely to cause further issues down the road? Are there downsides to it? (trying to ascertain what questions, if any, I should ask at the interview). Many thanks for your support, its appreciated.

OverlyAnxious

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1043228#Comment_1043228

You're welcome.

The only real downside is the extra hassle of having 3/4 payments every month instead of just one, and also having to deal with 2 different DWP departments when reporting any changes. Though some people prefer the extra payments with regards to budgeting, so that depends on personal preference.

Financially there aren't any downsides. You will get exactly the same money in total. And you do get better Class 1 NI Credits with NS ESA. Whereas people on UC only get Class 3 Credits.

If you suddenly get an inheritance or lottery win that takes you over the £16k savings limit for UC, UC would end but the NS ESA would continue at the same rate.

If NS ESA stops in future due to government changes, then you would just get your full means tested UC payment without any deductions. So you would not be worse off like that.

If you lost UC due to savings and then lost NS ESA due to gov't changes, then you would be left without any income until savings dropped below £16k again. But that scenario seems so unlikely that it's really not worth worrying about.

Chris_Dee

Thank you so much for your detailed and clear explanation. I'll ask why they have not explained all this themselves at the interview. We shouldn't have to rely on the support of kind people like yourself to be informed of fundamental information like this. 👍️