Budgeting Loan versus Advance Payment of UC

Camellia

I’ll be applying for UC late September, with October being the 5 week gap and would be very grateful for some input as to the nitty gritty of how I may be able to tide myself over using either a budgeting loan and/or an UC advance payment.

Can I apply for an ESA budgeting loan up to the date of my final ESA payment (with the 2 week ESA run on) or do I need to apply before I formally apply to change over to UC?

Can I apply for a budgeting loan during gap between being formally on ESA and formally on UC?

Can I apply for a UC advance payment, if I am still paying off a Budgeting loan?

What are the eligibility criteria for a UC Advance Payment?

Can I just drop into the Job Centre to request a UC Advance Payment, or do I need to make an appointment?

Hopeless

I don’t know anything about a budgeting loan but I have recently migrated from ESA to UC. I was offered an advance at my biographical phone appointment as soon as I’d verified my identity. It was available on my journal from then onwards. I didn’t actually use it but it was nice to know it was there

Camellia

Hi Hopeless,

That’s really helpful. At the risk of derailing my own thread, how soon after applying for UC did you get the biographical phone appointment, and is it a sort of reassessment?

Hopeless

My biographical phone appointment was 10 days after I pressed submit - so I was still within my 2 week ESA run-on. No, it’s not a reassessment - it’s just to verify that you are you! Some people can verify their ID online but I don’t have a passport etc. They just ask 2 or 3 questions that only you would know the answers to like a past address

Mary_Scope

Hi @carmella

You can apply for a budgeting loan before you make your Universal Credit claim but not after so you would to need to apply while still receiving ESA. You can’t have a budgeting loans on UC but you can request an advance, even if you're still repaying a budgeting loan and to do this you would need to submit your claim and agree to repay the advance from future payments and request it in your journal. Hope that makes sense!😄

Camellia

Thank you Mary for clarifying it for me. Thanks to you, I know roughly what to do now