I recently received my UC migration notice, and applied right away online, today we had the phone call, my mother took and handled the call for me since she's my appointee, after the phone call was over, we got another telling her that the benefit has to be paid into her account, before, ESA and PIP was able to be paid into my own.
For UC to pay it into my own, do I have to essentially have my mother relinquish appointee? I do think I can handle the claim myself with a small bit of help at times if most of the communication is done through the journal, it's phone calls I find difficult, but if most questions are yes or no answers, I feel like I could handle it.
What's sufficient enough proof that I no longer need an appointee? Can I show bank statements which show I pay a phone contract monthly, do online purchases? As I don't want to end up in a loop of needing appointees, I even went into bank because my mother phoned them up again after seeing how stressed I got being told it'll have to be paid into an account in her name. There's no bad relationship between us, it's just the fact I rely heavily on it for online purchases (I'm not comfortable going into shops most of the time, and usually need someone with me), and even opening a joint account may have issues in the future given my mother isn't young.
We will be ringing up first thing in the morning, I just need advice and what I have to do for now, for now I've been keeping my own account on the UC claim hoping this can be dealt with quickly. Has anyone else had experience where UC doesn't want to pay into the claimant's account even know on prior benefits, they had no issue with it? For reference I'm from Northern Ireland.
