Paying PA while migrating from ESA to UC

Camellia

Hi,

I pay for almost all of my support package from my own funds and employ a PA for 5 hours a week. I pay £95 and the council pays £5.

I will be applying to transfer over from ESA to UC on the 1st of October and will get my first UC payment on the 7th of November.

I am very worried about how to pay my PA during October. As I obviously cannot book her and not pay her!

The council say that ESA is paid in advance whilst UC is paid in arrears - so ‘it is a matter of timing rather than having less money’ in the SW’s words. She states to effect that my Nov 7th UC payment is to cover the full month of October 7th till November 7th, so the council won’t need to help with the shortfall.

My reality is I will have only 1 ESA run on payment and 1 PIP payment to live off over the 5 weeks.

Is it true that the people who migrate across to UC get the same amount of £ over the financial year that they would have on ESA?

Does the council have to help me make up the shortfall, when there is an income drop? From my perspective if I have less to live off, I should have an affordability recalculation even if it is just for those 5 weeks, so that my amount of contribution for those weeks may also reduce.

What are people’s experience of this - those people that pay for most of their support.

Thanks for your help

Kimi87

ESA is paid two weeks in arrears, UC one month in arrears.

You either have the same amount of UC over the year compared to your legacy benefits, or some people are actually better off on UC.

You can request an advance payment from UC to tide you over, this is a loan that gets deducted from your payment until repaid in full.

Camellia

I will apply for an advance payment. Thanks for your help.