esa or universal credit

antc

 i was advised to claim esa so did so. then was told to claim universal credit instesd so now im on uniiversal credit and have first payment end of march i have now received my esa claim sayin they will pay me from 14th of april... i don't know what to do has your not allowed to claim both so would it be better to end the esa and stay on with the universal credit 

poppy123456

HI and welcome,

I'm assuming your ESA is New style ESA, which is contributions based. You can claim both ESA and UC at the same time and there's no financial gain to doing this because your New style ESA amount will be deducted £1 for £1 from your UC entitlement. The only difference between them is UC is means tested and New style ESA isn't. So, you can claim both.

Alice_Holt

One advantage of claiming both is that whereas UC is paid monthly. ESA is fortnightly.
It can be also an advantage if DWP mess up the UC claim (two income streams). 

If you have housing costs, / children then you do need to claim UC as well as NS ESA. 

Make sure your UC work coach knows about ESA, and that you are placed in the correct UC no work commitments group. 

Edit: Apologies to poppy for following her around the boards. I do keep posting after her posts (and often repeat things).