Move to universal credit

kcurrie

Hi I am asking for some advice on behalf of my disabled brother. We have had to move him between two local authority councils as he needs to be closer to me for support (my mum had a stroke and can't support him anymore) So we need to make a new claim for housing benefit which now has to happen through universal credit, but this will mean his ESA stops and it seems that there will be nothing to replace it - he is going to loose a lot of benefit just because he had to move. If he was a managed migrant to UC then he would be entitled to a transitional protection payment so his benefits would not be effected, but because we are having to apply, he is classed as a natural migrant of the system and therefore not entitled to the transitional protection which would ensure he didn't become worse off. None of his health circumstances have changed, just his address and it looks like he will loose around £100 a week and also have to go through the process of application and assessment yet again. He is in the support group for ESA and new style ESA requires you to have national insurance contributions which he does not have as has not worked for years. Does anyone know what can be done? What replaces the support group ESA? We have had to fight for his benefits so many times and this seems very unfair. Some advice would be incredibly appreciated x 

janer1967

Hi there 

I may be wrong but his support group should move over to his UC claim so he would get the LCWRA payment in his UC and not have to be assessed 

Other more knowledgeable members will advise 

Or you could contact welfare rights 

calcotti

janer1967 said: I may be wrong but his support group should move over to his UC claim so he would get the LCWRA payment in his UC and not have to be assessed 

That is correct.

If he is a single claimant on just ESA and HB I would expect him to get more money on UC than ESA. If he also gets a disability benefit and the ESA includes SDP then unfortunately it is true that he will get less on UC.

kcurrie

Thanks for your responses, he is a single claimant and gets enhanced disability premium not severe disability premium. Not sure what HB is? 

janer1967

Housing benefit = HB 

calcotti

kcurrie said:

Thanks for your responses, he is a single claimant and gets enhanced disability premium not severe disability premium. Not sure what HB is? 

In that case I would expect him to be better off on UC.

kcurrie

Is this the case, even with the lack of transitional protection payment? My worry is that once you have applied and come away from legacy benefits you can't go back. The problem is he needs his housing benefit and there is no other way now apart from going through universal credit as local councils are not accepting applications anymore and just signposting people to UC. Do you know what the rates for LCWRA are, is there just one standard rate or does the amount you get depend on other stuff? 

janer1967

Lcwra is one standard rate £341 per month 

You are right he cant go back but there is no reason for him having to as above he could even be better off 

calcotti

Do a check yourself using a benefits calculator
https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

I don’t know where you have got a loss of £100/week from.

kcurrie

Thanks for your support I have done the benefits calculators - most suggest new style ESA and add this amount on but I know he is not eligible for this as he has had no NI contributions in the past years. So the amounts come out as comparible but he will not get new style ESA 

calcotti

kcurrie said:

Thanks for your support I have done the benefits calculators - most suggest new style ESA and add this amount on but I know he is not eligible for this as he has had no NI contributions in the past years. So the amounts come out as comparible but he will not get new style ESA 

When you use the calculators you should be able to tick a box saying he is not eligible for contribution based benefits. If the results do show new style ESA and UC then just add the two amounts together, this is how much UC he would get if not getting the ESA.

kcurrie

I didn't realise the UC would go up if he wasn't entitled to New style ESA - the system seems so complicated and it's hard to know how the different ones all relate to each other - feels like until you actually apply it's really hard to know what it will end up like, so stressful and anxiety inducing, my brother is really worried about it because we have had to appeal decisions before, and it has been a nightmare. Thanks again, you are incredibly knowledgable about it all x x 

calcotti

Yes, any new style ESA reduces the UC payable £1 for £1.
For peace of mind have another look at the calculators again and see if you can tell them that he is not eligible for contribution based benefits.
if there are no othe4 factors in play I would expect UC to pay about £43 more/week (will drop by £20 in October if Covid uplift is removed as planned).