is lcwra the same as esa support?

valeyard

Hello all, my father in law is in a bit.of a strange situation, ive tried to make sense of it but i'm not great with this. he has been on universal credit for about 3 years, he was a carer for the first year and a half. then november 2020 to november 2021 he received esa. As i understand it the uc was subsequently dropped accordingly and  because some was backdated he ended up owing uc some money which they're taking, as far as we are aware (their payment breakdown doesn't match his bank statements at all). his esa ended november,they said they have kept his account open but havent made payments, whilst uc insist they have. he has applied for lcwra and been told he was eligible (stating he'll have some back pay). now esa have said he is in a support group and said he should get backdated payments for the last 6 for the last 5 months and uc are stating he owes them 3+ thousand. wondering if the esa is the lcwra. sorry if its a bit confusing and i would appreciate any insight. (he's also applied for pip)

poppy123456

Yes, they are both the same. However, as he's claiming both New style ESA and UC together the ESA will be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

ESA will pay him backdated money and so will UC but because the ESA is deducted in full then he'll have an overpayment for UC. If he didn't then he would end up being paid twice for the same benefit, which isn't possible.

valeyard said:

 as far as we are aware (their payment breakdown doesn't match his bank statements at all).

Can you give some more information on exactly what you mean by this?

valeyard

poppy123456 said:

Yes, they are both the same. However, as he's claiming both New style ESA and UC together the ESA will be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

ESA will pay him backdated money and so will UC but because the ESA is deducted in full then he'll have an overpayment for UC. If he didn't then he would end up being paid twice for the same benefit, which isn't possible.

valeyard said:

 as far as we are aware (their payment breakdown doesn't match his bank statements at all).

Can you give some more information on exactly what you mean by this?

Thank you I thought this may be the case. some of his payments statements on uc journal state they the pay he would receive is around £110 but his statement showed just over £600

poppy123456

On the UC statement it will tell him the elements which he's entitled too, as well as the deductions for the ESA. For ESA Support Group the deductions for UC is £494 per month.

For UC if he's not claiming for help with any rent then he'll be entitled to the Standard element £324.84 (if he's single) and LCWRA element £343.63 = £668.47 - £494 ESA = £174.47 UC payable. If he has deductions for anything else then that figure will of course be reduced.

calcotti

When UC recalculate entitlement they place new statements on the journal which overwrite the old ones. That will then result in a mismatch between the statements you can see and the amount previously paid. The difference is the overpayment of UC.