I'm confused

jayuk

Hi everyone

I'm very confused as today I received a payment from esa for over 1000 which I'm very happy about but I have not had a letter about if I've passed my assessment. I'm thinking maybe I've passed as why would I get this amount 🤔.

Now let's say I have passed so who pays the element lcrwa if I have been assessed by esa?.

Another thing if uc has to pay element back in october uc closed my account and I had to reapply. How will this affect backpay as I first informed uc of health condition in July on my closed account and would I get back pay from then or from new account date.

calcotti

An arrears payment will be authorised at the same time as a letter is issued which means that a payment is often received before the explanatory letter.

If you are claiming New style ESA your payments will increase.
If you are also claiming UC you will be entitled to the LCWRA element in the UC calculation. ESA will continue to be deducted in full.

Why did UC close your account in October? 
When did you claim the ESA?

jayuk

calcotti said:

An arrears payment will be authorised at the same time as a letter is issued which means that a payment is often received before the explanatory letter.

If you are claiming New style ESA your payments will increase.
If you are also claiming UC you will be entitled to the LCWRA element in the UC calculation. ESA will continue to be deducted in full.

Why did UC close your account in October? 
When did you claim the ESA?

Thanks for replying, I never closed my uc account uc closed it. It was something to do with still getting sick pay and I hadn't had a payment off them.

As my new claim started in beginning of November I think,  would uc base the back pay on the new claim if that is the case I won't be owed any back pay because of the waiting period.

If I go from my old claim when I informed then of my health condition it was in July.

Would I have a fight on my hands to say about old claim and then need to do it from then.

calcotti

As previously asked, when did you claim ESA?

jayuk

calcotti said:

As previously asked, when did you claim ESA?

I started claiming esa end of June 2021

calcotti

So you will be in the Support Group from the 14th week of the ESA. When you get the letter it will confirm the Support Group start date. This will clearly be before a date in November so that means at the time of the November claim you were already in the ESA Support Group and will therefore be entitled to the LCWRA element in the calculation from the start of that claim. 

Whether UC were right to close the earlier claim while you were waiting for a WCA it isn’t possible to say without knowing what you UC maximum UC entitlement was and what your other finances were at the time.

jayuk

calcotti said:

So you will be in the Support Group from the 14th week of the ESA. When you get the letter it will confirm the Support Group start date. This will clearly be before a date in November so that means at the time of the November claim you were already in the ESA Support Group and will therefore be entitled to the LCWRA element in the calculation from the start of that claim. 

Whether UC were right to close the earlier claim while you were waiting for a WCA it isn’t possible to say without knowing what you UC maximum UC entitlement was and what your other finances were at the time.

Thats great information thank you calcotti .

when I calculated what I got payed in my bank it worked out £40.60 a week so that must be the £117 and pence. Will have to await the letter wish they would hurry up.

Regarding uc closing my claim I was receiving half pay sick pay so they didn't have to pay me anything apart from waiting for my esa claim money to come in then after that it was nothing from them as I was getting half pay plus esa.

I think that was the reason the claim closed because it was inactive I did write a thread when it happened so would be on here.

poppy123456

ESA Support Group from April 11th is £117.60 per week. Before this it was £114.10 per week.

jayuk

poppy123456 said:

ESA Support Group from April 11th is £117.60 per week. Before this it was £114.10 per week.

Thank you poppy

I'm sure it's back pay for support group. Just hoping I get the letter ASAP as its driving me mad.

calcotti

jayuk said:..I'm sure it's back pay for support group...

I'm sure it is.

Are you still receiving any sick pay? I assume not.

jayuk

calcotti said:

jayuk said:..I'm sure it's back pay for support group...

I'm sure it is.

Are you still receiving any sick pay? I assume not.

My sick pay finished in November.

I've been dismissed from work due to health and now receiving my last 12 weeks pay being payed monthly, I will receive my last pay on 15th May.

calcotti

So, when you get the ESA letter I suggest you post a journal message (as a payment message) highlighting that to UC. Ask them to make sure the LCWRA element is included and that a Work Allowance is applied to your claim. They will need recalculate your entitlement for all of the months of your current claim and then work out what they owe you. Your old monthly statement will be overwritten so you may want to make copies of those now in case you want to refer to them.

Apart from the addition of the LCWRA element the Work Allowance (assuming you are not already getting a WA because you have children on the claim) will mean that a portion of your earnings are ignored and the tapered reduction is calculated only on the amount in excess of the Work Allowance.

Returning to the question of your UC claim being closed. If your earnings (combined with the ESA) were such that even with LCWRA and a Work Allowance you would have had no UC entitlement, then they were correct to close the claim. If, however, with the lCWRA and WA you would have had entitlement to UC they should have kept the claim open until such time as the WCA was complete - to close the claim in those circumstances would be a breach of the regulations.

jayuk

calcotti said:

So, when you get the ESA letter I suggest you post a journal message (as a payment message) highlighting that to UC. Ask them to make sure the LCWRA element is included and that a Work Allowance is applied to your claim. They will need recalculate your entitlement for all of the months of your current claim and then work out what they owe you. Your old monthly statement will be overwritten so you may want to make copies of those now in case you want to refer to them.

Apart from the addition of the LCWRA element the Work Allowance (assuming you are not already getting a WA because you have children on the claim) will mean that a portion of your earnings are ignored and the tapered reduction is calculated only on the amount in excess of the Work Allowance.

Returning to the question of your UC claim being closed. If your earnings (combined with the ESA) were such that even with LCWRA and a Work Allowance you would have had no UC entitlement, then they were correct to close the claim. If, however, with the lCWRA and WA you would have had entitlement to UC they should have kept the claim open until such time as the WCA was complete - to close the claim in those circumstances would be a breach of the regulations.

Thank you for the information.

I don't have young children my 2 are grown up ,the claim was just for me.

From uc theses are the payments I've received

January received £235, February £266 and March £266 and April £179 and payment dates is 2nd of each month.

calcotti

Were you hoping for some response to your post with the amounts of your UC payments? They don't tell us anything on their own.

L_Volunteer

Hey @jayuk

Thanks for your post. I can see a few people have responded to your post already. Do you feel your question has been answered? If you need any further clarification or have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to let us know and we'll do our best to help 

jayuk

Thank you all for your advice.

I've just received my letter to say I'm in support group. Shall I inform uc and what should I put 🤔

poppy123456

jayuk said:

Shall I inform uc and what should I put 🤔

Yes, as advised here.

calcotti said:

So, when you get the ESA letter I suggest you post a journal message (as a payment message) highlighting that to UC. Ask them to make sure the LCWRA element is included and that a Work Allowance is applied to your claim. They will need recalculate your entitlement for all of the months of your current claim and then work out what they owe you. Your old monthly statement will be overwritten so you may want to make copies of those now in case you want to refer to them.

jayuk

Thank you all