Submitted claim for ESA migration to UC Support Group. What next? Follow up questions
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Some minor developments today...
- On my To Do List I had to select how I wanted to be paid from now on, monthly or twice monthly.
- On my To Do List I had to select how I wanted my housing to be paid, to me or direct to my landlord. Hopefully this means they are still working on my claim and housing element will be added next month.
- I had a link to a pdf letter telling me I had been "paid more universal credit than you are entitled to. You were overpaid £386.26 from 03/03/2025 to 02/04/2025. This is because of an overpayment of other benefits." It says that they will take this money back from my monthly payment in installments.
It also goes on to say further down that i can pay the money back in full now if I don't want them to take it from my monthly payment and gives ways to pay.
So, I'm not sure whether to pay it back in full via online banking as they are known for their incompetence and therefore might still deduct it from my monthly payments too if the systems aren't communicating properly.
Does anyone have any experience of paying back overpayment?
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You're right about their incompetence with overpayments…
That letter sounds like the one I had from Housing Benefit. I actually had 3 of them, and couldn't work out whether they were all overpayments or not. In the end I paid 2 of them through online banking. (With the third being deducted from the UC statement). Then a few weeks later they refunded one of the payments I'd made, saying I'd overpaid the overpayment! I never did get a proper answer but assume I don't still owe anything now. So it's up to you whether you want to pay it in full or not. If you do over pay it, they will refund it, so you won't lose it, if that's your main worry.
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Thanks for all your replies OA.
Yes, I am concerned that if I pay back in full via bank transfer they won't register this and will still go on to deduct it from my monthly payments! And then i will have to proove that i paid them. Their incompetence knows no bounds! And their messages and letters are never straightforward or clear especially to those of us who struggle with cognitive issues.
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I suppose at least all this means that they are correcting their errors and hopefully everything will sort itself out by my next statement/payment in May?
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HHave now had a letter in my journal about an underpayment of UC, which now includes my housing and lcwra. I am so very very confused. Obviously they are trying to correct the error they made on my initial statement I received on Monday and the payment I received yesterday.
That doesn't explain the continuing ESA payments.
If this mess sends me over the 6000 limit temporarily will I be I trouble or need to report it? I really cannot be doing with reporting it and trying to explain their mess. I'm hoping it will just all sort itself out.
Aargh. Struggling to cope.
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You won't need to report it as it all counts as income rather than savings until the last day of the next assessment period. (So that's probably about 7 weeks away in this case.)
Hopefully it will all be sorted within a couple of weeks. Perhaps it is best not to repay the overpayments in full yet in this case.
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TThanks OA, I hope it all sorts itself out. They are now supposed to be deducting that initial payment off the revised statement, so I definitely won't be transferring any money to them online!
I hope they communicate with ESA now and cancel my ESA payments asap.
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Hi again OA,
Was your Housing Benefit overpayment stuff all done through your UC journal too? And was that deducted from your next month?
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Well, that's where it gets more complicated. The Housing Benefit overpayment was shown in a letter in the journal, but it wasn't automatic and I had to choose whether to pay it via bank transfer or to have it deducted slowly over many UC statements. There was no offer to deduct the full amount from the next statement in this case. I got two similar letters, so assumed I owed both payments. But then when I paid both, one of them got refunded back to me. So I must only have owed one of them, and the next was an updated amount. I tried asking in the journal but they said they couldn't discuss that online and I'd have to phone up. I can't use phones so just left it. I never heard anything more about it though so can only assume I ended up paying the right amount in the end.
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Ok. Thanks for responding. I will just have to wait and see what happens.
I'm not good with phones and trying to sort stuff like that out either so I completely understand. I'm sure they will let you know if there was any problem with it all, but it sounds like it is sorted out now.
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Quote @OverlyAnxious:
"You will eventually get a few letters from ESA, but they could take several weeks. Some of them don't make much sense and there's nothing you need to do with them, so again not something you need to worry about, though I know the stress of the DWP envelopes myself!"
Well, A slew of letters arrived today and I would just like to check if they are standard and the same as everyone else got. And whether I need to do anything etc.
- "Your Income - related ESA payments will end. You have made a claim for Universal Credit "
- Something from ESA about my tax being £0.00.
- P45 from ESA
- Letter from the Local Authority saying my housing benefit claim has been cancelled because of successful managed migration to UC.
I'm still finding this all very stressful and confusing. So any feedback is welcome. Thanks.
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All are normal. None need further action from yourself.
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Thanks Kimi
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I got this letter about one month ago. It's only now I feel i can look ito it without being over come. I have a very bad understanding of benefits , payments, money. I'm kind of mortified by what i can understand on this thread. If I use the 0800 number on the letter and ask for an extention will it affect my transfer to UC in any way other than getting more time? I'm on ESA (the one where you not expected to look for work and really don't want a n assessment for ability to work) PIP and Severe Disability payment/benefit. I don't want to end up getting more assessments for anything if I ask for an extension. Why did they need all that ID? Was it passport and driving licence and multiple others?
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Hi NoOne, I strongly suggest you contact Citizens Advice Help To Claim and ask them to assist you through every step of the process. You can talk to them by phone or by webchat. I have found them to be invaluable with my migration.
I think that extensions are only granted for an extra month if you have a good reason.
You will not be required to undergo any further assessments when migrating to UC (unless you are due one anyway). Your Support Group status should be automatically transferred with you.
A lot of us are baffled by why we need to prove our ID when the DWP have been dealing with us for some time already, and have ALL of our info already on their systems. You can prove your ID online, by telephone or face-to-face.
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Citizens Advice Help To Claim
You can contact an adviser through our free Help to Claim phone service. Advisers are available 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday:
England:
0800 144 8 444Scotland:
0800 023 2581Wales:
08000 241 2200 -
I found this resource really helpful to go through first. It is an example workthrough of the online UC application form so that you can see all the info you will need to give when you do actually register and start the process:
And this page should tell you about the documents you will need to verify your ID:
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I threw in the towel and phoned them. They said there's no difference in the claim if you get an extention but you can only ask within the last week of the date they gave to transfer by. I ended up crying today, but not sure I'll still be crying come two months time wrt 'good reason' and my anguish.
The guy I talked to made me think doing the Form on the Phone with them was the best way. You say Citizens Advice would be better. What's the reason? Do the Govt people try to trick you at all? It's just he said I can do the phone application in parts (because I'll not know the answers to questions) where as I guess CAB will expect to complete it in one go? Also he said they'd go thru security for ID which was simple name, address stuff. I don't have much ID. (I don't want to use the www because I get timed out and in the past on there have had to start at the beginning regardless of entering an email address to continue where I left off).
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I think I'll do the phone application because it seemed to avoid all that technical ID upload stuff which I saw you had a problem with. Why did you chose www over phone? I think I'll need to ask a lot of basic questions and ask questions about the answers. Plus I make typos a lot!
But not today. Need to ration this exposure!
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Online was much better for me than doing it by phone- due my cognitive problems and anxiety. Also, much better for me to have online access to the UC journal, which you won't have if you make your migration claim by phone.
It is entirely a personal choice whether you make your application by phone or online. It is also up to you whether you use Citizens Advice or not - they can do a three way phone call with you to make a telephone claim if you don't want to do it online.
Edit: I strongly suggest you have a look at the online workthrough example that I linked to in a previous post, so that you can see all the info you need to gather beforehand eg. about your health conditions, housing, savings, income…
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