Universal credit migration
Hi, I’m looking for some advice please. I received a DWP migration letter on 9 April, i went online that same day and started the migration process. I was till that point in receipt of ESA both income and contribution based and am also in the support group. I also receive high rate mobility and standard rate daily living component. 2 weeks later i received my full ESA as normal, however last week i received a payment which was around half of the usual amount, i called ESA as i didn’t expect any more future payments and was advised that i had been paid contribution based payments as i was moving to UC and that they would make up the difference. They also said i would receive the contribution payments from them every 2 wks. Seems odd - why migrate to UC? Anyways, i received a statement on my online journal saying there would be no payment this month and i also noticed i was awarded the standard allowance only, no transitional protection nor any mention of LCWRA. I called UC, the agent was quite hostile and unhelpful, however there was a message in my journal advising they were (still) waiting for information from ESA and had “chased this up”, this was Monday and a still no further updates. What do i do now, i have DD commitments due soon and no money to pay them with. My social housing landlord has contacted me 3 times now as my rent is overdue. Any help: advice would be appreciated.
Comments
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Please see this thread for an explanation with regards to your ESA. Only Income Related is migrated to UC.
Current figures are £281.10 paid a fortnight and £609.05 for the UC deduction (this is due to NS ESA being a weekly benefit and UC a monthly one).
All you can do is chase the problems with your first payment statement:
Missing Transitional Protection
Missing LCWRA element
Is your Housing Element also missing as you mentioned LL waiting for rent?
Your Landlord can confirm when they provided housing details to UC which will tell you if the delay is down to UC or not.
Once everything has been done, a letter will be added to your Journal stating the amount owed due to underpayment. Payment will then be sent to your account within a few working days.
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Hi Craig and thank you for your response. Still no update from UC re: missing lcwra and transitional projection payment. I have now sent 4 messages and i have had 3 response all saying the same thing - they’re waiting on information from ESA and they will update me accordingly. They have paid my landlord directly however they’ve only paid 1 week. I’m at my wits end with them, i really don’t get why it’s taking so long to get info from ESA - they’ve had over 5 weeks to get the relevant info
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Hi Evie,
Currently experiencing the same thing. They put me on a standard allowance and have not included my LCW, or TP, and have actually have deducted money from wages from my permitted work job despite this being under the work allowance limit so I am receiving £0 on the 22nd. I also now owe the housing 5 weeks worth of rent.
Luckily I set aside money to pay bills during the transitional perioid but now I have no income for the foreseeable. They've told me they have raised this as urgent but there is a backlog. How am I supposed to pay bills? Set up a payment plan with my housing? My wages from this month are all gone on my gas and electric.
It's beyond a joke :(
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Hi Bubsxo, i sent another message this morning only to get the same response yet again - “we’re still waiting on ESA getting back to us, we will update you”. How in the hell can they get away with this? Thankfully I’ve a little bit of money set aside for emergencies but it won’t last indefinitely! I’ve never once been in the red with my rent and now i have them chasing me for payment. I contacted CAB who phoned UC on my behalf on Wednesday and told them their calculations were wrong and asked how long it would take to get this ESA info…. they couldn’t answer. They won’t give me advance payment as my statement has been generated even though it was nil. What are people supposed to do in this situation… UC isn’t fit for purpose. I’m quite literally begging for money - money that the law says I’m entitled to yet cannot access because the system is overstretched.
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You can make a complaint about UC, I'd also recommend contacting your MP they should be made aware of these migration system problems and the impact they have on people.
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I've just switched from ESA support group to UC just checked my journal which says my 1st assessment period I'm only being paid standard rate of £400 a month. Contacted work coach and told they are waiting for Team to transfer my ESA details over to UC and don't know how long that will take . It will be five weeks this week. How long do they need. I'm living of fresh air. Should get support element payments.
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Have either of you contacted ESA? UC are blaming them yet when I spoke to ESA today they said they sent everything over. Makes me think it's actually a backlog with UC....
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I would consider contacting your local MP. It is really unfair that the government decided to speed up the rate of people moving to UC from Income Related ESA without putting processes and staff in place to make sure that individuals aren't left with very little money to live on.
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Yes, i spoke to ESA on Monday and they said they didn’t understand what info they needed that UC couldn’t find on their system. Lady from CAB said she spoke to another client 2 days prior with exact same issues who coincidentally happened to be from my area. Seems the left hand is blaming the right hand.
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Personally, I wouldn't trust ESA if they told me it was raining outside and I could see it through the window.
My own experience with them has been an exercise in complete incompetence. When I worked, I managed teams of over 50 people doing administrative roles, so I understand (and have designed multiple, and complex) administrative systems. I also understand how important it is to review the performance of both systems and staff.
None of this, absolutely none of this, appears to matter at ESA. You call them, at best you are met with indifference. At worst, you are met with rudeness/hostility. You write to them advising them of changes. They fail to implement those changes, overpay you, you tell them repeatedly they are overpaying you. THEN they send you snottily worded letters implicating they have "discovered" the change and demand you repay them the overpayment that would never have happened if they'd done their own freaking job in the first place!! (FTR, I have zero issue making the repayment, my issue is it would NOT have occurred in the first place if they were even half-way to competent!)
I won't even go into the issues around having been told they'd passed the "debt" to Debt Management who consistently confirmed they had not received it. Nor, the non-responses to the formal complaint I made (not about repaying the overpayment) but the clusterf*ck of ineptitude that is the ESA from bottom to top.
Rant over ….. that felt good!! 😂
The only positive from my own experience, is now that I'm helping someone to migrate from ESA to UC, I fully anticipated (and have encountered) multiple f*ck-ups through the process, currently sitting 80% (ESA), and 20% (UC).
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Hi @Eviesmum23 and @Nemisis6 just wondering if either of you had an update? I finally got my correct statement issued confirming they missed off LWCRA + TP and also incorrectly deducted money for my wages as i DO have a work allowance. My local MP replied to the email I sent advising me he'd contacted them on my behalf and was waiting for an update. I checked my journal within 5 minutes of his email and it was all sorted so wondering if it was him contacting them that made them pull their finger out!
I really do believe the backlogs are with UC and not ESA as they're advising us. ESA told me they'd sent the relevant information over in March which was when I was due to migrate over originally. I had an extension due to surgery and migrated in April. I think UC find it easier to pass the blame than admitting it takes them longer than the timelines advised!
Hope you both got it sorted x
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Has anyone else received this message after migrating to UC?….. “Any changes of circumstances must be reported to both Universal Credit, via your account, and to ESA by calling 0800 169 0310”. Got this message out of the blue and also without getting a text message to check in my journal
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Yes, this is just a standard reminder to anyone who gets both UC & NS ESA that they need to report changes to both instead of just one or the other.
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