Help, dwp letter got me so scared.

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BrokenSteve
BrokenSteve Online Community Member Posts: 7 Listener
in Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

Hello, I got a letter today saying I have to migrate to uc by october.

I am in the esa support group and I'm not sure I can cope with this, I've heard so many scare stories about uc and migrating over.

Please if you migrated from the support group to uc without any problems please tell me and I might be able to calm down. as it is right now, I've been shaking all day and not sure I can go through with this. So I'm really hoping to hear people say it went ok for them.

Comments

  • AndrewHall
    AndrewHall Online Community Member Posts: 318 Empowering

    Please don't be scared, I am sure someone here will reassure you.

  • Kimi87
    Kimi87 Online Community Member Posts: 6,230 Championing

    Citizens Advice offer a Help to Claim service, they can support you before during and after your claim.

    https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/claiming/contact-us-about-universal-credit/

  • Hopeless
    Hopeless Online Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 910 Empowering

    I’ve recently migrated from the support group of ESA to UC successfully. I was terrified but I’ve found the people I’ve had contact with have been lovely - much different to my experience of claiming other benefits. I like having a journal to write any questions in rather than having to use the phone.

    My tip is to use your journal as soon as you have access to it (as soon as you press submit). I wrote that I was anxious and although I’d try my best to do everything required of me that I might need extra support at times. I told them I was migrating from the ESA support group and asked for alternative payment arrangements (rent directly to landlord and I’m paid twice a month). I also requested a biographical phone call to verify my identity as I couldn’t do this online and they were fine with all this.

  • Mary_Scope
    Mary_Scope Posts: 2,122 Scope Online Community Children and Family Specialists

    Hi @BrokenSteve

    It is stressful it is to get that migration letter especially with all the scary stories out there so it's understandable why you're feeling so scared. But please try not to panic, lots of people in the ESA Support Group have moved over to Universal Credit without problems😊 and hopefully more people on the community will share their experience with you to ease your mind just like Hopeless has done above😊

  • MyHappy256
    MyHappy256 Online Community Member Posts: 93 Empowering

    I also got the migrate to UC by October letter, to me although it is stressful it is also a relief, because it is something that I have known that is coming and that I need to wait to get the letter, before migrating, so as to ensure transitional protection, at least now you have the letter and migrating now should ensure you get transitional protection, provided everything goes well :)

    I was just pleased I had sufficient identify documents to prove my identity for them, so I did not have to go in for an appointment, one of my conditions is chronic fatigue and I really struggle to get out, my medications make me a bit confused too, so speaking to them would be really difficult, but such a relief to have put the new claim in.

    I found the online chat from CAB was quite helpful and then as people said the online new claim though intimidating is actually quite easy to do, ish, just work through the to-do-list on the online claim form, if you have any queries or don't understand something you can post things in your journal for them to read and they respond to it and it leaves a physical record as proof that you asked something.

    For me the biggest struggle was still having to phone them to check that they were moving me from ESA to UC, because you actually have to phone your old ESA dept to get them to make a note that you have put in a new claim for UC, still have not received confirmation that they have done it, but flagged this in my journal and phoned them they said to wait a couple of days, so here's hoping one part of the DWP speak to the other part of the DWP and there are no issues…

    They were really nice on the phone when I eventually got through, the UC number people actually answered quite quickly, it only took about 45 minutes on hold each time, so I was quite lucky.

    Worth adding your UC letter migration reference into a journal entry so you can link your new claim to your migration letter.

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