I've already moved to Universal Credit but I've received a letter from ESA...
Comments
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You won't have to have another medical. If you've already had a payment then you must have agreed to Universal Credit commitments already.
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If you've already had a UC payment then you must already have accepted the UC (income based) commitments. The UC payments get blocked until you've done that.
You need to accept a second set of commitments for New Style ESA (contribution based), but it sounds like you've done those on the phone already?
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I received the same letter a while ago. Since the letter arrived, I've received two payments. ESA still haven't asked me to complete a claimant commitment.
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That's very interesting. I applied for NS ESA myself recently (should be a credits-only claim in my case) but haven't heard anything back at all. I guess it's possible they could have merged the ESA commitments into the UC commitments now, but that seems unlikely as they are two different benefits. Are you getting the correct UC payments with the ESA deducted? If so, it sounds like your commitments have been accepted one way or another.
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Hi.
I had to inform UC that I was on CB ESA and they amended the payment accordingly. Instead of receiving close to £800 of UC, I now receive just under £200, because my CB ESA (or New Style) amounts to just over £550 a month.
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That's good, you are getting the correct payments from both ESA & UC, so the commitments must have been accepted for both somehow.
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Hi,
Just to confirm, you won't get Contributions Based ESA any more. That's the old benefit. That has now been changed to New Style ESA when you migrated over.
The income based ESA has changed to LCWRA. So you are already getting that and must have already accepted the commitments.
If you look at your Universal Credit statement, does it show a deduction for ESA?
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Ok, if UC do want you to accept a new commitment, that will appear in the journal at some point.
You should also get a text or email notification to tell you there's a message available.
But if you want to make sure you don't miss it, you can log in to your journal once a day to check. You get 7 days to accept commitments online, so there is plenty of time.
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You will carry on getting both ESA and UC paid as normal.
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I believe there is much confusion over getting this New Style ESA and UC, plus I’m sure someone on here said there was no point looking on your UC journal about the commitment as it’s down to ESA? I did get a letter a week or two ago from ESA confirming I now get New Style ESA, which was already in payment. It also said I would get an appointment by phone or in person to do this & tell them how my disability/illness “affects my ability to work”(after years on ESA)!
But I got notification of this with 2 emails today, telling me to read the journal. That’s a waste as one just says you have to agree the commitment & the other is the date & time.This appears to me as slightly irritating & maybe worry people unnecessarily, but that’s classic DWP after all.
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Hello All, I’ve just had my phone call with UC, to “accept my commitments”, it was tedious but fairly ok. When the work coach went through my payment, she said the transitional payment (on migrating from ESA support group) would end after a year. But when I said I wasn’t aware of this, except that it won’t have the yearly uprating, she said she didn’t know anything else about this, so I should submit a journal entry?
Anybody know what this means please?
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The only Transitional Protection that ends after a year is when someone migrates from Tax Credits and has over £16k in capital.
Poorly trained staff.
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Hi all,
I am in this situation. Ie migrating from IR ESA in the support group. Obliged to claim UC as part of the migration process. Also now been put on new style ESA. Seems like a clumsy stupid process to me.
The only positive thing about UC that I can see is that you can work without being penalised. I currently do permitted work of 10 hours a week on ESA, or I was. I was looking forward to being able to do extra time, overtime periodically, without having to be scared to death of going over your limit. Thanks to this CB New style ESA, I’m stuck in that same rut, are there any options, can you go wholly on to UC. Or because I have worked on the past I’m penalised?
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Hi,
For reference, most of the claimants who now get both NS ESA & UC haven't worked in the past.
I have seen just one case where a claimant was asked whether they wanted NS ESA or a full UC claim when migrating, but haven't seen anyone cancel their NS ESA claim after migrating. So you could ask NS ESA to end that claim after migrating. Once NS ESA ends then you should go to full UC without any ESA deduction. Just be aware that you will lose the Class 1 NI credits if you stop NS ESA. UC only provides Class 3 credits.
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Hey thanks for the reply, very helpful.
The logic of the DWP never ceases to amaze.
If I did ask for the New style ESA to be stopped, I wonder if that would end my transitional protection?
Also, in the real world what difference does Ni class contribution make? I’ve worked for years, i’ve not paid NI for a few years when younger, I’ve been unemployed, I’ve claimed IB, I was on CB ESA for years, I’ve been on IR ESA for years, predicted state pension is the same as anyone else’s as far as I can see, although I could be wrong.
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My fear for those on NS-ESA and UC, is NS-ESA payment may come within the scope of these new proposals to make it a time-limited benefit.
It is already time-limited, unless the claimant is placed in the support group.
I'm extremely suspicious of their desperation to differentiate between NS-ESA and IR-ESA going forward.
Unless they offer transitional protection to current NS-ESA claimants within the support group, I've resigned myself to losing the NS-ESA (no UC) I currently receive.
I don't see them offering that concession without a fight, and I suspect MPs will be more interested in those who also claim UC than the small cohort who can't/don't.
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You're welcome. You won't lose Transitional Protection because the deductions are made after the elements have been totalled.
Honestly, I'm still trying to find out what the real world benefits of Class 1 NI credits are myself. They do allow you to claim things like NS ESA & NS JSA - but only if you've worked and paid NI in the past 2 years, which won't be most UC LCWRA claimants. As you say, the state pension appears to be the same.
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Fascinating answers by most people I must say. Unfortunately I don't understand most of them. I get the impression that NS ESA plus uc is time limited. Is that correct? I ask because when I enquired to the esa department they assured me (after getting muddled up herself) that new style would not stop after 12 months. Was she wrong? I'm quite confused. And also the terminology baffles me. If I'm to get 281.10 NS Esa what do the £600 and odd deductions? Deductions from what? And also what is a full UC. payment? much appreciated for any answers. a very confused socrates.
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Hi,
If you get both UC & NS ESA then neither of those are time limited. They will continue for the the foreseeable future.
You will get £281.10 per fortnight from ESA. If you multiply that by 26 to get a full years rate, then divide by 12 to get a monthly rate, you end up with £609. For this reason, £609 is deducted each month from Universal Credit, as you are getting exactly that amount paid through ESA instead.
There's no such thing as 'full UC' because different people get different parts of UC and at different rates, so your full UC could be different to someone elses full UC.
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I've got it wrong, then. I always understood NS-ESA is time-limited unless the claimant is placed in the Support Group (LCWRA).
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