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Claimed Income related ESA using form ES3. Reply letter says must claim Universal credit. Why?
Lilegg
Member Posts: 39 Connected
My welfare rights advisors have told me under no circumstances to apply for universal credit and that the DWP AND my local council offices will tell me I must claim it and can't claim Employment and Support Allowance. I had felt some reassurance and had been spreading the word to others about this outrageous situation. Very stressed as have today received letter from Job Centre Plus post handling site B saying in second paragraph and onwards;
The area you live in is a Universal Credit Full Service area. This means that you can not claim Employment and Support Allowance and must make a claim for Universal Credit.
Universal Credit is a monthly payment for people who are on low income or are out of work. It's being rolled out in stages across the UK and is replacing other benefits. How much you'll get depends on your circumstances, including your income and how many children you have.
The area you live in is a Universal Credit Full Service area. This means that you can not claim Employment and Support Allowance and must make a claim for Universal Credit.
Universal Credit is a monthly payment for people who are on low income or are out of work. It's being rolled out in stages across the UK and is replacing other benefits. How much you'll get depends on your circumstances, including your income and how many children you have.
You now need to make a claim for Universal Credit.
If you have any questions ( telephone numbers and times).'
This letter ignores the fact that I am already on ESA and am claiming for the higher rate because my income has changed, due to breakup of relationship so that I now live alone. I can speak to welfare rights people locally - they are good and helped me fill in my form but over the weekend I am feeling bad so is there anything I can do? Can anyone advise?
I am recovering from cancer and have CPTSD.
This letter ignores the fact that I am already on ESA and am claiming for the higher rate because my income has changed, due to breakup of relationship so that I now live alone. I can speak to welfare rights people locally - they are good and helped me fill in my form but over the weekend I am feeling bad so is there anything I can do? Can anyone advise?
I am recovering from cancer and have CPTSD.
Replies
This is an official government letter. This sort of letter makes claimants vulnerable and in my view is a way to deflect us from benefits we are entitled to.
There is no way back onto ESA once one has been taken off, even if one can prove it was caused by incorrect advice from the benefits agency.
All of us need to protect ourselves against this and work together to change it. Any ideas what to do next Poppy or Cockney?
An extra £80.70 would be great.
I will definitely keep you all up to speed. I feel this is a very good forum.
Once again I have been warned so many times not to fall for this and have been told that I'm fully entitled by law, to claim as I currently am doing, employment and support allowance. I have had a payment of this, albeit at the lower rate that I am currently on into my bank account this week. Because my partner has left I should be entitled to more ESA and I've applied using form ES3 but this letter of reply from job centre plus says I cannot claim Income related and puts pressure on me to apply for a benefit which would give me much less support, the notorious Universal Credit. I don't want to claim SDP, just income related ESA ( IR ESA). Maybe I will need to claim SDP too later on but for now just IR ESA is what I seek.
Universal credit cannot be left once you are on it so I feel like a cat on hot tin roof here. Thanks everyone. We'll get to the bottom of this. I hope that we can get as many people as we can their proper entitlement.
Yes my Mp will be very keen to take this up. She's a good sort.
It is the weekend and the sun is out here and maybe is shining where you are so this is just an update to let you know my latest thoughts. There's no pressure from me to reply to this part unless you want to and if so, you're welcome to reply tomorrow.
Ok I will send sun to you - happy to share it!
I have sent all my info off now to BUCFP and my Mp. - apart from a copy of my form and I need to get help to do that.
In November 2018 I have parted with my partner and so I need to claim a top up of my ESA which is contributions based. I was advised I now needed Income related so applied by sending a completed form ESA3 on 18th Dec 2018.
I followed up with a call in late January this year because I had expected a quicker response and needed my money. This, together with my MP writing to them speeded things up so that I received a form to fill in and I sent it off promptly on 6th Feb this year. The issue was that I had not filled it in properly - a lot of answers were missing. I had filled it in with telephone help and have learned the hard way that this doesn't work for me when I am getting activated with symptoms.
So, as soon as the form came back I sent it away and the letter quoted from at the head of this thread has been the result.
Any thoughts? I am inclined to get in touch with a W Rights person and also call my Mp before calling the ESA people. It will feel good to have you and them ready in the background if things get awkward. I feel they should not and can't transfer me to UC.
When does natural migration occur?
Migration to UC is complete in any case where a claimant makes a new ‘claim’ for UC.1 (‘Claim’ is not defined, and arguably someone who withdraws the claim before it is decided, or whose claim is defective, has not made a claim, but this point is yet to be tested.) A claimant who makes a new claim for jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) or ESA may well feel obliged to claim UC, having found that her/ his income-related ESA has been abolished – see below.
But other scenarios are possible. For example, a claimant who relocates to a UC full service area is unable to make a new housing benefit claim and is likely to feel obliged to claim UC instead. An ESA claimant in a full service area who has a first child will not be able to make a new claim for tax credits, and again may well claim UC instead. In both cases the result is that all legacy benefits, including income-related ESA, are abolished. But a claimant getting old-style contributory ESA can still top this up with income-related ESA, rather than UC: the addition of income-related ESA would be by way of a supersession rather than a new claim for ESA.
I am trying to move home to somewhere with much better environment ( less mouldy and noisy) and with lower upkeep, possibly not too far from where I now live. I hope being on UC, if I do get put onto it, would not effect that process adversely. There is some protection of money from selling one's home under ESA but things may be less reliable under UC. Does anyone know? Asking this question to help me to stop worrying and put me on the right track with any research I need to do. also to help me assess how hard I need to fight as energy must be directed to being well not battles wherever possible. Oh yes, I will need to start a new question for this matter but if helps me to write it first here so I beg indulgence.
Get my supersession advice first.