any differences to LCW / LCWRA component awards between "managed" and "natural" migration from ESA?.

Hello @Orangutan.

While the amounts aren’t protected, the award (support group/WRAG) do transition to their equivalent on UC (LCWRA/LCW).

So if you are receiving support group ESA and move to UC you should be awarded LCWRA automatically and same with WRAG/LCW. 

I have to say that flower chart does make it seem like quite a difficult process @Orangutan. Orangutan said:

- would it be fair to say (speculatively), if you can budget for a potential "no monies for six weeks" then one may as well transistion naturally ?.

Unfortunately not, it depends on your personal situation and what you're currently claiming. While there are some groups of people who are much better off on UC and others who the amounts are equal (ignoring the COVID increase), there are some groups of people that are substantially worse off on UC. For them, waiting to be migrated under 'managed migration' is the better option.