Contribution ESA and UC

Thank you for your response Poppy!

UC were very forceful when I applied in 2022, every single person at the job centre was rude and just wanted to push me out the door. I was even called a ‘liar’ at one point. I braved calling the helpline this afternoon and the guy on the phone said I do NOT need a new WCA and that is should be passported over.

Ive just spent all afternoon filling in the claims for me and my partner. The savings aspect doesnt affect us as we dont have £16k. The work allowance I wont worry about too much as I know his earnings arent much (just a little over minimum wage), and its all sorted automatically anyway.

I wonder if you perhaps know, if I do manage to get a claim going with UC, will I then have WCA assessments separately (one under UC and one under ESA) or will it all be done under ESA? The system is so baffling to me and I am finding it such a minefield, especially when the job centre staff dont seem to be aware of their own policies regarding CBESA (not that im shocked in the slightest).

I am really concerned this may trigger my review for ESA (if they reassess and take it away, even under UC, we would be down £300 a month). I reach the 3 year mark in the support group in September this year so do I still have the right to say ‘no’ to UC doing a WCA assessment if they insist because im so close to an ‘end of award date’? Some of these questions I have may be coming across as completely dumb but after 3 hours of sorting and sifting through information, I am fully drained.

And do they have the right to close down my claim if I refuse to send in a fit note? Again, this was something I was told would happen by job centre staff in 2022.

My journal is showing ‘submit fit note’ but its also coming up that I dont have to look for jobs or complete work related activity under the ‘work plan’ tab. It also says theyve found a record of me claiming ESA, so that will be deducted from any payments (which is fine and we already knew that). But in the second breath, somewhere within the journal, it said I may have to prepare for a WCA!

Honestly I cant wait to crawl into bed tonight! Im a bit of a lurker on here, I pop on occasionally and always see you giving great advice so im pleased you could offer it to me. Thank you!

Ive literally just finished a PIP review (it took a whopping 328 days from forms arriving to a decision, yes, I counted!😂) and been reawarded enhanced daily living and standard mobility for another 6 years (first award was only 4 years). They managed to do it entirely paper based which completely flawed me given I didnt have much in the way of evidence. I worry I may not be so lucky with a WCA (even though my first one was literally a 15 minute phone call!!).

Going to give it a few more days, I dont want to get my hopes up that it may be a glitch. My partner still needs to go and prove his identity, I expect things will move more after that. But the fact the work plan tab says it was updated today by an agent to say not to look for work, I dont remember that being the case the last time. I will ponder a complaint (I do love a good rage letter writing session, especially in relation to disability benefits). We are sad that everyone received so much in cost of living payments that wouldve helped us massively, which we never received, purely because of my fear and anxiety.