UC managed migration guide

@mason50 @Catherine21 @Andi66

Hi, hope you’re all well. I tagged you guys as you were last online asking about UC migration, apologies if I missed anybody.

This is my experience of a telephone claim. Do I like talking to anybody on phone? - no: Do I like going in to prove ID (etc, etc) - no, but I knew the telephone claim would be better for me the longer term, in spite of how it would distress/ unhinge me in the shorter term🤣 We’ve been hearing about this coming for years, so at least it’s over when you get your claim transferred.

It’s 💩 the way it’s set up, and the toll it takes, but if we want to get uc we unfortunately need to jump through their hoops. I think I saw Catherine saying, maybe it was on a different thread, we all need to find ways of keeping ourselves sane at times like this, so I guess I’d say choose how you’re going to apply, get advice from CAB, Scope, whomever, about what that way of applying entails, then that’s one part that you’ve got a bit of control over. Try not to go over and over it in your mind (did I manage that - no🤷‍♂️).

** CAB website says their info is for England, and you need to check in case it’s different if you’re Northern Ireland, Scotland, or Wales **

So - I spoke to CAB and they asked me what dates I usually got paid my benefits. Reason for that is you get one more ESA and HB after you start your claim, and I was told they give you the date you’ll get your first uc payment when you’re making the claim - and uc did do this on the phone.

When I decided on the date I wanted to claim I phoned the CAB helpline and they went through with me on the phone to do a telephone claim.
This means with my claim going forward, contact from uc should be by letter or phone call/ text. I’m SG being transferred to LCWRA, so I shouldn’t need a fit note or fitness for work interview at this time. Who knows if they’ll decide to make changes to that in future?

Anyway, some people will be able to manage their claim better by themselves online, so might be better doing that, everybody knows themselves. This way I won’t have an online journal to fill in (unless anything changes). I do have to respond to letters and texts, or if they tell me they’re phoning me I need to answer. Again, do I like answering the phone, no…

If you’re applying by telephone I was told to have a note of:

bank acct details (sort code and acct number) and balance in bank.

NI number

List of every benefit, eg IR ESA, support group; HB…

They ask you for security questions and suggest some you could choose from (eg where you were born, first school, pet name, whatever). Write these down, as I immediately needed the answers when the call dropped and we had to call back.

The call kept dropping when talking to uc, so it involved multiple calls to them, with different operators, and took hours. I know some people say they couldn’t possibly speak to anybody on the phone, so be aware that it can be very distressing. If the call hadn’t dropped it wouldn’t have been half as bad.l, and would’ve been over pretty quick, I think.

At the end of the day, CAB told me - as soon as you start your uc claim your esa/ hb / tax credits/ stop, so although I was feeling triggered/unwell, etc, I knew I had to keep going till it was done.

The questions they asked seemed a bit like the ones on the benefits calculators - ie does anybody live with you, have you got savings or pensions or investments, are you disabled, do you work, etc.

What I mean is there was nothing where you’re being asked to justify your illness or existence, only factual things.

The question about disability was for the LCWRA etc element. I tried to ask the guy who was taking my claim a question about transitional protection and he hadn’t a clue what I was talking about. He also couldn’t tell me how much I’ll get.

The CAB woman who was on the call with me said at the end, when the uc guy had hung up, that the people working in that job are only asking questions off a script, no point in asking them anything, as they literally only know what’s on their screen at the time they’re asking each thing.

I got a text after the call telling me to call, it was to arrange to take ID to verify. I don’t have photo ID, so I took a benefits letter, a utility bill and bank card. If you need somebody to go with you, tell them and they give you time to arrange that, then call you back to make appt.

I need to wait for further contact - which will be text if they need anything else. I just remembered - a copy of your lease/rent, they wanted to see that.

Hope that helps somebody

@Catherine21

That’s good if they contact the housing association, I’m private rent through an agency. I was asked for agency details and they wanted to know how much I pay in rent, but my agency literally only cares re every penny in the bank the second it’s due. I guess a housing association would be more helpful, and maybe need to be more understanding than a rental agency if a claim got held up and your rent came through a bit late?

This has just reminded me that I know a guy who told me that there’s an officer employed by his housing association to help with benefits claims. He said his claim was easy because she was there and more or less did it all for him. I know all agencies are different, but maybe yours would have somebody who could help you?

What I did after I got the letter was called my local CAB, who talked through the details, eg about transitional protection, LCWRA, and then I spent time thinking about when to make the claim. They would’ve gone through on a call with me at that time, but I foolishly decided I’d worry about it for a few weeks🤣 Paying the price now after lying awake for weeks going “what if…” all night long, every night, in my mind.

If I had to do it again I would’ve acted as soon I’d spoken to CAB - I mean right there and then, and avoided all the worrying that waiting added.

Did you decide re telephone claim or filling it online? CAB told me after the claim call was finished that they could assist me afterwards if there’s any problems. I’d imagine that a housing association officer could help too.