UC/ESA/LCWRA award - please help!

Hi I'm having a lot of trouble working things out and there's a lot of confusion from the Universal Credit department so I'd be grateful for some guidance so I can go back to them with facts if they have made mistakes. I hope someone can make sense as I'm new to all this and I may not be explaining my concerns very well.

I have chronic health and mobility issues after months of illness last year so submitted my 1st fit note on 24th October 2024 and have claimed ESA and UC since that date. I receive a housing element from UC and a standard allowance of £90.50 for ESA so on my UC statement they deduct the standard allowance because it's getting paid via ESA which I understand. I submitted a UC50, had an assessment and a letter on 13th January from UC saying I've been placed in the LCWRA group and payments will start 3 months after I submitted my 1st fit note. So even though 3 months would be 24th January I didn't expect something until my next UC payment 15th February. (My assessment period is 9th to the 8th of each month). I was able to access my statement on 11th and as it wasn't showing entitlement to any LCWRA element yet I queried this and the case manager said she didn't know why I thought I'd start getting extra money in January and that payments will start in March (I didn't I just thought the award period would start in January and payments would increase February). Am I right to think I should have received some element of LCWRA in February's payment or is she right saying it's March? As my next payment is 15th March that will be almost 5 months. I need to know the facts so I can raise my concerns correctly.

In the meantime my biggest concern is deductions that have been made in this month's UC payment. I think they've made an error and I've been underpaid. Basically the support rate for ESA started from 24th January (but paid on 30th January at a slightly lower rate, I'm assuming because of the assessment period). My first full ESA payment of £276.40 was paid yesterday 13th February. From November up until 16th January I was receiving the standard rate of £90.50 per week (£181 twice fortnightly). Meanwhile not only have I not received the LCWRA rate from UC, they have assumed I received around £598 per month ESA from 9th January to 8th February so deducted the full amount from my UC which dips into my housing allowance. I didn't think if I was put in the support group I'd be worse off. (I'm getting about £398 this month after deductions). I'm trying to get across the fact that I haven't received as much as they think and that as the support payment of ESA is around £47.70 per week I thought the LCWRA element of UC would make up the difference to total £416.90 of extra support per month (approx £49 per week extra if that makes sense).

UC are so difficult to communicate with that this is getting really stressful. You send messages which don't get a response unless you call the helpline but the operator just listens to my concerns and leaves a message for the case manager who seems to keep making errors since I started my claim in October. One month I was told I was owed money and the next told I was overpaid so they're deducting £56 for a few months so because of this overpayment which I'm querying I've had over £600 worth of deductions this month and I haven't been getting the support rate of ESA they think I have. It's my first time claiming UC and I don't know how to navigate this without outside help. I'm not going to have enough to live on it will probably just about cover rent.

Apologies this is rather longwinded and I hope it makes sense. I'd really appreciate any help working this out because it's just way over my head.

Thank you.

Elizabeth