Impact of Change of Address to outside London on ESA contributory.

Apologies if covered elsewhere but I couldn’t find it and with all these changes flying around already plus the new tax year stuff I’m struggling to find any solid info on this to bring any degree of clarity on how best to manage an upcoming move / change of address.

I have been at my current address for over 15 years and in receipt of ESA contributory / support group (old style) or whatever came b4 it the entire time I’ve been here. I also receive LHA full shared housing rate (HB as was) separately from my local London borough.

As I am moving in with my elderly mother a good bit outside of London very soon, I will be informing my local borough that I no longer require LHA from them as of a specific date, by email or however they receive comms these days.

My main concern with all of this is in maintaining the full amount of my ESA contributory award as it includes not only the support group addition of money, but also something called “Disability income guarantee”, which I think was some form of transitional protection when IB migrated to ESA.

As well as of course keeping the transitional protection it currently brings down the line, should managed-migration to UC ever reach this particular corner of ESA.

So (finally!) my question is this:

If I contact the DWP / ESA team that have dealt with my claim for all these years to inform them I am moving to a different part of the country, can they do the CoA for me and ensure absolute continuity of claim?

Or specifically in terms of continuity of claim, is it a better idea to go direct to the DWP office / Dept that cover my new address (if this is even still possible to do via email or phone call) and report the same change to them?

Or (and most importantly) will either / both of these options trigger the necessity of a brand new claim to benefit, be that “New style (but still contributory) ESA” or some form of UC?

And if so, would I then lose the transitional protection that my current situation would give me right now, so that when / if managed migration reaches this type of benefit I am no longer entitled to it?

The final part to my query is whether or not anything related to the queries I’ve raised above changes as of the start of the new tax year on 5/4/25? I include this as I have a degree of flexibility with the actual date of move so I could go either side of this date if it has any impact at all.

Many many thanks.