No income for a month when migrating from ESA to UC

The application for UC was quite straightforward. I don't have a driving license or passport (because I'm too ill to drive or travel) so I couldn't do the identity checks online, but a nice woman phoned me and just asked me some questions to confirm my identity, so I didn't need to go anywhere or ask for a home visit for that. It says on my account that they'll tell me how much I'm going to get on 24 September and my first payment will be on 28 September.

When I applied for UC it said I won't need to be medically assessed again because I'm already in the ESA support group, but since then I've received three ESA letters, one dated 27 August which says my IR-ESA will end on 22 August and I will receive a final payment to cover the period 22 August to 4 September; one dated 28 August which says that from 5 September my CB ESA will be £140.55 (that's the right amount); and one dated 3 September which says that my CB ESA will change to New Style ESA on 5 September and they're going to book me an appointment with a work coach where they will ask me to explain how my illness or disability affects my ability to work.

So it seems like I won't be receiving any IR-ESA or UC for three weeks, between 5 September and 28 September and I'll have to persuade a work coach that I'm ill enough to qualify for New Style ESA to replace my CB ESA before they'll pay me that.

I've also had a letter from the Council about my rent, saying that the payments of Housing Benefit have already stopped. My weekly rent is £140.51 but I had some credit on the account, so my arrears as of 8 September were £68.16. The letter says that I need to phone the Council to confirm the date when I will receive my first UC payment, at which point I will need to pay a minimum of £634, that being my monthly rent of £608.88 plus £25.12 towards the arrears. That doesn't seem right, because on 29 September I will owe 3 x £140.51 (that includes payment for the w/c 29 September) + the arrears of £68.16, which is only £489.69.

How are we supposed to survive and pay our rent if migrating from ESA to UC results in us not getting any ESA or UC or Housing Benefit for three weeks?

Thanks Gary.

There doesn't seem to have been a two-week run on of my HB, as my IR ESA ended on Friday 22 August and I received full HB of £140.51 on Monday 25 August and a reduced payment of £80.29 on Monday 1 September.

I note that the UC portal doesn't actually say when my UC starts from. It just says they'll tell me how much I will get on 24 September and I'll receive the first payment on 28 September. I don't really want to borrow and get into debt. I also couldn't get all my prescriptions this month, because I'm not currently receiving IR ESA or UC, so I had to just pay for one of them and do without the rest.

I read this article which explains that for people on CB ESA (which I am) they are treated as receiving NSESA for a whole month during the migration period when they actually only receive it for two weeks, and that imaginary money is deducted from their UC, so they're worse off than people who were only on IR ESA askcpag.org.uk/content/211367/esa-uc-run...Njk3MTUkajYwJGwwJGgw