ESA and Migration to UC

Jim wrote: Hi! With the recent win in the High Court, I was wondering how this would affect me as I currently receive ESA, SDP and EDP and want to move to be closer to my family, which is a live UC area. After the recent ruling and announcement by Esther McVey that no-one will be moved onto UC without transitional protection does that mean I will continue to get my ESA when I move?

Moving would only be an issue if you have to make a new claim for one of the benefits that comes under UC, Housing Benefit for example.


At this ttime, whilst the changes have been announced in the House of Commons the guidance to DWP staff has not been updated and it will also require changes to the UC legislation , so the original "rules" still apply.

Gordon

Jim wrote: Thanks for the information Gordon. Would the new leglisllation be applied retrospectively so I could get the money back in the end?

The Minister said it would but there is no indication of how this will be done and when.

Gordon

Jim

If you are in a UC Full Service area and need to claim Housing Benefit then this can only be done by making a claim for UC, you can do this online, you should be able to indicate as part of the claim process that you currently have an ESA award. It will take a couple of weeks before your UC claim is updated with your current award as the process is a manual one.

There are no updates re the Premiums, the Government carried out a consultation on the changes they need to make, my best estimate is that these will not be implemented for at least a couple of months, these changes should include back payment of the Premiums but it is still unclear what will be paid and how.

Gordon