Managed Migration from irESA (SG) to UC - Must agree New Style ESA commitment?

Thank you very much for your response. It is most appreciated.

Hello everyone,

I've also just diescoverer I was getting both income based and contribution based ESA.

I called the Citizen’s advice line as had not yet received my. UC Payment. He explained I found just put everything on to UC but I couldn't afford to lose £300 in the meantime while the system caught up with itself.

First UC payment last week and have just missed a call re my new agreement.

Just wondering if anyone has actually had their new style ESA appointment call. I hate these phone calls and was in floods last week just speaking to the CA man (who was lovely) so anything anyone can tell me before hand would be much appreciated.

Thank you

Thanks so much David and apologies for delay in responding, I thought I’d sent this already.

I have my call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon and feel less anxious as a result of your kind response. Will post an update here once it’s all over and done with.

Thanks again,

D

Hi David,

Thanks again for your help.

I can’t tell you how much this site has helped with the whole process. I originally got my notification re my migration from ESA to UC back in February and found the whole idea of it all incredibly overwhelming.

The guide provided on this site and especially the walk through of the various screens created and updated by Citizens Advice Caerphilly Blaenau Gwent was so helpful.

Everything went smoothly. I realised I would be without money for a couple of weeks and had the option to get a £400 loan payable over a choice of months (I opted for 24 so £16.67 will be deducted each month) . The loan was approved right away and paid into my account within a few days.

Immediately after submitting my UC claim, I contacted the Citizen Advice’s Help to Claim service mentioned in the ESA to UC migration guide as wanted to get an idea of what I would be receiving. They asked what type of ESA I’d been getting and calculated it all for me. They were brilliant and are able to support you all the way through until you receive your first payment.

I had to contact them again once my confirmation of what I’d be getting came through from UC a few days before my first payment as it told me I would get the amount Citizens Advice had told me BUT that there would be a sizeable deduction as I was also claiming ESA. That made no sense to me at all but they were able to confirm I must have been receiving both types of ESA, which it turns out I was - I had no idea.

The chap I spoke to said I could let ESA know I didn’t want to claim ESA anymore and just get the full payment on UC. I may well have opted to do that but because of the lag, it would have meant I’d have to lose around £700 while everything caught up with itself and I just couldn’t afford to do that so I stuck with it.

Then came the letter about moving to the new style ESA and that I’d have to have a telephone appointment. That filled me with dread, I get so anxious about calls but I really need not have worried.

I have just had my telephone appointment re my migration across to the new style ESA following my migration to UC this afternoon and it went pretty much the same way as the one you quoted from
another lady in your message to me.

She went though some security questions, then went through the agreement she needed me to agree and let me know she’d be sending me a confirmation letter out in the post today.

She really couldn’t have been nicer and our call lasted 10 mins but that was only because I had a question.

I was receiving an SMI Loan to help towards the interest on my mortgage - I received a letter telling me since my ESA had ended last month, this had now stopped. But then, I got a payment this month so wasn’t sure. The letter also told me I could claim the loan if I was UC so that really confused me? Surely they knew?

I was more confused when I received a message in my UC journal alerting me to a rate change on my SMI Loan.

The lady I spoke to today said it was a bit of a weird system and whilst she thought the SMI had most likely been added to my UC, she suggested sending a query through my UC journal and she said someone would be able to double check for me and that if it wasn’t on there, they should be able to add it.

So all in all, I really needn’t have worried about any of it as much as I had. Everyone has been really lovely.

Thanks again for all your help - hope this post will help anyone else going through this at the moment.