Moving to different county JCP area on Income Support

leetrent

A question that I'm hoping somebody can shed some light on. For somebody who is still on income support (for reasons of Incapacity) or Incapacity benefit wanting to move to a different county or another part of the country, will this moving house be a change of circumstances or constitute as a new claim? The moving house would involve moving to a different Jobcentre plus authority, but if it was merely a change of house and no other circumstances had changed, would it be possible to transfer the income support or Incapacity benefit to the new area? Or would it be the case that the new 'authority would have to treat it as a new claim.

Also, therefore, would that new claim have to be under ESA as no new claims for income support (on grounds of incapacity) and incapacity benefit can now be made any longer? If that is the case, then all existing Incapacity Benefit and Income Support claimants (on grounds of Incapacity) cannot move to a different county or area of the country without facing the hassle and inconvenience of the new claim process of ESA? I would also assume that there would be a period of say 6 weeks with no money while having to wait for a new claim to be processed? Anybody with any firm knowledge on this or any comments or opinions?

tcr_3

A simple change of address is an alteration to an existing claim, not a new claim.

Benefit Delivery Centres (BDC) can cover quite a large geographic area. If you move and are still within the same BDC area, it's just a case of phoning up to report your new address, they'll send some simple forms out which you return to the same office.

If you're moving out of their area altogether, they'll send you out a review form (which asks for more information) & you'll have to send that on to your new BDC. Once your new office gets those forms, they'll transfer your records in from the old office, change the address, notify the council & that's about it.

A change of address in itself won't affect the date your claim will be migrated over to ESA. You'll still get IS/IB meantime.

leetrent

That is what I would have hopefully anticipated, but I'm sure I've seen in forums elsewhere of other individuals who have relocated in areas with a different BDC being told that the new BDC has to treat it as a new claim. Thus, old IS and IB claimants are being forced on to claiming for the new tougher and harsher ESA. Has anybody on here experienced moving from a different BDC area to another and been faced with having to make a new claim for ESA from IS IB instead of it being treated as simply a change of address/same claim to be continued?

stazi

As tcr says, a change of address (CoA) is just that. It doesn't alter an IB claim, and only affects an IS claim if the address change means someone else moves in/out of your household.

NASA_2

A new claim should only need to be made if the claimant moves to northern Ireland. From Monday onwards all new claims will be treated as ESA claims even if the claim is backdated to a date before this.