UC or Joint irESA

weavedribbon

People on this board are so knowledgable so thought I'd pick your brains on an issue my friend is having.

She is on irESA, PIP, HB and CTR. Her partner is moving in with her next week. He is also disabled and receives exactly the same set of benefits. They both receive disability premiums on their individual ESA.

They are being told by jobcentre plus that they have to end both irESA claims and apply for universal credit. However, I thought she should be able to add him onto her existing irESA claim thus avoiding UC for now. Obviously he would end his individual benefit claims except for PIP.

Is this possible or will it have to be UC?

sportsarb

As there is no requirement for a fresh claim and it’s a CoC I believe it would just continue as a couple claim for whoever nominates to claim for the other.

Robbie64

As above, it's a straightforward change of circumstances. As suggested in the first post the partner will need to give up his own irESA claim but will just be added to his partner's claim (this is necessary to protect her HB claim). Unfortunately not all JobCentre+ staff are aware of this and seem to believe that any change of circumstances triggers a UC claim.

Alice_Holt

Robbie64 wrote: »

Unfortunately not all JobCentre+ staff are aware of this and seem to believe that any change of circumstances triggers a UC claim.

Indeed.
This seems quite common.

For anyone told this, it's a good idea to ask the JC staff to tell you what legislation determines that a UC claim must be made in their circumstances. Get them to give you the legal reference / act of parliament.

Also if the DWP "advice" to make a UC claim is incorrect, then just don't make that UC claim. Existing benefits only stop when a UC claim is submitted.
By not making a UC claim existing legacy benefits will continue to be paid.

If a UC claim is made, then (generally) it's not possible for the claimant to go back to legacy benefits. Even if the claimant is much worse off, and the DWP "advice" was incorrect.

weavedribbon

Thank you so much for your replies, they confirm what I thought but then when her social worker (not a benefits specialist, mh social worker) and jobcentre were saying it would be UC I started doubting myself. I do some voluntary work at an advice centre so know a bit about these things but wanted confirmation from others!

Alice your post about what to do is extremely helpful too. I'll be assisting her phoning them next week. If the staff say on the phone to claim UC, should I ask to speak to/get called back by someone senior? I keep telling her and reiterating that she must not make the UC claim as then she can't go back but she has mild learning difficulties and I think if someone else was telling her to do the UC application then she'd do it and end up losing significant amounts of money . Hopefully I can help her with it and she can stay on irESA until managed migration occurs.

weavedribbon

UPDATE

We phoned last week and this time there was no mention of UC when I said she wished to add her husband to her claim. They sent out the change of circumstances form and fortunately the couple have a new social worker who's helped them with it. I won't be content until it's all been changed over officially though as I just always worry when things are in the hands of the DWP. I was also surprised last week when a benefits advisor I met on a training day thought they would have to claim UC as "it's a big change of circumstances". There seems to be so much confusion about what circumstances trigger a claimant to have to switch to UC during this transitionary phase. Am I right in thinking that broadly speaking for those living in a full UC area, UC is triggered when the change in circumstances would have led to a claim for a new benefit under the legacy system? A legacy benefit that has now been replaced by UC obviously.