UC & P45 ESA confused

Marco84

I'm in the support group for ESA, I had to apply for UC to get housing benefit. The work coach said I'll stay on ESA as it pays more and the UC website says ESA is affecting UC payment, so all seemed normal while I have 1 more week wait for my decision ...
How ever today I got a P45 from ESA saying that's it's ended from 11th FEB? (I been paid ESA twice since) It's made me really confused what's going on.

My 2nd question: on my to do list today, it asked for mine and my estranged wife's (seperated last June) earnings if over £430 or whatever. I haven't worked due to disability. I have no contact with her so can't see pay slips, so I did an estimate based on her hours until June when she quit and put my earnings as £0.00 from July. Is that ok?

sportsarb

Guesswork disclaimer:

Based on you getting a P45 but continuing to get paid, it’s possible your claim has been transferred to clerical, this basically means it’s been wiped from the computer system and is being paid offline.

They would do this if you had been receiving income related ESA, then claimed UC, because you can’t get two income related benefits. Presumably you have an entitlement to contribution based ESA and this is what ESA are paying you.

That’s my best guess based on what you’ve said so far.

calcotti

sportsarb wrote: »

Guesswork disclaimer:

Based on you getting a P45 but continuing to get paid, it’s possible your claim has been transferred to clerical, this basically means it’s been wiped from the computer system and is being paid offline.

They would do this if you had been receiving income related ESA, then claimed UC, because you can’t get two income related benefits. Presumably you have an entitlement to contribution based ESA and this is what ESA are paying you.

That’s my best guess based on what you’ve said so far.

Do you get issued with a P45 for income based benefits which are not taxable? (Genuine question - I have no idea what the answer is.)

sportsarb

calcotti wrote: »

Do you get issued with a P45 for income based benefits which are not taxable? (Genuine question - I have no idea what the answer is.)

I think you get issued with a P45 any time a claim is closed on JSAPS which although it shouldn't be when a claim is TTC they often are.

There's a lot of guesswork in my thoughts but its based on a decent amount of dealing with systems and colleagues laziness.

Marco84

Yes I'm on income based ESA.
It's really confusing and got me worried. I wrote in journel about it but they seem to be taking 2 weeks to answer (if at all)

Also esa sent letter to old address even though UC has new one?

poppy12345

Marco84 wrote: »

Yes I'm on income based ESA.
It's really confusing and got me worried. I wrote in journel about it but they seem to be taking 2 weeks to answer (if at all)

Also esa sent letter to old address even though UC has new one?

As you're claiming Income related ESA and you've claimed UC then your ESA will now stop and this will be paid in with your UC monthly payments.



Any payments you've received from ESA since you claimed UC will be deducted from future UC payments.



It could take a few weeks for your ESA award to be transferred to UC but you'll be placed into the relevant group for UC.

calcotti

Marco84 wrote: »

Yes I'm on income based ESA.
It's really confusing and got me worried. I wrote in journel about it but they seem to be taking 2 weeks to answer (if at all)

Also esa sent letter to old address even though UC has new one?

You need to update ESA with any change of address separately.

Marco84

I'm almost certain the UC work coach said I'll stay on ESA as I'll be paid more and carry on getting paid every fortnight. That's why I'm puzzled.

calcotti

Marco84 wrote: »

I'm almost certain the UC work coach said I'll stay on ESA as I'll be paid more and carry on getting paid every fortnight. That's why I'm puzzled.

You would only continue to be paid ESA if it was contribution based but, unless the ESA was more than your UC entitlement, it would make no difference to the total you receive because the ESA would be deducted in full from your UC payments.

Alice_Holt

Marco84 wrote: »

I'm almost certain the UC work coach said I'll stay on ESA as I'll be paid more and carry on getting paid every fortnight. That's why I'm puzzled.

As poppy and calcotti have posted, if your work coach said this they were incorrect.
The only time that would apply is if you were getting the Severe Disability Premium on your ESA, in that case you should have been able to claim HB for help with your housing costs rather than UC.

Once on UC you cannot continue to receive Income-based ESA. UC has replaced that benefit.

Calcotti has explained what will happen if you had claimed Contribution- based ESA (your UC will be reduced £ for £).

Work coaches are not benefit specialists, and unfortunately they seem often to give incorrect info to claimants. DWP staff training is not great.

Because you were in the SG of ESA when you moved onto UC, you should get the additional LCWRA element of £328 pm. So, you may not be much worse off on UC.
Talk to your job coach about this and put it on your journal. It is not automatic.
https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Universal-Credit/Additional-Elements-of-Universal-Credit

poppy12345

UC LCWRA pays more per month than ESA Support Group so you won't be any worse off.