moving on to Universal credit

squizz11

We are currently on the legacy system and private rent in west London.   our landlord is wanting to sell and we are looking for a new property and we was going to wait to move on to UC then.   going on benefits websites it seems we would be better off on UC and we were thinking of making the change now,   we know it takes 5 weeks to do which we are prepared for.   when we do eventually move do we have to wait a further 5 weeks and is UC paid in arrears like HB.    

thanks in advance

sammyjammy

Yes its paid in arrears ,the wait of five weeks is only for the first payment, it is then paid monthly thereafter.

Muttleythefrog

Having just made switch myself... one thing that may not be mentioned typically is the customer service. Recent calls I've made to ESA have usually taken well over an hour to be answered (I wonder if anyone has actually died waiting for them to answer!) whereas U/C is typically managed via online account and I've found the response times rapid. I do get impression U/C is more professionally managed and staff better trained. I do like the journal (log of activities and messages) set up too as quite frankly it evidences communications which the DWP cannot then deny.  I made the move due to being better off also. You might be entitled to a 2 week run on payment of legacy benefit but others will be better to advise on that.

calcotti

Muttleythefrog said: ...I do like the journal (log of activities and messages) set up too as quite frankly it evidences communications which the DWP cannot then deny.  

I would recommend that you keep a separate pdf print out or screen garb of anything significant. When claims are amended/revised early documents are sometimes revised retrospectively and if your claim ever stopped and you had to reclaim you would find all the historic information would no longer be accessible.

Muttleythefrog

calcotti said:

Muttleythefrog said: ...I do like the journal (log of activities and messages) set up too as quite frankly it evidences communications which the DWP cannot then deny.  

I would recommend that you keep a separate pdf print out or screen garb of anything significant. When claims are amended/revised early documents are sometimes revised retrospectively and if your claim ever stopped and you had to reclaim you would find all the historic information would no longer be accessible.

Sounds like good advice.... my wife without warning lost access to her U/C account after being denied entitlement... a little bit of a problem when she has a task appear!