Question About Moving From ESA to UC

Jonj1611

Ah right ok thank you Pretty nervous about it to be honest, taking me right out of my comfort zone 

Jonj1611

Rather than start a new thread ,a quick question. I am thinking about doing my english and maths gcse's again in September. The courses themselves are 3 hours each per week. And are done at home, with the teacher in the class with a webcam.

I should by all accounts be on the lcw group with universal credit by then. Will doing a part time course of 6 hours a week affect my claim in anyway? 

Jonj1611

Well have done the application and now have an interview for next week. I did tell them in the journal I get ESA currently and said I had a fit note. Though doesn't look like anyone has read the journal. Does anyone actually respond to the journal?

Feel like I have buyers remorse though. Well out my comfort zone and not sure if I have done the right thing. Too late now though

tomtom256

mkcj said:

Can I ask why someone transferring from the support group of ESA to Universal Credit would require a claimant commitment meeting as surely the are exempt? 

I am asking this as my husband is our son's Appointee and we want to know what to expect when the time comes.

Somebody claiming UC with an appointee won't need any commitments, as an appointee isn't allowed to accept them. The need to accept would be removed, which basically means the jobcentre will switch everything off and accept them on the appointee's behalf.
All the appointee would need to was declare any changes. They also cannot be mandated to attend any appointments.

poppy12345

tomtom256 said:

mkcj said:

Can I ask why someone transferring from the support group of ESA to Universal Credit would require a claimant commitment meeting as surely the are exempt? 

I am asking this as my husband is our son's Appointee and we want to know what to expect when the time comes.

Somebody claiming UC with an appointee won't need any commitments, as an appointee isn't allowed to accept them. The need to accept would be removed, which basically means the jobcentre will switch everything off and accept them on the appointee's behalf.
All the appointee would need to was declare any changes. They also cannot be mandated to attend any appointments.

That's not what happened in my daughters case. I'm her appointee for her UC claim. I had to accept her commitments when i first claimed for her and again when she was found to have LCWRA.

We didn't need to attend any appointments because her claim started in the middle of the pandemic.

NedS

poppy12345 said:

tomtom256 said:

mkcj said:

Can I ask why someone transferring from the support group of ESA to Universal Credit would require a claimant commitment meeting as surely the are exempt? 

I am asking this as my husband is our son's Appointee and we want to know what to expect when the time comes.

Somebody claiming UC with an appointee won't need any commitments, as an appointee isn't allowed to accept them. The need to accept would be removed, which basically means the jobcentre will switch everything off and accept them on the appointee's behalf.
All the appointee would need to was declare any changes. They also cannot be mandated to attend any appointments.

That's not what happened in my daughters case. I'm her appointee for her UC claim. I had to accept her commitments when i first claimed for her and again when she was found to have LCWRA.

We didn't need to attend any appointments because her claim started in the middle of the pandemic.

The rules around appointees and conditionality are very poorly understood in my experience so what you say does not surprise me, but @tomtom256 is spot on.

calcotti

poppy12345 said:

tomtom256 said:

mkcj said:

Can I ask why someone transferring from the support group of ESA to Universal Credit would require a claimant commitment meeting as surely the are exempt? 

I am asking this as my husband is our son's Appointee and we want to know what to expect when the time comes.

Somebody claiming UC with an appointee won't need any commitments, as an appointee isn't allowed to accept them. The need to accept would be removed, which basically means the jobcentre will switch everything off and accept them on the appointee's behalf.
All the appointee would need to was declare any changes. They also cannot be mandated to attend any appointments.

That's not what happened in my daughters case. I'm her appointee for her UC claim. I had to accept her commitments when i first claimed for her and again when she was found to have LCWRA.

We didn't need to attend any appointments because her claim started in the middle of the pandemic.

I’ve never needed to find out about this but following tomttom and Ned comments I looked at this.
http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2021-0835/030_Claimant_Commitment_overview_V6-0.pdf

If the claimant is physically or mentally unable to accept their commitment, and this is unlikely to change or it would be unreasonable to expect them to do so due to terminal illness, we will waive the requirement to accept a Commitment permanently.
.

Whilst a requirement to accept a Commitment may be waived, the system does not currently allow Commitment acceptance to be ignored. In these circumstances, the work coach can mark the Commitment as accepted so the claim can continue. However, they must make a note of the actions taken and the reason.

Appointees cannot accept a Commitment on behalf of a claimant.

As suggested by Ned, and as we know is sadly often the case, the Work Coach you dealt with obviously didn’t know the rules. Lack of training again?

Jonj1611

Ok so all done, first payment due soon, ESA finally updated UC.

However something has shown up in my journal and I have no idea how to answer it, seems a stupidly written question.

It says : In the 12 months before you claimed Universal Credit, were there any gaps in your employment?

Answers are yes or no

I asked UC and they said to put No. But from reading on Google seems I should put yes.

I haven't worked in years, whats the correct answer?

poppy12345

Jonj1611 said:

It says : In the 12 months before you claimed Universal Credit, were there any gaps in your employment?

Answers are yes or no

I asked UC and they said to put No. But from reading on Google seems I should put yes.

I haven't worked in years, whats the correct answer?

This is to do this the benefit cap grace period, which doesn't apply to you anyway. As you were previously claiming ESA then you would answer yes because there were gaps.

Jonj1611

Ok so definitely yes? The next question is about living with a partner to which I know the answer to that then it asks about if I earned more than £537 a month or something. 

Just seems weird questions, moved over from ESA, you would have thought they would have received all this info anyway. I mean its all DWP isn't it.