ESA

Simmers3111

Hi I've recently migrated from income based ESA (support group) to universal credit but received a letter today to say I'm being put on contribution based new style ESA and this will be deducted from my UC. I've never been on contribution based ESA and haven't worked for quite a few years now. I rang ESA to try and understand if it's correct but was absolutely useless and told me nothing to help with the confusion. I'm just not sure if it's correct with regards to being put on new style ESA 

poppy12345

Simmers3111 said:

Hi I've recently migrated from income based ESA (support group) to universal credit but received a letter today to say I'm being put on contribution based new style ESA and this will be deducted from my UC. I've never been on contribution based ESA and haven't worked for quite a few years now. I rang ESA to try and understand if it's correct but was absolutely useless and told me nothing to help with the confusion. I'm just not sure if it's correct with regards to being put on new style ESA 

There’s many people that thought all of their ESA was Income Related but when they’ve claimed UC they find out that part of it was contributions based. Although you haven’t worked for quite a few years that makes no difference. 

The CB part will revert to New style. Your ESA will continue every fortnight at a rate of £276.40 but be deducted in full from your UC at a rate of £598.86/month. So you will receive ESA fortnightly and UC once a month.

You will also need to agree to claimant commitments for ESA and this is likely to be done through a telephone call. 

Simmers3111

Thank you for your response, I appreciate your information. When I went to the job centre when I claimed for UC they said I wouldn't need to go back there or send any sick notes or anything with being in the support group and my next review isn't until 2027

Simmers3111

poppy12345 said:

Simmers3111 said:

Hi I've recently migrated from income based ESA (support group) to universal credit but received a letter today to say I'm being put on contribution based new style ESA and this will be deducted from my UC. I've never been on contribution based ESA and haven't worked for quite a few years now. I rang ESA to try and understand if it's correct but was absolutely useless and told me nothing to help with the confusion. I'm just not sure if it's correct with regards to being put on new style ESA 

There’s many people that thought all of their ESA was Income Related but when they’ve claimed UC they find out that part of it was contributions based. Although you haven’t worked for quite a few years that makes no difference. 

The CB part will revert to New style. Your ESA will continue every fortnight at a rate of £276.40 but be deducted in full from your UC at a rate of £598.86/month. So you will receive ESA fortnightly and UC once a month.

You will also need to agree to claimant commitments for ESA and this is likely to be done through a telephone call. 

Thank you for your response, I appreciate your information. When I went to the job centre when I claimed for UC they said I wouldn't need to go back there or send any sick notes or anything with being in the support group and my next review isn't until 2027

poppy12345

You don’t need to attend the job centre again. Agreeing to commitments for ESA can be done through telephone. 

The letter you received from ESA is a standard letter
thats aimed more at those claiming New style ESA that haven’t been through the work capability assessment. For those reverting to it from CB ESA it’s really the wrong worded letter. 

You do not need to provide fit notes or have another work capability assessment so you can ignore that part of the letter.