Income ESA to UC migration confusion. Worried. Please help.

Ihatethinkingofusernames11

These still haven't messaged me back and I left the message on Thursday. I tried ringing ESA and the woman wasn't interested and saying I have to tell them I'm on UC now which as I'm still on ESA which doesn't make sense. She didn't take any details off me to know what it was, new style or income related then hung up on me or phone went down.

Maybe gotta ring UC. In any case in a managed migration why would I have to tell ESA I'm on UC surely they'd know and I rang the other day and said things were ok their end (before my OP). 

Update - phoned UC and they said they'd get a case manager to look at it but not sure how straight forward that is and if that is normal or not? I didn't confirm whether I was on new style ESA or not though but I must be if the amount changed. Forgot to say as I was in IR ESA support group it should be LCWRA but mentioned LCWRA.

I know I must be on new style now as an upcoming payment (via automated message on phone) was for £281.10 for NS ESA
Will they still get my journal message? 

datec66

There is alot of unneccessary advice in your thread i'm sorry to say by both respondents, some of it is correct though.  UC send your migration notice to you in the post.  They know therefore beforehand all the potential 6 legacy benefits that they need to migrate to UC for you.  You dont need to ring any of your legacy benefits, or message UC case managers using the payment option advising your case manager what they already know anyway, all communications like that does is pile onto their workload unnecessarily, meaning their spending more time replying to you with what they'll already know rather than getting on with the job at hand of processing your claim etc.  Your case manager isnt allowed to add lcwra for you so your message wont help your situation unfortunately, neither will the hand off they'll now get from telephony staff increasing their workload.  You and your case manager will need to wait for the MGP1 team to move your support group WCA decision from ESA to your UC claim.  Sometimes there are backlogs of thousands of migrations whereby this hasnt been done yet by the time your first AP ends and the system will calculate an incorrect award (because its not given all relevant info yet to calc it correctly).  Once the MGP1 team deal with your WCA transfer to UC (Its easy to know they've not done it yet on time when ESA overpay your 2 week run on period) your case manager can then calc your Transitional protection entitlement and amend your award statement.  They'll then send you UCD172 letter in the journal with the underpayment award and why you were underpaid by the system when your first AP ended.  You just need to sit back and relax, dont worry about anything, sending messages or phone calls are all completely unnecessary, your case manager will deal with other departments and will progress your claim for you anyway as thats their job to do so.   Your likely to get a jobcentre phone appointment soon to agree a claimant commitment to switch you over to new style ESA. 

Hope this helps.  A migration to UC is simple as you said.  They do it all for you once you put your UC claim in within the 3 month limit given, theres no need to worry, phone, message or anything like that, tell them Reg 19 they already know about and heard thousands of times before you etc, thats all nonsense I'm sorry to say by people who don't know how a migration works so they try to help not realising by asking people to pile on more unnecessary workloads onto their case managers, that delays migrations further and in your case, with work they cannot complete anyway as another team do it.

KxMx

OP had LCWRA element missing from first payment statement, incorrectly. 

It does not "pile on unnecessary work" to inform UC that part of OP's entitlement has not been received.

Five weeks is a reasonable time IMO to wait for the correct money before highlighting any errors. 

Personally I find your message very rude.

I do not claim to be right 100% of the time but am confident of my advice in this instance.

See this thread where another poster was missing LCWRA from first statement, and resolved it in exactly the manner I advised OP.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6571332/moving-over-from-esa-support-group-to-uc-advice#latest

Ihatethinkingofusernames11

@TimeLord1 yes I sent it through the payments option. I phoned up and they now replied that they are waiting for ESA to send over the last information so they can work out the rest of the award and LCWRA and escalated it. Not sure who they are declaring it to. Within UC or they are going to ask ESA. Not much information given besides that. 

Ihatethinkingofusernames11

@datec66 Hello. Thanks for your response. I find this a bit strange tbh if this is true as isn't this their jobs/ aren't they paid to do this? You make it sound like I'm being a nuisance to them when I've waited 5 weeks already. 

They didn't overpay me either. The money was less than I used to get. I'm already on new style ESA btw as well by the looks of it. It's now gone to £281.10 just as KxMx said. 

I mean, it's partially helpful, but as I said earlier it makes me sound like a nuisance. It's not like I've harassed them or whatever, I waited 5 weeks which is the time they said it would and should be done by. The post comes across like I'm a being a pest or something for asking questions about things because nobody tells you anything just that it's simple and don't worry.

You have to realise a lot of people have anxiety when changing over to things and they aren't being done when they say they should. I don't want to have to be doing any of this phoning/ messaging around. If much rather things have just been done smoothly in the timeframe given as they said it should be 5 weeks and it hasn't been done when people have to live on this. How long would you wait without it?

Ihatethinkingofusernames11

@KxMx Thanks for your response again. They replied to me and said they were waiting for ESA to move over information so they could work out LCWRA and escalated it apparently. Not sure who they are escalating it to. 

I took, found that message from the datecc to be a bit bizarre and like I'm being a pest/ nuisance when I've waited for 5 weeks to mention it and thought it was their jobs. 
It's not like I want to be doing any of this either, I would much rather have had a smooth transition but they tell you very little about how things work and what happens so are people suppose to do without and say nothing?

It did change over to £281.10 now as you said it would so obviously it went to new style ESA. I guess I just have to wait if they escalated it. Do I need to accept commitments for NS ESA? I thought I already did accept commitments to something and not sure what this entails. Thanks again. 

TimeLord1

If the OP is asking a question or looking for answers. So if we all take your stance. Then there's no need to reply to any questions asked on the forums; just leave people with no response.

 "You just need to sit back and relax; don't worry about anything. Sending messages or phone calls are all completely unnecessary" 

Great not everyone has your laid-back approach to life I'm afraid. @datec66

Ihatethinkingofusernames11

Update. There is still nothing from these after saying they were waiting for ESA to send things over. That was over a week ago. Is this normal or should I contact them again? Not sure how long I am supposed to wait. 

KxMx

I personally would chase again now and keep chasing until it's sorted. 

Ihatethinkingofusernames11

@KxMx Who do I chase though? UC or ESA? They said they were waiting for ESA to transfer things over and would contact me when it was done but I thought more than a week would be plenty to do that. It is going to be the second month fairly soon so unsure if anything is wrong or they just don't talk to each other.