UC Migration Notice and ESA

TimeLord1

Now I see a mixed opinion on this, so I really wanted your opinions. So you're on ESA Support Group or just ESA. Did you phone ESA to tell them you have been asked to migrate and submitted the UC claim, or didn't contact ESA because you assumed they would eventually work it out?

Generally they state, Yes, inform employment support allowance (ESA) you've been asked to migrate, but did you inform them?

And did it help you.

marcia_

TimeLord1 said:

Now I see a mixed opinion on this, so I really wanted your opinions. So you're on ESA Support Group or just ESA. Did you phone ESA to tell them you have been asked to migrate and submitted the UC claim, or didn't contact ESA because you assumed they would eventually work it out?

Generally they state, Yes, inform employment support allowance (ESA) you've been asked to migrate, but did you inform them?

And did it help you.

UC notify them when you claim UC, ESA then close your claim. 

 However my cousin keeps getting journal messages saying she is claiming incapacity benefits and she should ring to have it cancelled. She has never claimed incapacity benefit and her ESA was stopped on claiming UC 

huckster

There is a DWP migration team handling the managed migration process. ESA will be aware that the migration  process is underway and when UC is claimed. 

So there is no need to be calling the ESA helpline and the UC journal messages should be ignored.

The issue is that at the same time as the managed migration process, there will also be ESA claimants having change of circumstances before they had the migration letter and they have had to claim Universal Credit. So there will be people not part of the managed migration process who do need to contact ESA. The UC system has not been programmed to know which claims are part of managed migration, so the journal messages are added to all UC claims, where ESA claims existed. 

TimeLord1

Ha, the term Incapacity Benefit is becoming a thing, but according to government legislation, they state you must inform the Employment and Support Allowance that your income-related part will be migrated to Universal Credit.

There's even a dedicated ESA phone number. 0800 1690328 🤔 Not a great experience and the robot wall runaround just phoning your letter contact.

It all seems pointless, so why tell people that they should inform ESA on starting the migration process. I don't know what the reason is.

TimeLord1

huckster said:

There is a DWP migration team handling the managed migration process. ESA will be aware that the migration  process is underway and when UC is claimed. 

So there is no need to be calling the ESA helpline and the UC journal messages should be ignored.

The issue is that at the same time as the managed migration process, there will also be ESA claimants having change of circumstances before they had the migration letter and they have had to claim Universal Credit. So there will be people not part of the managed migration process who do need to contact ESA. The UC system has not been programmed to know which claims are part of managed migration, so the journal messages are added to all UC claims, where ESA claims existed. 

I feel for people in need of help contacting ESA getting passed the AI robots is bad enough but I feel that the numbers in that department are rapidly declining. And anything other than ESA50 or new clients is walled.

elle_may

Son on essa con and income related. When migrated we put on his journal that he was claiming this and he had LCWA too. Received a letter a week later saying they had been told he was now claiming UC so the income part would be stopped but would receive the con part every 2 weeks. And because he was getting more on UC he would not receive any trans he may be entitled too. Was asked just once more on journal and just ignored it. So we had a good response from them going to UC.

datec66

Hi,  the only things a migration claimant needs to do is:

1 claim UC by phone or online within the 3 month period given to be eligible for a potential TP and not lose any previous entitlement.

2 declare their new claims answers to the questions asked correctly to avoid future problems

3 Keep an eye on and complete their 'to do' list for online claims, ring UC when asked on phone claims, ie accepting their claimant commitment to be eligible for UC, extra bedroom application for a disabled claimant where applicable and alot of other things

4 Ignore any system generated automatic journal messages asking for a fit note (if they were given the WRAG or support group components following their last ESA WCA).

Thats about it for the majority of people.

UC does not contact ESA as such.  Your UC claim in about 98% ish of cases will be picked up as a migration claim by the system, especially once your ID is verified by you,  local jobcentre or after a visiting officer.  There is as already said dedicated migration case managers who handle the migration process for you, MGP1 teams who end ESA income related claims for you and copy existing WCA decisions onto the UC claim (this stops automatic fit note requests once done). You do not need to contact ESA or any of the other 5 migrating benefits as its all automatic.  Jobcentres will contact you if your ESA C payments need switching to new style esa (where applicable) to agree a claimant commitment.  Housing benefit are informed automatically to close your claim after the 2 week run on period if HB is one of your 6 migrating benefits.  

Hope this helps everyone.