ESA/UC transitional protection and other points of confusion

leamingtonspaceman

First some context about the lead up to the situation I could do with some help with.

I have been on ESA Support Group since 2010 when I stopped working. I received the Special Disability Element (SDE) top up from 2018 when I began receiving both PIP components at the enhanced rate. 

My wife began receiving ESA Support Group contributory bssed from October 2024, just before we were married, although she didn't actually get the decision until March 2025

She bought a house in December 2024 with money her father left her after he passed.

I didn't move in with my wife until 16th March 2025.

I wrote to DWP on 16th March 2025 to explain a change of address and circumstances. They received this and I have the evidence it was sent Royal Mail Signed For and received.

I received an ESA3 form on 9th April 2025 and stated my claim needed to be looked at again from 16th March, the day I moved in with my wife. This form was sent back on 11th April 2025 and received by DWP on 14th April 2025.

I then received a letter stating my new payment was what I received before minus the SDE, which I was expecting to be the case.

In April I received a letter saying the claim was to be migrated to UC. We went through that process and our UC claim started on 1st May 2025. Since then, my wife and I have continued to receive payments to our separate accounts marhed as ESA. I thought this would be until our claim migrates to UC.

Today we went into our journal and attempted to change our payments to go into our recently opened joint bank account. We then received a message saying we needed a face-to-face appointment at the Jobcentre to provide proof of the bank account.

We were given a number to call and despite whoever we were talking to not having much of a clue, were booked in for an appointment this afternoon, which we attended.

Whilst on the phone I asked the lady why we were still getting payments marked as ESA when our UC claim started on 1st May 2025. She had no idea and told me to call ESA.

I called ESA and after 90 minutes of being on hold I got to speak to somebody.

She told me that my wife and I would just continue to get ESA payments. She told me that my ESA was contribution based even though every single letter I've received from DWP since my claim began has stated income-based ESA. She said we would continue to get the payments as ESA forever and they would be deducted from our UC joint claim.

We then went to our UC appointment at the Jobcentre. During this appointment the advisor just happened to say that our UC claim had no transitional protection because I informed DWP of my change of circumstances AFTER we claimed UC. 

So, after all the above I am left with the following questions:

1. It is quite clear that our joint ESA claim was made BEFORE we claimed UC. It was SIX weeks before on 16th March 2025. Why has transitional protection been denied?

2. Why do you begin to claim UC, but continue to get ESA? 

3. Why is it that nobody at the DWP in ESA, UC or the JC seems to know why this is and what will happen?

4. How could I have been on contributory based ESA considering I've been on it for 15 years? I did work for 25 years prior to claiming.

5. How is contributory entitlement worked out? If you've worked 25 years, do you get 25 years of contributory based ESA? I was told that my basic ESA was contributory based but the SDE was income based.

Transitional protection is important to me because it may be relevant soon. My wife has a PIP tribunal coming up. If she's successful it will be backdated to October 2024. That would mean the SDE of ESA that I was getting that stopped on 16th March 2025 when I moved in with my wife would need to be reinstated and subject to transitional protection whem we claimed UC on 1st May.

I'm pretty fed up with calling ESA, waiting an hour and getting cut off which has happened twice this afternoon since we had our UC appointment at the JC.

I hope someone might be able to assist and quell my confusion?

Many thanks...

KxMx

2. When receiving both CB & IR ESA, upon migration the IR is replaced by UC and the CB converts automatically into New Style ESA.

3. Poor training. DWP staff are administrators not benefits advisors.

4. Your previous NI Contributions from working entitled you to receive CB ESA. This lasts as long as you are in the Support Group.

5. Correct. Basic ESA was CB, all premiums are IR. 

HillStreetBlues

1) As above DWP staff can be clueless, transitional protection can be delayed and it's common that it's not added on the 1st UC statement

8dayweek

On point 1 it would seem to appear that ESA hadn’t finalised your joint ESA(IR) award… presuming as a Couple there was some entitlement to ESA(IR).

Your wife’s ESA(C) would have continued, and so would your ESA(C). 

The forming of a Couple removed your SDP, so if no other income-related premiums were applicable (or entitlement to them was eroded by something else meaning IR aspect was less than ESA(C) entitlement) it would appear you were both individually receiving ESA(C) only. 

I think the only way to get clarity would be by contacting ESA to establish if as a Couple you were receiving any income-related ESA at all. 

If not, it may be that if your Wife is successful with the PIP appeal you then contact ESA again, get the ESA(IR) award reassessed and any back pay issued. You then ask UC to reviewed your entitlement to Transitional Protection in light of the newly revised ESA entitlement up to the point of the UC claim. 

8dayweek

(I appreciate it doesn’t explain the Migration Notice but I can only surmise the MN was based on your single ESA(IR) claim as they hadn’t yet got around to processing the ESA3, which then took effect from a period pre-dating the issue of the MN). 

huckster

Depending on when the PIP Tribunal is due, is it worth waiting for the outcome? And if succesful, then go through process of having ESA claim reviewed
 And then once ESA reviewed, contact UC about transitional element calculation.

Otherwise the risk is having benefit awards/calculations reviewed twice, leading to possibility of more confusion.

leamingtonspaceman

Thank you all for your responses... it helps a lot 

It's starting to become a little clearer now thanks to what each of you have said.

So when our claim for ESA became a joint claim, and my SDP stopped, which I knew it would it looks like we were both on contribution based ESA, which I wasn't aware of. I knew my wife was but didn't realise I was.

Do you only get transitional protection if part of your claim is income-related?

If so, then if my wife's PIP tribunal is successful, I would have been getting an IR eiement (SDP) before we moved to UC.

The actual wording in our UC journal relating to why we haven't got transitional protection is as follows:

You are not entitled to transitional protection

This is because you had a change of circumstances before you claimed Universal Credit.

You reported having a partner in your Universal Credit claim.

This is different to the circumstances reported to us by your previous tax credits or benefits.

So this is incorrect because I told ESA about my change of circumstances BEFORE we claimed UC.

As suggested, it might be worth waiting until my wife's PIP tribunal because if that's not successful, none of this will matter anyway I guess???

8dayweek

You don’t only get Transitional Protection from income-related ESA, but it’s more that it’s generally only an income-related premium that would cause a disparity between ESA and UC.  

(ESA(C) is a non-migrating benefit - it continues alongside UC, there’s no TP to factor in there because there’s no loss / shortfall). 

Given you’ve got that message on your Journal, it would lead me to believe either ESA have not fully processed the switch to a joint claim - or they have and there was no IR entitlement so in theory the MN becomes obsolete as you’re both solely receiving non-means tested and non-migrating benefits only. 

Are you receiving less on UC than you were previously receiving on ESA…? 

Spoonie_Turtle

8dayweek said:

Are you receiving less on UC than you were previously receiving on ESA…? 

I think perhaps the more pertinent question overall is are they receiving less than they were previously entitled to on ESA?  That's what will determine if any TP is owed.

leamingtonspaceman

I've learnt more from all of your replies than I ever would from the DWP... thank you all so much.

My wife and I get £281.10 each, every 14 days from our contribution based ESA.

We appear to be getting NO UC because of what we get from our contribution based ESA.

Prior to this I was getting the base rate of ESA plus the SDP. I lost the SDP when I reported my change of circumstances.

I had letters from ESA confirming the change of circumstances and my loss of the SDP before we claimed UC, so ESA did know about this change prior to us claiming UC. This is contrary to what the UC journal entry relating to transitional protection is saying.

So...

1. Is that correct that our UC will be zero whilst we both continue to get contribution based ESA?

2. Is our contribution based ESA a 'joint' claim even though we receive this individually?

3. Are we now both, either individually or combined, on New Style ESA?

4. What is the basic rate of UC? 

5. Will my wife and I simply continue to get contribution based ESA in the support group until we either stop claiming or die...?

6. We were told by a manager at the Job Centre that under no circumstances can you be claiming ESA and UC at the same time. Yet that appears to be the case here?

7. Because our ESA claims are both contributions based, do the savings and income rules apply? Can we have more than £16,000 in savings without it affecting our ESA/UC?

8. My wife is about to be tested for sleep apnea and if she has this, will get a CPAP machine which will mean she (hopefully) sleeps properly. She will then think about working again. How many hours work/how much can she earn before her contribution based support group ESA is affected?

9. If the journal entry had said we didn't qualify for transitional protection because there was no income-related ESA to consider (the SDP which I had removed because of my change of circumstances), then this would be correct. I'd then have to get this looked at retrospectively if my wife is successful in her PIP tribunal. If she isn't, it doesn't matter anyway.

10. On advice from the Job Centre manager, I've submitted a UC journal entry regarding this situation and explaining that DWP did know of the change of circumstances prior to our UC claim. Will I get a response to this and will UC and ESA 'talk' to one another to get this resolved?

I apologise if my way of posting here is possibly convoluted. I am autistic and my methodology is to give context/history and then pose my questions in a numbered order. I like it when individual responders use the numbering system I've used to reference their answers.

Once again, I simply cannot thank all who have replied here enough. You've brought my anxiety levels right down and endowed me with a much clearer understanding of how this all works.

leamingtonspaceman

I just found this on the .gov website:

Changes to your circumstances before you claim

If you have a significant change of circumstances before you claim Universal Credit, you may not be entitled to some elements of transitional protection.  

Changes to your relationship status before you claim will mean you are not entitled to the transitional element. If a partner moves into your household and they did not receive a Migration Notice, you will not be entitled to any element of transitional protection.   

Changes to your benefits entitlement before you claim may mean you will not be entitled to any element of transitional protection.

The bit in bold seems to be saying that because my wife and I got married and/or started living together BEFORE we claimed UC, that this strips away transitional protection. 

But it then goes on to say:

Changes to your circumstances after your claim 

If you have a significant change of circumstances after transitional protection has been awarded to your Universal Credit claim, your transitional protection may end.

The following are significant changes of circumstances:  

• changes to your relationship status, such as a partner moving into or out of your household  

So it looks like you are stripped of transitional protection if your relationship changes either before OR after you claim UC?

And further:

If your Universal Credit decreases to zero due to your earnings increasing

If your earnings mean your Universal Credit is reduced to zero for 4 assessment periods in a row, your transitional protection will end. If your earnings then decrease, you may be eligible to apply for Universal Credit again, but will not receive transitional protection.  

Because we are getting zero UC, then this would also strip away transitional protection. However, would the SDP have switched to UC if I was still receiving that? So basically, £281.10 every two weeks from new style ESA, and the protected SDP via UC monthly?

It seems to me that the only way I would have ever got transitional protection would have been if I'd continued to live separately to my wife and then migrated to UC, and continued to live separately?