ESA/UC transitional protection and other points of confusion

Yamor

leamingtonspaceman said:

I received this response in my UC journal:

"We have received a response from our Technical Team.

The move to UC notice was issued to you and at the time you were single and your ESA payment was that of a single claimant.

ESA rebuilt the claim due to a fault on 27.03.2025 as a couple claim. Your  ESA Claim became ESA Contributions based as, as a couple you exceeded the  Income related entitlement.

When the claimant became a couple, you didn't have housing costs. As per the UC Claim.

If we treat as change of circumstances - there is no Transitional payment protection entitlement.

If we didn't treat as change of circumstances and calculated TP, there would be no TP due as no migrating benefits, as the customer was no longer on HB or ESA IR.."

I also received a letter today from DWP relating to "New information about your care."

It states that they have been notified that my wife cares for me for 35 hours or more each week.

It goes on to say that "If your carer is receiving a carers benefit then you will no longer be eligible for SDP if you receive any of the following benefits":

The two benefits from the list that apply to me are:

IR ESA
CTB (we get roughly a 50% reduction in CT)

Is this all correct?

Also, has anyone any thoughts on the post I made above regarding my wife being asked to provide a fit-note?

Thank you...

The UC response is correct. They mention 2 of the 3 reasons I gave earlier - that the migration notice was issued when you were single, and that there would be no TP due anyway.

The letter from DWP is also fine. As you have claimed UC, the loss of eligibility to the SDP doesn't matter, as you are no longer on irESA. As regards Council Tax Reduction, all the schemes I have come across do not include the SDP in the calculation for those on UC.

Regarding your earlier post about your wife being asked for fit-notes, I would tell her to respond on the journal to their message saying that she had in fact had her WCA, and was placed in the support group.

leamingtonspaceman

Newcad said:

As it's over 3-months since you thought you had moved to NS ESA and you have not had a to make an ESA Clamant Commitment yet then your ESA was probably still Old Style ESA up until you claimed UC, in which case there is nothing to challenge on that point.

(You ESA should have been moved to NS ESA when you migrated to UC, so you will at some point have to do a ESA Claimant Commitment when they catch up, ESA can't keep up with all the migrations to UC that are going on at the moment).

On the point of not having a Work Coach in UC you still have a claimant Commitment, everybody on UC has to have one. There should be an entry on your journal from when you claimed that says "Claimant Commitments accepted".
Your own UC Claiment Commitment will say that you will look at your acount/journal often, do any actions that it asks you to do, and inform them of any changes. (Not jobseeking of course). something like this:

Resurrecting this thread.

I've had a letter from DWP today.

It says that my c-ESA will change to New Style ESA from 15th May 2025 and that my final ir-ESA will cover the period 1st May 2025 to 14th May 2025.

So I'm guessing that's correct because it's two weeks after our joint UC claim began?

The letter says I will have to attend an appointment with a work coach and agree to the 'claimant commitment.' It says that at the appointment I will have to explain how my illness or disability affects my ability to work.

As I was in the support group previously, will I have to do this?

Is there a 'support group' component of New Style ESA and will I have not been placed in it?

Checking my journal, I have the following entry:

HillStreetBlues

The letter is incorrect in stating you will have to explain how my illness or disability affects my ability to work.
The commitment should be just to report any changes.

KxMx

The letter is a standard letter assuming yours is a new claim. 
You are a transfer. 
The appointment is usually done by phone and will be a brief call. Your only commitment will be to keep them informed of any changes, same as with UC. 

Robbie64

@leamingtonspaceman out of interest what is the date on the letter you've just received? I realise that there's backlogs but the way the letter is worded, it should have been sent out weeks ago. I'm waiting for a similar letter and I also migrated to UC recently so am curious if the letters are being held back by the DWP (due to backlogs) or if youirs just took a while to arrive.

leamingtonspaceman

Robbie64 said:

@leamingtonspaceman out of interest what is the date on the letter you've just received? I realise that there's backlogs but the way the letter is worded, it should have been sent out weeks ago. I'm waiting for a similar letter and I also migrated to UC recently so am curious if the letters are being held back by the DWP (due to backlogs) or if youirs just took a while to arrive.

Hey, sorry for the late reply.

The letter is dated 19th June 2025, but it's referring to things that "will happen" on 15th May 2025. So it's obvious that they're well behind and suffering with a backlog.

My wife and I both made our UC 'commitments' on 1st May 2025, so the letter would have been referencing already completed actions even if they'd issued it on 15th May.

Hope that helps...?

Robbie64

^

thanks @leamingtonspaceman I was getting worried that my letter had been lost in the post, but it seems like there's a massive backlog.