Migrating from ESA to UC after receiving backpayment

beanielou

MrHeisenberg said:

They sent me a decision letter today, and they didn't make any deductions, so that's a relief. I think the journal message did the trick.

Sincere thanks to everyone for your invaluable help. You are all godsends.

Great news.  Pleased for you.

MrHeisenberg

I have just received a letter from the the DWP, specifically the ESA team in response to my letter sent to them in June, which attached bank statements. It seems to have taken them a few months to respond.

They are now asking me to send them full and continuous statements of all savings and/or investments I have had from the date my total capital reached £5500 to date. I am note sure why they are using the figure £5500 and not £6000 or more. They say that the SDP arrears of £16,008.40 can be disregarded from my total capital. 

They go on to say that if my total capital has not been over £5500, then they will not require bank statements. Again, I am not sure why they using the figure £5500 and not £6000.

What is further confusing is that my ESA claim appears to have recently gone from income-based to contributions-based. I may be wrong, but I also believe my ESA claim initially started as an contributions-based claim, then somehow became an income-based claim, and has now ended up being a contributions-based claim again.

KxMx

Lots of people are mistaken about their ESA award, only finding out after migrating what it actually was. 

When an ESA award IR & CB migrates to UC, the IR gets replaced by UC and the CB ESA converts automatically into New Style ESA.

My own pathway:
ESA CB WRAG
After 365 days
ESA IR WRAG 
Then moved to Support Group 
CB reactivated
Becoming 
ESA CB with an IR top up. 

Robbie64

The reason why the DWP use the £5,500 mark and not £6,000 for checking savings is that they have always used a limit of £500 less as a marker for when to check savings. For example,  when the lower capital limit was £3,000, the DWP would check savings on a new claim or a claim being reviewed when they were above £2,500.

MrHeisenberg

KxMx said:

Lots of people are mistaken about their ESA award, only finding out after migrating what it actually was. 

When an ESA award IR & CB migrates to UC, the IR gets replaced by UC and the CB ESA converts automatically into New Style ESA.

My own pathway:
ESA CB WRAG
After 365 days
ESA IR WRAG 
Then moved to Support Group 
CB reactivated
Becoming 
ESA CB with an IR top up. 

I think mine went exactly the same way. I spoke to someone in an ESA call centre today, and she said that they had to make it an income-related claim in order to apply the higher rate. I do confess that I am very confused. Surely it must have been a contributions-based claim from the start in order for it to be a contributions-based claim now, though, it does seem both can curiously apply at the same time.

MrHeisenberg

Presumably my New Style ESA (which has no capital limits) remains untouched by any deductions, and my UC is only subject to deductions of around £4.35 for each £250 over the £6K limit? All very confusing.

MrHeisenberg

Presumably my recent UC back payment should be disregarded in terms of capital too? I think even a seasoned accountant would have difficulty in working all of this out.

MrHeisenberg

MrHeisenberg said:

KxMx said:

Lots of people are mistaken about their ESA award, only finding out after migrating what it actually was. 

When an ESA award IR & CB migrates to UC, the IR gets replaced by UC and the CB ESA converts automatically into New Style ESA.

My own pathway:
ESA CB WRAG
After 365 days
ESA IR WRAG 
Then moved to Support Group 
CB reactivated
Becoming 
ESA CB with an IR top up. 

I think mine went exactly the same way. I spoke to someone in an ESA call centre today, and she said that they had to make it an income-related claim in order to apply the higher rate. I do confess that I am very confused. Surely it must have been a contributions-based claim from the start in order for it to be a contributions-based claim now, though, it does seem both can curiously apply at the same time.

Seems this is how it used to work:

ESA Claimants can receive the following;

- ESA(CB) is they met the National Insurance requirements but have too much in savings or household income.
- ESA(IR) if they do not meet the NI conditions but have earnings and saving under the statutory limits.
- ESA(CB) with an ESA(IR) top-up if they met the NI conditions and have earnings and saving under the statutory limits.

The ESA computer system appears to be only capable of recording whether a claim is ESA(IR) or ESA(CB), so when claimants are eligible for both components the system is set to show that they have ESA(IR).

A claimant retains ESA(CB) as long as the claim continues and if at any time the ESA(IR) calculated payment is less than the ESA(CB) rate then the claimant will receive the latter.