UC/New Style ESA payment

Humbug2015

I was living alone and claiming income based ESA. I was in the Support Group.

I got married in October 2024 but continued living alone whilst my wife lived with her mother.

In December 2024 my wife moved out of her mother's house and bought her own house. I moved in with her March 2025.

She successfully claimed New Style ESA in April 2025 and was placed in the support group. I was moved to the same after I reported my change of circumstances and we had to make a joint claim for UC.

We have been getting UC LCWRA with a carers element and getting fortnightly payments of New Style ESA that have been deducted from our UC, leaving a shortfall of £34 paid out monthly as UC.

Last Friday I got a UC payment of £434, whereas up to now it had only ever been £34 a month.

I had a look at our UC statement and the deduction of New Style ESA was a lot lower than usual and the UC payment was the shortfall.

I think this is because I only qualified for New Style ESA for a year due to lack of contributions. So I'm assuming I will no longer get any ESA of any kind from now on and my contribution to our joint claim will be the UC payment that replaces it?

I'm guessing too that this will be the case for my wife's side of the UC claim when her contributions run out?

I also read that New Style ESA will be replaced with Employment Insurance in 2028.

Are my conclusions above correct?

Thanks in advance for any help.

KxMx

I think you are completely wrong, sorry.

New Style ESA in the Support Group has no time limit.

It happens occasionally that the NS ESA deduction from UC is incorrect.

Add a Journal note (using the payment option) stating an overpayment has occurred due to incorrect deduction for NS ESA.

Once this has been looked at, a letter will be added to your Journal stating the amount owed due to overpayment. The letter will include repayment options.

Humbug2015

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81917582#Comment_81917582

Thank you for the speedy reply. No need to be sorry and happy to be corrected on this

I did have an inkling that NS ESA Support Group was unlimited but thought I'd perhaps misunderstood that.

For a year, we have been getting our NS ESA Support Group payments. Our UC claim has always stated that we are in the LCWRA group and our NS ESA payments have been deducted from our UC with just the £34 shortfall paid as UC.

I've just received my letter from ESA regarding the inflation rise in payments.

I'll take your advice and do a journal entry.

Thank you

huckster

Might be wrong, but is the ESA deduction on UC claim less, because of February being a short month. UC is 12 monthly periods per year whereas ESA is a fortnightly payment. If UC deducted for a full monthly equivalent of ESA would they be deducting too much over 12 months?

This issue seems be something I have come across before.

KxMx

The ESA deduction is always done as a 30 day average. The deduction should be the same for 12 UC payments, then after the annual uprating the same for another 12 months.

When exactly the annual uprated deduction starts varies slightly depending on AP dates.

For my AP of 26th-25th I first see the increased ESA deduction on my May 28 statement paid 2nd June, this is also when the increased UC rate kicks in for me.