Still no further with universal credit.. beyond worried and upset now
joanw2od
Posts: 21 Forumite
Thanks for all your help over the past few weeks in advance. You’ve all really been wonderful. Unfortunately I’m still having problems.
Last month I moved in with my partner and put a joint claim in for universal credit. I was in the support group for ESA income based so was advised that element should be carried across.
2 weeks ago we attended our first UC ‘interview’ and my work coach asked me to supply a fit note from my doctor. I posted on this forum and was advised I did not need a fit note - which e en my doctor agreed with - because I had already been assessed as unfit for work whilst on ESA. I went back and told my work coach this who wasn’t having any of it and said I did need a fit note. I still have not received a fit note and it still says on my UC ‘to do list’ that I need to give them one. I’m hoping to see a doctor who will give me one next week.
About a week after this, I got a letter from ESA saying they weren’t paying me anymore ESA with the reasoning “you now have to claim universal credit” - so I’m not sure if UC already got notice from ESA that I was claiming beforehand and that’s why I got this letter.
Our online universal credit portal told us that we would receive our statement on the 14th July telling us how much we would get. The 14th of July has come and gone and we’ve had no statement from them. It’s now the 15th and our profile is still reading “your statement will be ready on the 14th July” we’re apparently due to be paid by them on the 20th. In 5 days. This clearly won’t be happening as we haven’t even received our statement of entitlement.
We’re now in desperate financial need. We can’t apply for another advance payment because it’s gone past the date we should’ve had our statement.
I called up the universal credit helpline today who were absolutely useless. I feel I’ll get more sense from posting on this forum. I asked the guy why we hadn’t received our statement and his only response was “I dunno.” (Seriously) so I folllweed up with “my partner and I were maybe assuming it was because it was a Sunday that the statement was due so that’s why we didn’t get one, but we’d have expected it to be updated today as it’s a Monday” He just went silent and finally “oh okay. Maybe yeah cause it was a Sunday”
I intend to go to the job centre tomorrow when my partner is not at work to find out what is going on. I’m disabled so can’t leave the house alone otherwise I’d go today.
Any advice please? I’m so worried. I don’t know where to go.
Last month I moved in with my partner and put a joint claim in for universal credit. I was in the support group for ESA income based so was advised that element should be carried across.
2 weeks ago we attended our first UC ‘interview’ and my work coach asked me to supply a fit note from my doctor. I posted on this forum and was advised I did not need a fit note - which e en my doctor agreed with - because I had already been assessed as unfit for work whilst on ESA. I went back and told my work coach this who wasn’t having any of it and said I did need a fit note. I still have not received a fit note and it still says on my UC ‘to do list’ that I need to give them one. I’m hoping to see a doctor who will give me one next week.
About a week after this, I got a letter from ESA saying they weren’t paying me anymore ESA with the reasoning “you now have to claim universal credit” - so I’m not sure if UC already got notice from ESA that I was claiming beforehand and that’s why I got this letter.
Our online universal credit portal told us that we would receive our statement on the 14th July telling us how much we would get. The 14th of July has come and gone and we’ve had no statement from them. It’s now the 15th and our profile is still reading “your statement will be ready on the 14th July” we’re apparently due to be paid by them on the 20th. In 5 days. This clearly won’t be happening as we haven’t even received our statement of entitlement.
We’re now in desperate financial need. We can’t apply for another advance payment because it’s gone past the date we should’ve had our statement.
I called up the universal credit helpline today who were absolutely useless. I feel I’ll get more sense from posting on this forum. I asked the guy why we hadn’t received our statement and his only response was “I dunno.” (Seriously) so I folllweed up with “my partner and I were maybe assuming it was because it was a Sunday that the statement was due so that’s why we didn’t get one, but we’d have expected it to be updated today as it’s a Monday” He just went silent and finally “oh okay. Maybe yeah cause it was a Sunday”
I intend to go to the job centre tomorrow when my partner is not at work to find out what is going on. I’m disabled so can’t leave the house alone otherwise I’d go today.
Any advice please? I’m so worried. I don’t know where to go.
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Comments
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The letter from ESA is because as soon as you claim UC the ESA team are notified and your ESA entitlement ends from the date you claimed UC.
Although your statement isn't up that doesn't necessarily mean you will not get paid on the 20th. However the fact you haven't supplied a Fit Note as requested may be a problem. You could try ringing the helpline again and see if you get somebody a bit more clued up who can tell you whether you are scheduled to get a payment - not very satisfactory I know.
Although you shouldn't have to provide one I do urge you to supply a Fit Note as requested. The DWP problem is that UC have to wait for information from ESA to confirm your status, in the meantime you are, by default, a jobseeker. Unfortunately the different parts of DWP do not seem to be able to share data efficiently.
As previously advised you may not get the LCWRA element in your first UC payment because of the delay in obtaining information from ESA.Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Some rules may be different in other parts of UK.0 -
Have you asked your case manager to send the MPG1 form to ESA as i advised on your previous thread?0
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Hi,
Yes I did follow your advise and asked her if she had filled one out. She didn’t really give me a direct answer and told me that ESA contacts them with the details of my claim. She also seemed pretty annoyed that I hadn’t supplied a fit note yet - there’s nothing I can do about that as I’m not seeing my doctor until next week so I just shrugged her off. (And when I did see my doctor last week, she told me I didn’t need a fit note as I had already been claiming ESA)
She believes my statement hasn’t been generated because I changed my bank details on the online portal just before it was due to be released. This is true, I did do this - but the same woman told me I couldn’t change my bank details IN the job centre and had to do it online, because I asked her at my first interview if I could change my bank there and then. I changed it online and had to make an appointment to confirm it ‘in person’ at the job centre. This could’ve all been sorted and dealt with but wasn’t.
Dependent on how the next 2 weeks goes, my partner and I will likely have to get vouchers for a food bank. It’s somethint I never saw myself doing. I’m past worrying about it now and just so grateful I’ve had all the wonderful advice from this forum0 -
17th Jul 19, 11:30 AM
LOUISE25
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Hi me and my partner received uc joint claim with 3 children be works. We split few weeks back I took him off claim we are trying to get back on track could I just add him back onto claim?0 -
17th Jul 19, 11:30 AM
LOUISE25
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Hi me and my partner received uc joint claim with 3 children be works. We split few weeks back I took him off claim we are trying to get back on track could I just add him back onto claim?
Louise please don't take this the wrong way but it would be more beneficial to you, and more courtesy to the OP, if you started a thread of your own rather than hijacking multiple threads with the same question.
You can do this by pressing the new thread button (coloured blue) on the sub forum main page.0 -
Just a quick update-
My partner took me to the job centre today and we got placed with a wonderful, helpful work coach who went away and researched whether I needed to supply fit notes. She spoke to several colleagues and found that I didn’t need to provide them with any fit notes. The request for a fit note is still on my online portal but the job centre has told me they don’t want one anymore.
I get the feeling that most of the confusion has come from the work coaches at my job centre not fully understanding what ESA is or was. The lady herself told me that she didn’t fully understand ESA and wasn’t familiar with it, so she sought help from a colleague.
I have also checked my payment tab today and my partner and I are due to be paid £900 on the 20th. So I think everything is done and dusted. It’s far more than we were expecting and they have added my disability entitlement.
Thank you so much for all of your help0 -
Very glad to hear that it has hopefully been sorted. I think it is true that many staff, if they are not completely new, will be more familiar with JSA rather than ESA.Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Some rules may be different in other parts of UK.0
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This seems to be so common now0
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