change over to Universal credit

vollante

Hi 
can anyone out there help. My daughter is on ESA within the support group. She is trying to move out into her own home. we have been told that she needs to claim UC but will she be worse off? One person has said yes and antother one said no but when I look on the website she will not get any enhancement or extra help on UC She has a 4yr old and a learning disability. She has been offered a private tenancy but reluctant to sign as she is worried she will be in debt as it will take 6 weeks to process the claim. Any help very much appreciated.

poppy123456

Hi,

Does your daughter claim PIP daily living or DLA mid/high rate care? If so does she claim the severe disability premium in with her ESA?

poppy123456

Does she also claim DLA for her child?

vollante

No she dosent

vollante

She has the learning disability not the child

poppy123456

Then if she moves she'll have to claim UC because all areas are now a full UC area and new claims for housing benefit aren't possible. The best thing you can do is to put all her details in a benefits calculator and it will do a comparison for what she's claims now to what she'll get when claiming UC. She'll also get the housing element in with her UC payment. Child tax credits will also stop and be in with the UC payment. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

When she transfers from ESA they will place her in the relevant group for UC which is LCWRA and this should happen about 2-3 weeks after her claim for UC starts. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

If you can't do the benefits calculator then i'd advise she speaks to a local advice centre near her for a full benefits check.

debsidoo

Hi @vollante
I would advise her to think carefully before moving out as if she changes address she will no longer come under the managed migration to Universal Credit but will be regarded as a new claim.She would get considerably less than she is getting now so will need to make sure finances won’t be a struggle as with a small child I’m sure she doesn’t need the extra stress.
   Debsidoo.x

poppy123456

debsidoo said:

Hi @vollante
I would advise her to think carefully before moving out as if she changes address she will no longer come under the managed migration to Universal Credit but will be regarded as a new claim.She would get considerably less than she is getting now so will need to make sure finances won’t be a struggle as with a small child I’m sure she doesn’t need the extra stress.
   Debsidoo.x

That's not exactly correct. If a person transfers to UC from Support Group for ESA then LCWRA under UC actually pays more per month than ESA Support Group. As figures show here the difference between the 2. Only those that were claiming the SDP in with their ESA would have been considerably worse off.

ESA support group..

Personal Allowance aged 25+ £73.10
Support Group Component £37.65
Enhanced Disability Premium £16.40
Total £127.15 a week = £552.50 per calendar month.

Universal Credit
Personal Allowance aged 25+ £317.82
Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity amount £328.32
Total £646.14 per calendar month. Under 25 £580 PCM.

What ever your age LCWRA pays more than ESA support group despite there being no premiums with UC. People automatically think they will be worse off on UC, this is not always true. DWP will honour the ESA award and give you the same award as you were claiming for ESA but this can take a couple of weeks to transfer details across.

Any other elements on top like the child element and housing element will also be added to the claim but of course this depends on circumstances.

vollante

Thank you for your advice. it seems that the move will work in her favour and she will be able afford to as well. So many different views out there. Thanks again everyone

poppy123456

You're welcome. UC is an awful benefit for anyone to have to claim, worse if you're disabled, i won't lie about that. However, a lot of people think that it's less money than ESA Support Group because there's no disability premiums paid. I even thought that myself until i did a benefits check on myself.

Yes, you're worse off if in the past you claimed the severe disability premium but certainly not if you didn't or don't claim it. People think they're worse off because ESA is paid fortnightly but UC paid monthly so in that respect it looks like you're a lot worse off. Not true if you do the correct calculations but not everyone will believe me. A benefits calculator will give you the exact amount i put above because that's where i got the calculations from.

Good luck to your daughter with her house move and i hope everything goes well for her. If you need anymore advice in the meantime, or after the move then please do post back, i'm sure someone will happily advise you.

vollante

Hi
I just returned from an appointment with my daughter they had to verify her ID etc. The man we saw was very good and explained everything and done as much as he could at this appointment, more than what he was supposed to do. Very positive appointment. He transferred my daughter straight over to the support group within the UC system. I asked about the limited capability to work group. He said that these were for people who are able to work in the future he gave the example of someone who has broke their leg or someone who has a condition that will get better. My daughter's learning disabilities and other conditions will not improve. So I am not sure how it will work out financially but she had no option. Housing benefit will be paid direct to the landlord, but it will take at least 5 weeks for everything to go through. We have paid her first months rent and will not get it back as they do not back date, but she could have taken an advance of up to £1115. but that would put her in debt as soon as she walked out of our door. We are lucky that we have the money to help, many people don't.