To ask you about the apparent shittyness of UC?

[TheBubble]

My sister has quite severe MH issues, she is currently on the other side of our city alone with her DC after a messy breakup with her DP. Her home that doesn’t suit her or her family’s needs and her health is declining. She has found a home that is close to me and our family but the one thing that is terrifying her is that moving with trigger her change into UC.

I’m more than a little worried about her so I need to ask any who has experience with UC and previous claiming of ESA. She is on income related ESA - the support group. If she were to move and switch to UC will she be forced to go through another capability assessment?

I ask this because she receives PIP and the assement traumatised her. The assessor was so rude and assuming and made her feel like absolute shit, accused her of lying, questioned the nature of her mental health issues. It sent her spiraling but we fought tooth and nail with PIP to get the entitlement she deserved. I don’t think with current circumstances as they are (or even after) that she will be able to go through another assessment for the ‘new’ ESA in Universal Credit.

So my questions are has any one any experience do switching from income based esa to UC? If so, were you forced to do a capability assement? I’m not very good at these things and I can’t understand how she would need to be forced through another assement when she has already been assessed by Capita.

It's a good question. Not sure of the answer but I thought usually ESA medicals are only valid for a certain length of time so it might be that she would have had to have another one anyway

UC varies so much by area at the moment that it might be best to speak to a local advice agency to see what's happening in her area at the mo

My sister had to have a new assessment for uc and she passed it so lost her money. Not trying to scare you but she has fibromyalgia, daily migraines, inter cranial hypertension and they are saying she has to go to the job centre to sign on because people in wheelchairs are doing it!

I am giving her £400 a month so she can pay bills and afford to eat. It's awful.

She had her last pip assessment one month before her uc one was requested, they then took two months before they did it.... the process is demeaning but apparently it is something we should be proud of!

I’m not totally sure but I think that ah would have to have another assement as she is moving voluntarily

You really need to find out exactly how much she gets at present because she could lose an awful lot of money depending on her circumstances

I think she could possibly loses the transional protection if she move onto UC voluntarily

So in she moved voluntarily instead of being managed over naturally then she could lose the Disability payment if she. Is in the support group whic is worth about £25 a week
If she gets the care element of pip then she could also lose the severe disabilities payment which is added to income support
She would get this if she lives on her own and has not got anyone claiming carers allowance for her or an adult living with her this is worth £62 a week

You also want to check if the move to the other side of the city is still within the same council for housing benefit because that also triggers a voluntary move to universal credit which in tern could lose her the extra payments on her income support

I would reccomend that you post the same question on the benefit and works forum but make sure you know exactly what your sister has got at the moment in terms of money

If she is receiving PIP as well as ESA, then she may be getting the EDP and SDP if no-one is claiming Carers Allowance for caring for her. I may not be totally correct, but I don’t think these exist under UC, so she may be worse off by about £40 a week.

Moving into a UC area will trigger another ESA assessment, as it is classed as a different benefit.

Dear god, it really is worse than what I thought. I’ve been looking things up for our area and entitled to is saying:

“If you move to Universal Credit from Employment and Support Allowance and have already been assessed as having limited capability for work you will not have to undertake the assessment again. If you were in the work related activity group you will be put in the LCW group (if you were receiving the extra WRAG amount in ESA you will get the extra LCW amount in UC). If you were in the ESA support group you will be awarded the UC LCWRA element.”

If others are still being called how is this fair ? Should no one be called out on this?

Her move is needed for her mental health though. She’s terrified of her ex and is totally alone over in that part of the city. Her condition is spiraling because of it all and not having us near her to check in and help out is scaring us.