Received letter that I must migrate from Income related ESA to Universal credit

[Conkersforrest]

The letter says my existing payments will stop two weeks after I make my universal credit application.

Can someone please help me understand how long it will take them to process the claim? My account is already constantly in the red and I don’t know how I’ll survive if it’s a weeks long process.

Please someone ease my mind.

You'll get your first payment 5 weeks after you start your claim. You'll get a 2 week run of ESA. You can get an advance payment from UC

Don't worry it's not as awful and stressful as it sounds, I had to do them same recently. I made my application online and got a run on of my benefits for 2 weeks and then when we had our appointment with the Job Centre she put through a £1k advance for us that went into the bank within an hour and we pay it back at £48 a month. It's all been very smooth and stress free.

Thank you both! Very kind of you to chime in, and that has been very informative and eye opening. I didn’t have a clue what to expect.

So, do they look upon this as a new claim, or do they merely look upon at as a transferring from one bureaucratic scheme to another without having to go through the lot with a fine tooth comb either adding or deducting points?

My main question is, how close is this to a review of the entire previous claim?

Do you have a coach at the job centre?
They should be able to help you if you're on the lower rate.
Otherwise you SHOULD just be transferred over.

Good luck Conkersforrest, scary time of year for it x

Everyone on the lower rate at our job centre is being reassessed but I'm not sure if that's country wide. And it's taking years.
I have one client who is still getting their payments despite waiting over a year for reassessment!
So they won't just cut you off. Don't worry yet.

That’s both reassuring and concerning at the same time!
Great to not be cut off, but which payment may be ongoing? The ESA or the UC? What if there is a discrepancy in provision between the two?

The letter says my existing payments will be stopped two weeks after the UC claim,

I don’t have a coach and I’m not on the lower rate, due to disabilities, what can I expect in that situation?

It’s all very worrying to be honest, and can’t sleep.

Sorry for this late response and I hope you see it. You will be put on the higher rate because you have No capability for work and work related activities. You're not going to be assessed just transferred from one payment system to the over.
UC will at the very least be what you got from ESA due to transitional protection.
They should just see you once to verify your identity and at that meeting they can sort you out with an advance of money to last until your first payment.

I do appreciate your response so much and it has been so very reassuring, thank you so much for taking the time out to respond to me. I wish you and yours all the very best from me. 💐

Hi OP, having recently transferred from Tax Credits to UC (a bit different I know) I wish that I had consulted a local benefits charity for a bit of free advice before I swapped over. Not that the process was particularly difficult, but there were a few things that I didn't realise I could have done or known that might have made it much simpler (such as choosing the date I applied to make the claim period work better for me, as that will stick with you ongoing). I suggest you make an appointment with your local CAB, or similar charity that does benefits advice (there's bound to be one) who can chat through all your questions and help you. I hope this is helpful! But overall it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!

Also, do it a bit before you have to swap over, to give you time to prepare everything! So you know in advance.