Esa, work & universal migration letter.

[Snugglewuggle25]

Hello,
It's time for me to migrate to UC. I'm quite worried as to what it will mean though as I work 15hrs pw. My OH is on ESA. I have 1 child in high school which I receive tax credits for. No WTC only CTC. I've been told by friends (it's happened to them) that I will need to increase my hours, that my job coach will make an issue out of working only 15 hrs. There are no extra hours at my place of work, which I've been there over 8 years. So was wondering will I have to find an additional job to either make up the hours/wage (My job is also pro rata) or leave this job and find another altogether as I can't see anyone wanting to employ me for 3 hours a week?? Has anyone been through anything similar? I would love to study nursing if this is an option, has anyone left work, UC and how do you cope financially if you don't claim UC?
I'm so confused, it's consuming my every thought.
Any input would be great. Thankyou 😊

UC doesn't use hours worked but multiples of the National Living Wage. What are your current earnings?

How old are your children and does your OH get PIP?

Is your OH in receipt of the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment? If not have they looked at whether they might be eligible? If he was in receipt of the daily living component of PIP you would be able to claim the Carer Element of UC and have no work commitments. How old is your child?

Thankyou for your reply. My wage is 15hrs £650pm. Is sounds less than NMW as it's pro rata, it's spread over the 12 months as I get paid in the holidays. My OH is currently on ESA. No PIP. My child is 14. I heard the wage has to be £800+? So working those extra 3 hours wouldn't workout anyway would it. I love my job, don't want to leave but if I have to leave then I would love to study nursing and just have that job til I retire 🙃 (20yrs work left in me yet b4 i retire!!) Maybe I'm just living in a ream world, I don't know if it's possible.

Thankyou for your reply 😊. He is not in receipt of PIP. Just esa on these old legacy benefits. Are they the same thing? Just renamed it or is it something completely different? ✨️

Yes it's likely you will be asked to look for more hours as you don't meat the AET earnings threshold. How much they actually push this I'm not sure but as the government are making changes to encourage even sick people back into work, then it's likely they may push you to look for more hours.

PIP is a disability benefit and completely seperate to ESA. If your husband was getting PIP daily living then you would be able to claim carers element and be exempt from the AET. If he is the support group of ESA then that should transfer over with him and he should get the LCWRA element added to your claim. If any part of his ESA claim is contributions based then that continues to be paid seperately to UC but deducted in full.

Is there any reason you work so few hours - for example does your dh need a lot of care or is it just that you have always done these hours? If he needs care then have a look at the PIP descriptors and see if he qualifies.

First thing is to get yourself and your husband migrated to Universal Credit. If he's in the Support Group in ESA you'll probably be a little bit better off as the corresponding addition in UC is a bit more than in ESA. Speak to the guys on Help to Claim about the process and how best to time your claim.

You may be expected to take steps to find more, or better paid, work but UC will still be paid while you do that. If your husband's health condition means he has care needs, albeit below the level where PIP is payable your Job Coach should give you some leeway for that.

Might your husband qualify for PIP? Try this test:

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-self-test

Your pay for 15hrs at NLW looks low. I'd expect it to be nearer £750.00 but if, for example, you're in a school term time only but paid in 12 installments there may be a reason.

Ok Op it will be fine.
First you need to work out your current benefits income. I suggest you get help from Citizens Advice with this. The Help to Claim service does UC new claims and will check your first UC payment is correct.

The key thing with managed migration is to apply in time and to make sure you are claiming the maximum that you are entitled to in "legacy" benefits prior to moving to UC.

Transitional payments are added to the UC entitlement to protect people from immediately losing out financially, if their old benefits were a higher amount than the UC they are entitled to.

The previous poster is correct that you don't need to work a particular number of hours to be free of the work search commitments if you are earning over the AET (Administrative Earnings Threshold) which is £892 for an individual that will be enough. It is higher for a couple but may be different if your partner has no work related requirements. So speak to your work coach about your joint claim commitment.
www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-earnings

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/contact-us/help-to-claim/

Good luck op. Get help don't do it without some advice from CA.

Yes he's in the support group and last assessment he had said that he has this claim until 2029. Whether that changes I don't know. So he will continue to get his esa under uc, as a joint claim? And I will still get my wage, plus CTCx1. But most likely be told to earn more. I just want to be prepared for this. Also does anyone know about the payment period? I don't get it. I get paid my wage on 15th of each month. Is it true that my claim can't be started within the week either side of the 15th as it will look like I've already had a payment of some kind and will not pay uc?? Just happened to a friend of mine, paid wage on 15th and she was expecting to be paid uc on 17th and they didn't pay her?? 😕

@Bromptotoo yes I work in school that's why it seems to be low. Thankyou for all your advice. Much appreciated ✨️😊

It depends whether you any part of your dh's ESA is contributions based. If it is then that part of it will continue to be paid separately to Uc but deducted.
On your first statement you should have a couples element, a child element, the LCWRA element for your husband ( as he is in support group of esa). If you pay rent then you will also have a rent element. these elements go to make up your total UC . Then they take off deductions. Your earnings will have some of it disregarded ( work allowance). this amount will depend if you rent or not. then it is reduced by 55p per pound above what is left after work allowance deducted.
It should be fairly straightforward, the main thing I would watch out for is that LCWRA element being added as sometimes is missed off. once your Uc claim is up and running then leave a journal message to say he is in ESA support group.
You can speak to the UC help to claim team who work through citizens advice if you need guidance.
Your monthly UC assessment period will start on the day you make the claim and end one month later. So if you made a claim today would always be 29th -28th of each month with UC paid seven days later. I think general advice is to keep your work paydate away from the end of the assessment period as if your pay day varies for example you get paid early at Xmas then this can mess things up.

@FlemCandango thankyou for your advice. I will definitely get help from CA. ✨️😊

@Miley1967 thankyou for your time and advice. 😊✨️

@user1468867181 thankyou for your advice. ✨️😊

The ESA your partner claims will stop when you make a joint UC claim unless it is "new style" ESA based on his national insurance contributions.

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/employment-and-support-allowance/help-with-your-esa-claim/check-if-you-can-claim-esa/

If your partner gets new style/ contribution based ESA then it will continue but the amount he gets will be deducted £ for £ from the UC. Another reason to check with help from Help to Claim that your UC is correct.

He should be automatically put in the LCWRA (limited capability for work and work related activity) group for UC which is the equivalent of the Support Group in ESA. So either if he gets his ESA stopped or it continues and is deducted from UC you should not lose out financially.

Thankyou everyone for your time and advice. It has helped a lot. Hope you all have a lovely Sunday 😊✨️💐....
By all means if anyone has anything more to add, will be much appreciated. 💐

@Snugglewuggle25 there's a lot of confusion out there. A lot of people who know diddly about benefits are putting the wind up innocent people like yourself who are involved in 'Mandatory Migration'.

A talk tomorrow with Help to Claim should ease your fears.

UC is is calculated and paid monthly. If you were to apply on 01 October the first month, called an Assessment Period will end on 31 October and you'll be paid on or about 07 November.

There are no hard rules about when you can/cannot start a claim. There are though tactical considerations, for example if a claimant has lost their job and expects a wodge of final salary.

It's best to avoid a situation where your AP ends close to salary day as, with banking day shift around weekends and public holidays you can get two lots of pay in one AP. That is now something that can be untangled but it's a ball ache you can do without!!

The way assessed periods work on UC is that they run from the date of your initial claim for a calendar month and UC is paid in arrears.

So when you first claim if your claim on 2nd October your assessment period is from 2nd October to 1st November. Any income received in that time is "assessed" and your UC is calculated based on that income so if you get paid on 15th that will be included in the calculation. You are then paid a week after the end of your assessed period so first UC payment would be around 7th November and UC would be paid around the 7th every month following. You wait 5 weeks for your 1st UC payment.

Issues with not getting any UC can happen if people get paid twice in an assessment period, so time your claim to avoid that if possible. Also people who have just lost a job should wait until they get their last pay then apply for UC the day after to avoid having the final wage included in their first UC calculation.

Just to tidy up a loose end...

If an ESA claimant is in the Support Group, or has legacy rights the abolished addition for having Limited Capability for Work that should follow them. The UC Regs are crystal clear on that.

In a few cases that's not happening as it should. People who should have no Work Related Requirements are being told they need to do a CV, register with places like Indeed. They are also asked to attend regular Work Coach meetings and hassled for 'fit notes'.

This seems to be partly due to information from ESA not getting to UC but there's also a lack of training of front of house staff in Job Centres. A reminder of the Regs usually sorts it but it's really bad where people have a catalogue of health conditions.

I agree with the advice to contact Help to Claim.

And your partner should really look into whether he could get PIP - the PIP self-test shared by a PP is good, and see also https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/before-claiming/check-you-are-eligible/
If he is likely to be eligible for PIP, he should start a claim asap as it takes a long time. The first step is to call the helpline and give some basic info, they will then send him a form to complete. He can ask Citizens Advice for help to complete it if he wants.

If your partner gets PIP (daily living component) you will be able to register as his carer and won't be required to increase your paid work. In the meantime though you will be expected to earn £1437/month (before tax) and as you're earning less than that, they will expect you to take reasonable steps to increase your earnings. This means searching and applying for jobs. You won't be penalised if you can't find a job but you will be expected to try.

If your earnings are below £892 in any month they will contact you to make a review appointment. This happened to me as I work in school supply and didn't have enough earnings in August. Since then I have been working pretty much every day but they are still hounding me for an appointment even though I haven't been able to go to any because I'm always at work! I would not leave my job if I didn't want to just to please them, I would attempt to find 3 more hours, perhaps in the after school club?

There are two criteria for Carer status in benefits. One is receipt of PIP for Daily Living (or the equivalent in DLA/AA) the other is that care is provided for 35hours a week.

This was helpful explaining the dates. I'll be sure to calculate it correctly to avoid the 15th. Thankyou 😊

I think general advice is to keep your work paydate away from the end of the assessment period as if your pay day varies for example you get paid early at Xmas then this can mess things up.

Spot on. If I was paid on 15 of each month, I'd want my assessment period to start around 1st of the month.