Benefits and Work has updated our members’ guide to ‘Successful ESA to UC Managed Migration’ to take account of current claimant concerns.
In general, the impression we are getting from feedback from members is that managed migration is progressing relatively smoothly, at least in terms of very few people now being asked to produce fit-notes or agree to work commitments when having been in the support group.
But it is still very early in the process of moving 60,000+ ESA claimants onto UC every month and only time will tell whether the DWP have invested enough is support processes and visiting staff to be able to cope with demand from more vulnerable claimants.
In the meantime, we have added the following items to the troubleshooting section of the managed migration guide:
- You were receiving contribution-based ESA and the DWP have moved you to ‘New-Style ESA’
- You have moved to UC and have now realised you should have been receiving more irESA (or other legacy benefits) before you moved
- You are having a deduction from your UC housing costs element for a spare bedroom or the wrong rate of local housing allowance is being applied.
- You rent a property but were not receiving Housing Benefit before you moved to UC
- Your partner is being asked to look for work when they did not have to do this on legacy benefits
- Your legacy benefits run-on lasted for more than 2 weeks and the DWP say you have to pay the extra money back
- Help! I’m having deductions from my UC for debts I didn’t know I had!
We’ve also updated the guide to “Employment & Support Allowance and Universal Credit Claims On Physical and Mental Health Grounds” which covers the WCA in great detail. We’ve added a step-by-step system for completing each of the “Use this space” boxes, more information about issues that may be covered at an assessment and more about what HAAS health professionals are told about each activity in their handbook.
Members can download both guides from this page
