ESA and UC

Well the government do seem to be escalating the roll out (probably to look good for the election) and where I live is going to be covered by this in the near future, and although I wont be effected yet, but I can't help but dread whats to come it all the same.

Just Me wrote: Well the government do seem to be escalating the roll out (probably to look good for the election) and where I live is going to be covered by this in the near future, and although I wont be effected yet, but I can't help but dread whats to come it all the same.

Hi JM,

This is one reason why we don't like discussing UC at present, as it seems to alarm people unduly.

If you look at the list of potential claimants that are allowed to claim UC at this time :

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?view=top...=10&id=102768#128455

It is very very limited, verging on the ridiculous, (Described as "Basic Cases") and even then it is only for new claims, not existing claimants.

As you will have read there are only somewhere around 27,000 people currently claiming UC nationally, when there should have been "millions" by now.

UC came into force in 2013, it is simply IDS refusing to admit that he has wasted huge amounts of money on a failed UC IT system.

I can only reiterate, that we will keep everyone updated !!

bro58

Just compared the benefit rates of the two benefits and found that a single person like me on IR-ESA and in the Support Group would benefit a great deal more under UC...

Currently under IR-ESA I get;

£72.40 Personal Allowance
£35.75 Support Component
£15.55 Enhanced Disability Premium

TOTAL = £494.80 in a 4-weekly period

Under UC using the same WCA I would get;

£314.67 Standard Allowance
£311.86 Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity Element

TOTAL = £626.53 per month

I know there are people who will lose out (Eg Those who get the SDP - but they will at least get transitional protection) but now i'm understanding the REAL reason why IDS has decided to leave us (A simpler group than JSA with no conditionality/sanctions) to the end of the transfer process - and it's nothing to do with protecting us from potential hiccups as the new benefit rolls out, going on his nasty track record he's probably using the delay to find ways of sneaking in a reduction of the LCfW & WRA Element down to the same level of IR-ESA.

Hi,

I am locking this topic to stop it developing further into a discussion.

bro58