ESA Migration not going well.

After reciving Migration Notice , i read your guide throughly .
I contacted Citizens Advice help to claim , and went through every meticulous detail of our transition over to Universal Credit .

Frankly , its been awful so far .

Im appointee for my Husband . I am also on ESA . Making a jount claim means two email accounts. Two usernames to set up. Two passwords to set up. Two telephone numbers. Two sets of sercurity questions. difficult when one has niether mobile phone , email , or can use computer.
Thats took a lot of draining time of setting it up.
Then complete on line. Fine . Then submit on day of ESA IR payment.

First comes back Local Authority has said we have a 4 bed house. We have a 3 bedroom house and it states that on our legal tenancy agreement.

We appealed our HB decision when bedroom tax was introduced.

This took 2.5 yrs of a legal battle from 2014 to 2015 to sort out at a Tribunal.

We won. We also are entiled to a bedroom each on grounds of disability. A room for overnight carer. The judge statement our tenancy agreement legally binding , and "in the absence of fraud" the had altered thier records purely for the Bedroom Tax purpise. It was also stated the Council were complicit in direct disability discrimination.

The Council finally , accepted the Judges decision we have a 3 bed house and for last 9 years we have been exempt from BT.

The Council have now said they still accept the Tribunal decision and will tell UC , we have a 3 bed house for the purpose of Universal Credit , but thier system will still have it recorded as a 4 bed. Excuse me , but , isnt giving incorrect information solely to claim a benefit , fraud???

Then the Carers Allowance , underlying entilement came up. I got decision saying we will not get SDP , as we claim Carers Allowance.

I got the Citizens Advice in on this , they too were confused, we had a tree way call to an agent at UC , they were confused...

The Agent said both issues will go to case manager.

Opened Jornnal, they have resent a form to LA.
Now they want to know why we cant share a room.

I have logged all the details , reasons, dates of Trinbunal in journal, request 3 times a link , ( as advised by CAB) to upload Tribunal Decision.

Universal Credit have ignored every request for a link.

This Migration so far , is pants.

Im sure we will get there , in the end . But so triggering.

I think its fair to say migration is now complete and first payment has been paid.

I checked the payment with CAB and all is correct.

There was a deduction of £28 and it said you cannot for be paid ESA the same time as UC.

So i wrote an MR , and the reply was there was a run on of ESA IR , and that deduction was for one day of IR ESA.

The Housing Costs have been my biggest anxiety and still not over .

The bedroom tax resolved for now. UC made thier own decision based on my response , room each for disability , heads up, for anyone reading this ...I had to explain in detail ..the reason WHY being in the same room is difficult .... the disability is not enough , and as all things to do with disabilabily and chronic illness , it is all evidence based and I had to go into embarrassing and undignified detail , of the reason WHY. But please dont be put of by this , needs must. I have now reached a point in my life where I think , well , you asked , I hope you enjoy your lunch after this call.

So sorted. Room for Overnight Care also sorted.

That part has been triggering for me, that whole bedroom tax fiasco was so distressing at the time , but I sent the Tribunal decision over , but still had to go over the details.

I went on a carers respite , and the decision maker rang my husbands phone ( my claim is under his phone number) and he said she is on a respite week , and she asked quite firmly ...are you on your own ??? He replied he had a friend staying for the week and he was in the room and and called out , "yep , im staying with the ole git". I know they want to know , but seriously , you feel your life is under scrutiny all the time!

Housing costs , we got the full amount. But for the first time is 4 decades my rent account went into arrears and I was emailed by the local authority on the first week . They were requesting a months payment up front now and making suggestions how I can pay it in the future .

Frankly , they can bog off. Ive altered all my direct debit dates and done an account switch and from now now I will be paying weekly .in advance , as per my tenancy agreement.

I cleared the arrears with my first payment and paid an extra week , i will take it from there . my goal is to get a month in credit at some point , just in case of emergency or change of circs, like my Husband or I dying , or going into hospital. I worry about these things constantly.

Now for Council Tax , I seemed to have missed the point of applying for Council Tax Reduction Scheme , i got confused with the disability reduction scheme . Ive applied online , but looking at Disability News Service posts , it seems we have pay CT out of our transition payment ? Ill wait to see what the Council say . Our Council joined up with Surrey CC now , so god only knows what the response will be!

so all in all , i would say the transition is not smooth sailing , even with all the best help on offer.

I have had to be on my computer , for longer than I would normally . timehttps://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/kunena/10-dla-esa-queries-results/151506-esa-migration-not-going-well/reply/309353 consuming , finding the right head space, finding the right time when not not in pain etc etc doing all the journaling and replying.

I have spent several hours over all , on the phone to Citizens Advice , included in that is trying to get through. Then the three way calls with UC , and the time spent going through all the details. It has to be done and they have been excellent throughout , i think its fair to say , you need help with this migration.

then , all my conversations, and emils with my landlord . i always give them a wide berth , they have over the years treated us very unfairly and that was confirmed by a Tribunal judge and Disability Discrimination hearing and Ombudsman. But for now , they have stepped back and stayed put and co operated.

B&W has always been my go to place where I have posted my journey , used all the resources and its got me through . so thank you BW .

David wrote:

Hi raindaisy Sorry to hear about the difficulties you are experiencing. Let us know if there is a resolution and if not I can find the correct DWP manager for a complaint. David

David, can you find my one please? I did ask before in a dedicated post but didn't get a reply from you