ESA-UC: Deductions confusion

Hi Gary, thanks for the reply, and what you say makes sense too - in that I'd expect the fortnightly amounts of NS ESA - paid over a month - to be deducted from the UC amount paid each month.
Similarly, I would totally get it, if my first month of UC was reduced by the amount of NS ESA that was paid into my bank account (24 days after my UC claim date), which was around £290.
However, a deduction of over £600 from my first payment of UC doesn't make sense to me.
As I've said, I was told by DWP advisors, discussing the transition from ESA to UC with me, that for two weeks only, after the date I made my UC claim, any old benefits I was due to receive would continue, and then stop for good.
I was told, unequivocally, that these payments would NOT be included in the UC claim calculation / they would not be deducted. That made sense to me, as I thought old style ESA was always paid two weeks in arrears.
Hence the confusion about the £600+ figure, that's to be deducted from my first month of UC, where did that figure come from?
Why is that amount of money being deducted from my first payment of UC, if the old ESA payment I received (10 days after my UC claim was submitted) shouldn't be included in the "benefits to deduct" calculation?
If approximately £290 was being deducted, that would make sense - as that's the only 'new benefit' amount I will have received during the assessment period.
Is it a mistake? Or am I missing something?
A deduction of £600+ MUST have included the payment of old ESA, right?
So, was I told nonsense by the DWP advisor who assured me the old ESA wouldn't be included?
I have asked - through my journal - for details of how the £600+ figure was calculated, what that amount is based on, but nada, sadly!
I had read about claimants on mixed awards being treated differently than claimants on IR ESA only, during the switch to UC - so maybe this is what's happening to me....But it doesn't seem right to ignore my questions, and it doesn't seem right not to have been sent any letters from NS ESA, or UC either.
Aren't public bodies / government departments supposed to accessible and transparent / provide clear, relevant, and accurate information?
How can so many people suddenly find out what benefits they were receiving?
Why are so many of us getting no information / misleading / false information?
Why disadvantage mixed ESA claimants (compared to IR ESA claimants) when they migrate?
Honestly, I'm so fed up with it all: Confusion; stress; misinformation; worry; searching for answers; feeling invisible and/or like a nuisance.
They said it (the change to UC) would be easy, nothing much would change - but it seems that everything I was told was lies!
Sorry - I know I'm moaning, but I shouldn't have been given false expectations about what I was waiting for. Like everyone else reliant on benefits, every penny is more than accounted for in outgoings. So, huge deductions from the amount I was led to believe was coming, is a nasty shock, made worse by the lack of explanation.

Hi JustMe

I have been where you are.... So confusing!!! I migrated in August; I too received a notification of overpayment, before I had even received my first payment from UC. Like you it was for 600+. I dutifully contacted UC who told me the overpayment was relating to the ESA payments I had received within the 5 week period whilst processing my first claim. Understood that bit, but was confused by the amount they were saying, as I had not received the £600+ in ESA they were deducting. This is the very confusing part..... ESA pays fortnightly, ie every 2 weeks, so in a year you would receive 26 payments. However, UC pays monthly so in a year you would only receive 12 payments (not every 4 weeks). If you add up ESA 26 fortnightly payments you would receive £X, if you add your 12 UC payments (excluding the housing element or any "transitional payments or extra money for sick or disabled) it will come to the same amount as your ESA payments per year. What UC do is 52 X weekly ESA ÷ 12, where ESA use weekly ESA x 2. Hopefully that helps?! It looks like UC are taking a chunk out of your UC, but they're actually not; it's a tuffy to get your head around I know, a complete mindbender, something they probably should have added to the migration bumph.... But in typical DWP fashion, no transparency!!!