The key advice (for any claimant wishing to avoid migration to UC) is to ensure that the WCA failure has been challenged and that challenge is continuing before any new claim is made. In that case, income-related ESA is not abolished for her/him, and s/he can return to it if her/his challenge to the WCA failure is successful. If at the point the new claim is made the claimant is pursuing a challenge to the WCA failure, including at mandatory reconsideration, s/he will not satisfy the gateway conditions. If that happens, again the practical result is likely to be a claim for UC, completing the migration from ESA. In a live service area, income-related ESA will be abolished for her/him if s/he claims UC or tries to make a new claim for JSA or for ESA, and s/he satisfies the UC gateway conditions. The key advice for any claimant wishing to avoid migration to UC is not to make a new claim for UC, ESA or JSA. The result is likely to be a claim for UC, so making the migration complete. From that point, s/he cannot be entitled to income-related ESA, even if s/he successfully challenges the WCA failure. It makes no difference whether such a new claim is made before or after a request for mandatory reconsideration or appeal.
#THIS IS A ESA PROTECTED ROM FULL#
In a full service area, income-related ESA will be abolished for her/him if s/he claims UC, or tries to make a new claim for JSA or for ESA. What happens then depends on whether the claimant is in a UC full service area or a live service area. After failing the WCAĪ common situation in which natural migration from income-related ESA to UC may occur is following a failure of the work capability assessment (WCA). But a claimant getting old- style contributory ESA can still top this up with income-related ESA, rather than UC: the addition of income-related ESA would be by way of a supersession rather than a new claim for ESA. In both cases the result is that all legacy benefits, including income-related ESA, are abolished. An ESA claimant in a full service area who has a first child will not be able to make a new claim for tax credits, and again may well claim UC instead. For example, a claimant who relocates to a UC full service area is unable to make a new housing benefit claim and is likely to feel obliged to claim UC instead. 1 (‘Claim’ is not defined, and arguably someone who withdraws the claim before it is decided, or whose claim is defective, has not made a claim, but this point is yet to be tested.) A claimant who makes a new claim for jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) or ESA may well feel obliged to claim UC, having found that her/ his income-related ESA has been abolished – see below.īut other scenarios are possible. Migration to UC is complete in any case where a claimant makes a new ‘claim’ for UC. There are also relevant pages on the ‘Ask CPAG’ pages. The claim for UC terminates all entitlement to whatever legacy benefits s/he may have in effect, s/he is then fully under the UC system.(Also, a claimant wishing to move to UC could short circuit the whole process simply by submitting a claim for UC.)Ī full description of what is involved is in the article ‘Universal credit and “natural migration”’ in Bulletin 254, p5. S/he therefore decides to claim UC instead. Natural migration occurs where a change in circumstances causes a claimant to make (or attempt to make) a new claim for a legacy benefit and then finds that, under the UC rules, s/he cannot make a new claim. There is no transitional protection to the level of legacy benefit previously received. Outside that process, including before 2019, it is possible to migrate from income-related ESA to UC under so-called ‘natural migration’. It is expected that transitional protection will mean that the claimant remains entitled at least to the amount of legacy benefit received at the point of migration. Contributory ESA however can be paid with UC or otherwise under the UC system – in which case it is referred to as ‘new-style’ ESA.Īn official ‘managed migration’ process, in which current claimants will effectively be required to claim UC instead of legacy benefits (including income-related ESA), is due to start in 2019 and be complete by 2022. Any income-related ESA, and any contributory ESA paid outside the UC system, is called ‘old-style’ ESA. UC completely replaces income-related ESA. Migration is about moving or transferring from income-related ESA to UC. Simon Osborne looks at the rules regarding claimants ‘migrating’ from employment and support allowance (ESA) to universal credit (UC) What is ESA to UC migration?