We are meeting lots of people at our welfare rights drop in who have been told wrong information about their universal credit claims when they are moving directly from ESA. Here's how it *should* work;
If you are on ESA, you will only have to change to Universal Credit if your circumstances change so that you need to make a new claim. Eg if you move to a new council area where UC is already in full service, if you move in with a partner, or your relationship ends.
If something like that happens, your limited capability for work status should move over to UC with you. If you are in the support group on ESA, you should get the LCWRA element from the start of your UC claim. If you are in the WRAG on ESA, and you have been claiming ESA since before April 2017, you should get the LCW element from the start of your UC claim. Whichever group you are in, you do *not* need to fill in another questionnaire and have another assessment.
These rules are set out in Regulation 19 of the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) Regulations, 2014. Tell your work coach or case manager to look it up if they are telling you something different.
If you have to claim universal credit because you didn't get enough points at a Work Capability Assessment to stay on ESA, Regulation 19 doesn't apply to you. But if that decision is later overturned on appeal, then it does. We can help with appeals - many are successful.