universal credit and migration

I believe claims for UC via the Pathfinder pilots are indeed restricted to those fit for work so your ESA claimant would be ok in the interim.

In the longer term cont ESA will remain whilst IR ESA will be replaced by UC, so any claim following exhaustion of the former will ultimately be to UC. Following that logic any “top up” on the basis of new income related entitlement would be sought via claim to UC.

Perhaps I’m oversimplifying.

Julie Barrett - 29 August 2013 01:38 PM

I believe claims for UC via the Pathfinder pilots are indeed restricted to those fit for work so your ESA claimant would be ok in the interim.

In the longer term cont ESA will remain whilst IR ESA will be replaced by UC, so any claim following exhaustion of the former will ultimately be to UC. Following that logic any “top up” on the basis of new income related entitlement would be sought via claim to UC.

Perhaps I’m oversimplifying.

that’s what I thought but I also felt I was over simplifying.

my difficulty here is I may need to provide information to our members in that area which is accessible to people with a learning disability when I am having trouble getting my own head around all the implications.

the intial area of concern I have would be a single claimant on ESA with DLA and a resulting SDP, they live in inverness and fail to attend a WCA and are then forced to claim UC pending a good cause appeal, my understanding is this person would lose their SDP as no equivalent exists in UC.

From this point is gets confusing for me as my understanding is once they claim UC they will be stuck on it but if their appeal was allowed would they then get transitional protection.

I just hope ESA appeals are taking longer than 6 months from date of decision in inverness to take away the prospect of clients who lose an ESA appeal also having to move over to UC.

I agree, it’s not easy.

I suppose there’s a decision to be taken there as to whether it’s possible to hold out and live off DLA pending appeal outcome and requesting an early hearing rather than go down the road of fresh UC claim…

Hi Steven,

Have you had any confirmation that pathfinder claims will start in Inverness in October?  We’ve heard that Harrogate won’t start until early 2014, Bath not before February and Shotton not until March.

Paragraph 24 of HB Bulletin G8 reads:

The Ministerial statement made on the 10th July advised that Universal Credit
national rollout will commence by going out to a further 6 Jobcentres/LAs by
March 2014.

The ministerial statement itself says ‘Starting from October’, but that can be read more than one way….

Tim.

Tim Blackwell - 29 August 2013 04:39 PM

Hi Steven,

Have you had any confirmation that pathfinder claims will start in Inverness in October?  We’ve heard that Harrogate won’t start until early 2014, Bath not before February and Shotton not until March.

Paragraph 24 of HB Bulletin G8 reads:

The Ministerial statement made on the 10th July advised that Universal Credit
national rollout will commence by going out to a further 6 Jobcentres/LAs by
March 2014.

The ministerial statement itself says ‘Starting from October’, but that can be read more than one way….

Tim.

thanks for that response tim very interesting.

I have only recently started in my current post having come from a local authority welfare rights department so this is my first time working on a Scotland wide basis so I don’t have the local contacts yet to get trivial things such as accurate information from the dwp and have been relying on the information out there.

to be honest your the first person I have seen pointing out that this might not actually begin for all of these areas in October but the possibility that the start may be delayed in Scotland has cheered me up no end.

I have a meeting with the DWP next week so I will try and get an answer from there, or a local contact then.

Hi Steven,

If you do get a date this week, please post it here.  You may have seen Howard Shiplee’s telegraph article, which mentions in passing that

we’ll build on our experience so far by taking claims to Universal Credit from six more Jobcentres between October and next spring.

Tim.

Tim Blackwell - 03 September 2013 12:15 PM

Hi Steven,

If you do get a date this week, please post it here.  You may have seen Howard Shiplee’s telegraph article, which mentions in passing that

we’ll build on our experience so far by taking claims to Universal Credit from six more Jobcentres between October and next spring.

Tim.

I was advised yesterday it would be November for inverness.  the dwp representative has kindly agreed to meet with me at a later date to give me more information so if I get anything of further use I will put it on here.

Thanks, I agree an exact date for this (which presumably will be the same for the other 5 JC+ areas starting UC in October??) would be useful. Might the DWP mean that the date is 28th October 2013 (along with some other benefit changes coming in on that date)?? I can imagine that in DWP speak that might be ‘November’.

It seems unlikely that all six jobcentres will start at the same time, given the careful phrasing of DWP statements.  But anything can happen.  October 28th might well be November in civil servant speak, but it would definitely be October in Minister speak.

My understanding is that they’ll be staggered (but so am I too often)

Found in a DWP newsletter from a couple of months ago:

The current Pathfinder process will roll out to the following Jobcentres Hammersmith from October 2013, Rugby and Inverness from November 2013, Bath and Harrogate from February 2014, with Shotton from March 2014.

Gareth Morgan - 16 September 2013 10:39 AM

Found in a DWP newsletter from a couple of months ago:

The current Pathfinder process will roll out to the following Jobcentres Hammersmith from October 2013, Rugby and Inverness from November 2013, Bath and Harrogate from February 2014, with Shotton from March 2014.

thanks for that.

you would have thought that would have been easier to find though.

August’s universal credit newsletter from Tameside suggests start dates of:

28/10/13 Hammersmith Jobcentre
25/11/13 Inverness & Rugby Jobcentres
24/2/14 Bath and Harrogate Jobcentres
24/3/14 Shotton Jobcentre and Bangor Telephone Centre

With similar entry criteria to the current pathfinders.

Tim Blackwell - 25 September 2013 01:58 PM

August’s universal credit newsletter from Tameside suggests start dates of:

28/10/13 Hammersmith Jobcentre
25/11/13 Inverness & Rugby Jobcentres
24/2/14 Bath and Harrogate Jobcentres
24/3/14 Shotton Jobcentre and Bangor Telephone Centre

With similar entry criteria to the current pathfinders.

Is that higher or enhanced rate incompetence? - 15 points WCA or 12 points PIP - cannot be introduced at more than 2 Jobcentres a month.

Harrogate Jobcentre will be SWAMPED. SWAMPED i tells ya!

William Hagues constituency, loads of money floating around and the lowest unemployment area in the whole of the UK. Thats a good way of testing UC innit, or am I being cynical??

Mark Steel: “It’s like testing a raincoat by taking it on holiday to Saudi Arabia, then saying, “I stayed dry as a bone all week, it works perfectly.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/numbers-in-a-twist-mr-duncan-smith-8800054.html

re ... 25/11/13: Inverness & Rugby Jobcentres

yesterday, legislation.gov.uk published a new Commencement Order (SI.No.2646/2013) relating to UC roll out and the abolition of income-based/related JSA & ESA

the schedule to the order detailed a 28 October date for postcodes in Manchester and West London .... and then a 25 November date for CV and IV postcodes (ie Rugby and Inverness)

however the Order has since been taken down from the site and today an Order with the same name, though a different number (SI.No.2657/2013) has been published in its place

‘interestingly’, the new Order still references the 28 October date and postcodes in Manchester and West London .... but now there’s no reference to the 25 November postcodes

here’s a link to the new Order (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/2657/contents/made) and attached is the explanatory note to the now deleted earlier version

do we think there’s been a change re Inverness & Rugby?

Odd…

I don’t have have a copy of 2013/2646 on this machine unfortunately but it definitely showed the Rugby (bits of CV) and Inverness (bits of IV and PH) postcodes yesterday.

Doesn’t look good, does it?

cheers jon ...

have asked dwp (https://twitter.com/rightsnet/status/390751531483418624) but no response as yet .....