JSA to ESA - Without income during change.

[Farbramble]

I'm in the process of making an application for (income based) ESA. I understand that there's an assessment phase for 3-months?

 

I'm not looking for a definite answer, but roughly how long does it take for a new application to be processed, and if successful, the amount of time in receiving a payment?

[flumps1976]

Once the claim formhas been received at the Benefit Centre they will start to action the claim. Typically processing times are 10 to 14 working days from receipt to fully processed but it depends on whether you are required to provide any additional information and if that has to be requested after the form has been received so depends on how long you take to provide that required information.

Once the claim is fully processed and payment is released it takes 3 working days to clear into your account.

 

As each claim is individual it really can vary on the length of time to process but I would say take the average of 10 to 14 working days and if you haven't heard approx 10 days after the claim could have been expected to be received at the Benefit Centre call and make enquiries regrding the progress of your claim.

[Farbramble]

Hi.

 

I'm in the process of submitting a new claim for ESA. Re payments; assuming my claim goes through, is there a long waiting period until a payment is made?

 

Also on the gov.uk site, they mention attending regular appointments with the jobcentre. Is this every fortnight? I need to make arrangements for traveling, etc.

 

Farbramble.

[antone]

Regarding the first question, this can vary depending on the office that processes your claim. But two or three weeks might be typical, faster in some offices. Your actual payment date will depend on the last two digits of your National Insurance number.

 

You would not normally be expected to attend the Jobcentre every two weeks. You might be expected to attend Work Focused Interviews, but these should be no more frequent than once a month. Depending on what happens after your Atos medical, that could change.

[Farbramble]

Many thanks Antone. At least I know what to expect.

[Farbramble]

How long roughly is the transition from JSA to ESA? If successful, I've heard it can be up to four weeks until the first payment arrives - which is too long without any sort of income!

 

Is there a way to avoid this gap?

[antone]

Four weeks would be on the long side, but it does happen sometimes. There's no real way to avoid a blip in payments, since your old JSA claim needs to be closed before the new ESA claim can be processed.

 

Probably the best way to minimise any delay is to attend your normal JSA signing on day and sign as normal, then sign off at the same time. Since JSA is paid in arrears and you make your declaration for the fortnight just passed, you should receive your last payment as usual. The following day, call the new claims line and make a claim to ESA.

[kirkbyinfurnesslad]

When you sign of do it on one of their phones so its closed imediately

[Farbramble]

Thanks all! It's a shame the gov closed down the crisis loans, as this would help for the change over in benefits.

[Perseus1]

A holdup occurs if you don't sign off JSA straightaway.

 

Because I became ill I made a mistake of changing benefit as I get £53 less a week on ESA. I would not recommend this change unless you are very ill.

[antone]

A holdup occurs if you don't sign off JSA straightaway.

 

Because I became ill I made a mistake of changing benefit as I get £53 less a week on ESA. I would not recommend this change unless you are very ill.

 

Your circumstances are specific to you. You can't offer this as general advice. There are many who are better off switching to ESA.

[Nystagmite]

Thanks all! It's a shame the gov closed down the crisis loans, as this would help for the change over in benefits.

 

There's a fund from the local council. I'm also sure they do a short term benefit advance. Phone your local council on Monday and ask them about it.

[Perseus1]

Thanks all! It's a shame the gov closed down the crisis loans, as this would help for the change over in benefits.

 

When I rang up DWP they said if it is not sorted within two weeks, an advance may be available. You may find you get a small amount when the JSA claim is closed down.

[Farbramble]

There's a fund from the local council. I'm also sure they do a short term benefit advance. Phone your local council on Monday and ask them about it.

 

I wasn't aware of this. I'll call Breckland council and hope they offer this. Thanks Nystagmite.

[Perseus1]

Your circumstances are specific to you. You can't offer this as general advice. There are many who are better off switching to ESA.

 

Quite right. I should have explained. If you are claiming JSA withn a Disability Premium, there may be a disadvantage going on ESA as the disability premium is no longer paid if you are on lower scale DLA. Beware. After the asessment (which may take 13 weeks or even longer: ATOS may have have backlogs of over 3 months) the ESA claimant may be available for the WRAG component in addition to basic ESA.

 

ESA claimants are eligible for "permitted work" which is part time for one year. This is what I am trying for.

[Helen2264]

I wasn't aware of this. I'll call Breckland council and hope they offer this. Thanks Nystagmite.

 

I've heard council do crisis loan as well, apparently the council took over when dwp stopped crisis loan! Hope you get your benefit sorted very soon my friend Cathy hasn't had any benefit money since 27th December 2013, she's going from ESA contribution-based to Income related ESA, try and see if you can get help from the council because the dwp doesn't care whether you survive or not, the lady from dwp got the cheek to tell me on the phone what's my friend criteria for needing the short term loan benefit and told me they haven't received her filled ESA3 form, I just asked her imaging your wage just stopped, you have no money to live on what would be the outcome, to my surprise instead of the 24 hours wait for the phone call of short term loan, Cathy's benefit got sorted within the same day, got another call in less than the hour I spoke to the dwp lady some other chap rang and process her ESA3 whilst I spoke to him on the phone, hope fully she have some money in her bank next week.

 

So if you are struggling and haven't heard anything about your money try and reserve your situation onto them it seems to work, the dwp lady went quiet when I made her feel what Cathy is going through, sick, hungry and destitute!

[Farbramble]

ESA claimants are eligible for "permitted work" which is part time for one year. This is what I am trying for.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. I was kinda worried re your unique claim!

 

I've also heard about working part-time for one year. I don't know if this applies (or if this is correct?), but there's a disabled element of working tax credit. For a single person it's approx £55 pw, and the minimum hours are 16 pw.

 

Also, isn't there 1 year help if you leave ESA to work? I think you get extra money for this period (approx £30-40 pw?)