Migration to Universal Credit

Ignatius wrote:Fordcortina, if you've got a passport they can probably verify your ID online, sparing you having to attend just to confirm who you are. If you pay rent, make sure you have your tenancy agreement to get the housing element sorted promptly.

Yes i've got a passport and all the ID needed. Also my landlord will give me an up to date tenancy agreement when I need it so my move to UC will be smooth. I'm not looking forward to the five week wait or another useless scheme in 2025.

Georgewaste wrote:Hello, peeps I just realised my migration letter posted through the front door letter of doom. Anyone have experience with the local job centre where I sign on every fortnight is about 1 hour 30 minutes bus ride 6 miles away. Can I pick which job centre? Can I claim universal credit? I do have another job centre 3 miles away, much closer to where I live. 

You must live in the middle of nowhere, can't you get postal sign on's? I'm lucky I live in a town and my Jobcentre is only a 10 mins walk away. A 1 hour 30 mins bus ride sounds like a ball ache every two weeks. Just think when you move onto Universal Credit you might end up doing that bus ride every week if they put you on weekly appointments for the first 13 weeks of your UC claim. I hope you can claim your bus fares from the Jobcentre if that's the case.

fordcortina1970 wrote:

Georgewaste wrote:Hello, peeps I just realised my migration letter posted through the front door letter of doom. Anyone have experience with the local job centre where I sign on every fortnight is about 1 hour 30 minutes bus ride 6 miles away. Can I pick which job centre? Can I claim universal credit? I do have another job centre 3 miles away, much closer to where I live. 

You must live in the middle of nowhere, can't you get postal sign on's? I'm lucky I live in a town and my Jobcentre is only a 10 mins walk away. A 1 hour 30 mins bus ride sounds like a ball ache every two weeks. Just think when you move onto Universal Credit you might end up doing that bus ride every week if they put you on weekly appointments for the first 13 weeks of your UC claim. I hope you can claim your bus fares from the Jobcentre if that's the case.

I used to have four job centres walking less than 2 miles. The bastard government closed it all down and moved me over to the city centre, but this city centre job centre is amazing; hardly any staff do any work, all fucking messing about. I'm supposed I just stick with it; no point switching job centre. Also been checking the Google review on this job centre closer to mine. Sounds like a bastards.

Pintel, the information you will need to claim is contingent on your circumstances, as the DWP like to say. Much of it will be similar to claiming JSA. There will be questions about anyone else who lives with you, details of all bank accounts, that sort of thing. Tenancy agreement is essential. Anyone with kids who wants the childcare element needs proof of those costs. Shelter's website has got a comprehensive guide to what the nosey DWP needs to know for a claim.

George, there's no harm asking to change jobcentre but the answer will probably be no. My jobcentre covers an area that is 50/50 urban/rural. People who live in villages/market towns 10 miles and who have a shit bus service are expected to sign on in person.

Georgewaste. Either try contacting the district manager for the area your jobcentre is based, or give the Universal Credit helpline a ring, explain the situation and see what they say. No harm in asking the question.

I am lucky, my jobcentre is only a 10 - 15 minute walk away for me. Before I moved, I lived about 6 miles away from the Jobcentre I had to attend, about a 30 minute bus ride at over £4 for a return ticket (this was back just before covid hit in 2020).

Universal credit system down all day, according to many Reddit users. Imagine your Internet goes down. You cannot check your journal entries  you are sanctioned, like to do lists, accept commitments, urgent appointments, etc. Another useless feature: bring back JSA dinosaur system work more effectively. 

Maybe that's part of the plan, #Designergas ... A digital service that the claimants have little control over... Alas they(dwp🧻) have no concept of 'Reverse' , so to your comment "JSA 🦖dinosaur system work more effectively"... While it maybe true, the UC caravan rolls on...
Lets hope there's no a 'cyber attack' on the dwp IT system. Can you image the chaos of claimants information being deleted/croupted etc...‍. And a managed migration mk II...

Pintel wrote:Maybe that's part of the plan, #Designergas ... A digital service that the claimants have little control over... Alas they(dwp🧻) have no concept of 'Reverse' , so to your comment "JSA 🦖dinosaur system work more effectively"... While it maybe true, the UC caravan rolls on...
Lets hope there's no a 'cyber attack' on the dwp IT system. Can you image the chaos of claimants information being deleted/croupted etc...‍. And a managed migration mk II...

All in one system bollocks

The dinosaur system never had an overpayment or underpayment. It did have a few times when the work coach didn't process the payment human error. All this was done via call to the JSA helpline. Also, JSA systems are more fall-proof, require no advance payments, and are less subject to fraud. You only get paid when you sign on, like what happened in COVID. People taking advance after advance payment on UC with fraudulent documents and IDs also really miss the experience visiting the one-stop shop for housing benefits, tax credits, etc. UC should be scrapped. It basically gives the government more control; if you owe water bills or council tax bills, they will deduct them from your universal credit allowance.

See it from their perspective (dwp🧻 et al). As you said " more control", aswell as more surveillance of online and banking activities, creation of debt with the 5x week wait, less rights of appeal, harsher sanctions, and less stability of when to attend the jcp🧻 office's... So I could see them seeing it as a success

Georgewaste

If you call the UC Helpline to see about switching to a more convenient jobcentre, be really careful they don't accidentally start a UC claim for you and close your JSA before you are ready.

Yesterday IT meltdown didn't stop me getting paid today.

Ignatius wrote:Georgewaste

If you call the UC Helpline to see about switching to a more convenient jobcentre, be really careful they don't accidentally start a UC claim for you and close your JSA before you are ready.

Yesterday IT meltdown didn't stop me getting paid today.

Never again had a nice debate about switching to UC with the coach. I ended up knowing more information about the UC system; the coach was only experienced in the JSA incoming base and new style benefits system.

I think they didn't like it one bit and took it very offensive claimants has more knowledgeable experience. My payment yesterday didn't come through. I had to call up the JSA hotline to have my payment sent through via fast payment transfer. JSA lady didn't enclose any information, probably to do with the claim process that had happened two years ago. Each time you sign on, they need to click on process claim. Don't want to point any blame; it could be the IT system meltdown yesterday related to this, or maybe they are forcing me to claim universal credit. By playing some sick twisted joke, sick revenge. I had many heated debates with this coach before she the type of person that only wants peace and quiet introvert type of personality.

If you throw plenty of fired questions, she will pan you off to another coach to sign you on and will be calling the Universal Credit Hotline tomorrow, asking about information only. Maybe they will yell some information. 

Job centres are useless as a chocolate teapot. All just in for a quick monthly pay check without KPI. Restart are completely opposite useless; no knowledgeable clue about what they are doing just after KPI. Zero information, zero fucks, zero help 15 years ago, you got some formal information. Today, customer service is so shockingly bad. No engagement skills, communication skills. Just look at you like scum this country is so broken.

They have "forgotten" to pay me a couple of times before, although the second time was no accident. In brief, a WC nearly burst with excitement when the opportunity arose to do unpaid work experience at a supermarket. I obligingly went to the talk, but turned down the opportunity. WC was funny with me after that. Then came lockdown. First face to face appointment over a year later they "forgot" to pay me. To be fair, I had to admire their ability to play the long game, even if it was a proper dirty tackle.

Is it still the case with UC that a payment is not officially late until 8pm on the day it is due? At least with the old skool benefits you can put the kettle on, listen to the DWP tunes for ages and finally get all indignant at whoever answers about not being paid? Bonus is they have to be nice to you as well.

George, did you get your letter after the rest of us? Have the bastards given you one last Christmas on JSA?

Ignatius wrote:They have "forgotten" to pay me a couple of times before, although the second time was no accident. In brief, a WC nearly burst with excitement when the opportunity arose to do unpaid work experience at a supermarket. I obligingly went to the talk, but turned down the opportunity. WC was funny with me after that. Then came lockdown. First face to face appointment over a year later they "forgot" to pay me. To be fair, I had to admire their ability to play the long game, even if it was a proper dirty tackle.

Is it still the case with UC that a payment is not officially late until 8pm on the day it is due? At least with the old skool benefits you can put the kettle on, listen to the DWP tunes for ages and finally get all indignant at whoever answers about not being paid? Bonus is they have to be nice to you as well.  

George, did you get your letter after the rest of us? Have the bastards given you one last  Christmas on JSA?

Yes, I got the letter in September telling WC the December deadline was going to UC; she knows everyone switching over to UC must have been about fucking time when.
I left the building. She always wanted to get rid of me since last December said UC offered better money and a better work coach 24/7 access to Universal Credit Journal, etc. I just ignored the request, acted stupid. I only asked two questions about UC: what is the best time to move over the deadline in December or the last sign-on or the end of November so my work wages are in line with the assessment period, etc.? I dislike any overpayment or underpayment seen many errors people switching to UC. She was saying don't do it. Christmas, do it October better. 

Probably had massive discussions with the other WC. Let's play some sick mind games with him, let him call that JSA helpline, and make him wait over an hour put him off claiming listening to depressing hold music.All I'm saying is that this isn't an accident after 5 years of trouble-free payment. We wonder why we don't trust these sociopaths.

Before I leave, I now always, always ask the WC if they have put my payment through.

I'm afraid to bring bad news, but I just had a conversation with one of the JSA work coaches about migration after signing on earlier. The claim by date on the migration letter is irrelevant, it's just the date when the JSA claim will be closed.

You need to be making your claim for Universal Credit well before the migration date, because you do not receive the follow on money and your normal signing on money at the same time. The claim for JSA is kept open for 2 weeks after you make the claim for Universal Credit, meaning you have a 3 week wait for your first Universal Credit payment, rather than a 5 week week. My advice is to make the claim for Universal Credit on a week when you sign on, but after your money has gone into your bank account. Also factor in Christmas and making sure you have some money over that period.  I plan to submit my claim on Friday, November 8th (which means my last JSA signing on would be on Tuesday, November 5th). Making my claim on November 8th, I should receive my first payment around December 13th (Your first payment should be one calendar month and 7 days after the date your claim was submitted).

I'm not sure if it's true, but I think the two JSA work coaches at my Jobcentre are decent individuals. They said lots of people are leaving applying for Universal Credit until the last minute and are missing out on the 2 week run on and also struggling to make the claim, because the system keeps crashing from the amount of people on different legacy benefits trying to make a claim.

Xennial wrote:I'm afraid to bring bad news, but I just had a conversation with one of the JSA work coaches about migration after signing on earlier. The claim by date on the migration letter is irrelevant, it's just the date when the JSA claim will be closed.

You need to be making your claim for Universal Credit well before the migration date, because you do not receive the follow on money and your normal signing on money at the same time. The claim for JSA is kept open for 2 weeks after you make the claim for Universal Credit, meaning you have a 3 week wait for your first Universal Credit payment, rather than a 5 week week. My advice is to make the claim for Universal Credit on a week when you sign on, but after your money has gone into your bank account. Also factor in Christmas and making sure you have some money over that period.  I plan to submit my claim on Friday, November 8th (which means my last JSA signing on would be on Tuesday, November 5th). Making my claim on November 8th, I should receive my first payment around December 13th (Your first payment should be one calendar month and 7 days after the date your claim was submitted).

I'm not sure if it's true, but I think the two JSA work coaches at my Jobcentre are decent individuals. They said lots of people are leaving applying for Universal Credit until the last minute and are missing out on the 2 week run on and also struggling to make the claim, because the system keeps crashing from the amount of people on different legacy benefits trying to make a claim.

I appreciate your insight regarding the quote about people delaying their Universal Credit applications. It raises an interesting question: if so many are waiting until the last minute, why is the system crashing? It seems there might be more going on here?

My interpretation was lots of people are leaving it until the very last minute to apply for Universal Credit and because of this, the system crashes from all the people trying to apply at the same time. Remember you have all legacy benefits moving over, so JSA, Housing Benefit, Income Spport, Tax credits and Income Related Employment and Support Allowance, over 1 million people claim Tax Credits. I mentioned I intended applying for it one day before the date I had to make the claim, only to then be told that is just the date my JSA claim will end and if I applied then, I would not receive the 2 week run. Maybe many claimants thought like me, but never spoke to a work coach about it.

So much for their new VME-R open systems platform. The Department for Work and Pensions has recently signed a £3 million contract with Pixel Global. The contract with Pixel Global has raised some eyebrows, especially since the contract was awarded without a competitive tender process. No cronyism there then.

When you apply for Universal Credit, you only get 4 weeks to focus on your chosen occupation. If you haven't found a job after 4 weeks, you will be asked to look for jobs in other sectors. I can't even get a job in an occupation I have over 20 years experience in because I have no contactable references, lets apply for jobs I have no experience at all doing, plus have no references for. Just in case, I will make sure I don't get any of those jobs by using my old trusted cover note. I'm sorry for wasting your time with this application. I am aware that I am not suitable for the position. Under extreme duress from the DWP, I am obligated to apply.

Xennial wrote:I will make sure I don't get any of those jobs by using my old trusted cover note. I'm sorry for wasting your time with this application. I am aware that I am not suitable for the position. Under extreme duress from the DWP, I am obligated to apply.

i would urge some caution using that approach, some recruitment agency's have very close ties with JCP (they tend to be ones that the coach will mention to you) and it might be classed as not doing "all you can" to find employment etc

certain agencies i never apply for anything they offer as they are in bed with work programmes.

Right now, I am able to get away with it on JSA because I print out job confirmations from my email box. By using a blank document, no cover letter or brief note, and a pseudonym email account, I am able to take my job application, or none job application to the next level. I learnt to do this back in 2015 whilst on CWPs for a couple of weeks, and sat in a classroom 7 hours per day, 5 days per week Jobsearching and having to apply for jobs I was entirely unsuitable for. Sadly, there is no change and claimants are still compelled to do this, wasting both their and the employers' time.

Can somebody please explain how winter fuel payments work on Universal Credit and if JSA to UC migrants will have entitlement to 2024's payment? The £150 was automatically paid into my energy account last year, so I wonder if the same will happen this year? Or will the migration conveniently cock things up?

On Turn2us it says the following.

Most people do not need to make a claim for a Winter Fuel Payment. You are usually paid automatically if you are getting Pension Credit, Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit and Universal Credit.

You will be paid automatically if you meet the new benefit eligibility criteria, got a payment last winter and your circumstances have not changed.

You might need to claim:

   if you didn't get the Winter Fuel Payment last year
   if you or your partner gets Universal Credit
   if you live abroad even if you do get one of these benefits

For the winter of 2024/2025, claims must be sent and arrive by 31 March 2025.

It also says, if you get claim Universal Credit, you should claim through your journal. You will receive a message expalining how to claim.

If you are still on JSA, ask your work coach the next time you speak to them, or see them.

The £150 payment is the Warm Homes thing, not the same qualifying criteria as the Winter Fuel Payment. You will need to be in receipt of a qualifying benefit on the cut off date to receive the money.

I've recently been told that I'll get the £150 payment just as I did last year, as long as I was claiming a benefit that entitles me to it on August 11th.

Hopefully my payment will go in before winter, just as it did last year.