I've just claimed UC!

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Budgeting Loan deduction now sorted out.

As I had anticipated I got a letter today from DWP Debt Management about the outstanding Budgeting Loan repayment.

They just said what was still owing, and that they will now take it from UC.
The payment they want is just the monthly equivalent of what was being taken from ESA weekly, so in effect I've had a 2 month (maybe 3 month) repayment holiday.
(As there was only £55.68 left to repay anyway that will be a £45.24 repayment than a £10.44 repayment).

I'm not sure if they will take the first one this month (UC payment is due next Thursday) or not until February.
I'll find that out in a couple of days when this months payment calculation goes on my journal.

That seems to be the last loose end tidied up

All in all my 'Voluntary Migration' to UC has gone pretty smoothly - apart for a few confusing things on the journal which were easily sorted out.

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First WFI under UC.

I've had my first Universal Credit Work Focused Interview this morning.

My work coach didn't seem to have much clue, and obviously hadn't even read my claim notes.
She didn't know I was a migration from ESA, didn't know what my medical conditions are, didn't even know what my Claimant Commitment said.

I'm thinking that I may even be the first 'client/customer' with LCW she has seen, she seemed pretty unsure about it.

The first thing she saw was that I'm LCW so she tried to find my prognosis date - she couldn't find it at first, and when she did she couldn't understand it.
She found a '36 months from Sept 2019' (I think that should have been 2018, and 36 months is a strange award length, it may have been changed for Covid).
But there was no actual date given, and there was a block on her changing anything. (Which I could have told her, a WC doesn't have the authority to change it, only a Case Manager). - So she made a note on a bit of paper and gave up.
Of course without an actual date being specified the computer won't have a trigger date to automatically refer me for a reassessment.

I don't know if that's a consequence of the Covid messing about, or if it's just not been entered following my migration, or a combination of the two?
(Wish I could have seen the computer screen, I'd probably have more clue than she did).
But TBH it seems to be overdue by my reckoning, so I'll expect a UC50 any time now.

So then it was the old rehash of what my conditions are and how they prevent me working, which she wasn't really listening to but obviously trying to pick out 'standard' bits she could use in the Claimant Commitment.

Some of the comments she made were condescending, (verging on insulting), I'm a well skilled mature person not some uneducated kid.

After a lot more not listening she decided that I should look for jobs that - I could do online at any time of day that I was awake/conscious, and for just the working the hours that I could manage each week when I'm awake/conscious.

WTF? Where are you going to find a paying job like that? (Self-employed would seem to be the only case).

Regardless, she said that she'd add that to my Claimant Commitment.

And that's the next bit of fun-

When I got home and logged in to my UC account I did have a new claimant commitment to accept.

But the only changes are that it now says that if I'm not posting advice here at youreable to 'improve my computer skills' (LOL) then: "I'll spend the time doing other activities that help me prepare for work."
(Maybe once written down she had realised just how stupid the other stuff was?)

and then the next section has changed so that:
"I'll spend 16 hours a week preparing for work" now reads "I'll spend 2 hours a week preparing for work."

So she hasn't done what she said she was going to, and has actually reduced the hours.
I think that's a typo and it should read 20 hours - hard luck I've accepted it now at 2 hours.

Not that any of that matters anyway, the activities are voluntary - my CC clearly states "I have not discussed any mandatory activities" and they can't impose any without 'discussing' them first.

It all goes to show just how clueless they are, and what a waste of everyone’s time WFI's are. (Although I suppose it helps keep them in a job).

Next one in 3 months, no doubt another waste of time being talked to condescendingly.

PS. Not being daft I had printed off my old Clamant Commitment as a PDF, and have now done the same for the new one after accepting it.

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This may help explain why there was no reassesment referal date on my UC file.

Apparently they have (quietly) suspended them again to concentrate on a backlog of WCA's for new caims - and even changes of circumstance to existing LCW awards are not being reassessed:

https://www.disabilitynewsservice.co...reassessments/