ESA Support Group migration to Universal Credit: Questions

Can someone answe4 whether I'm right in thinking that the Cost of Living payments we received over the last few years are discounted from our savings/income indefinitely/permanently? So that should be taken into account when looking at our bank accounts?
Sorry, v stressed.

OK. Thanks for your reply. I'm worrying unduly. I only have one bank account. Nothing else at all. So no other savings, m9ney, income etc at all.

john.lewis87@ntlworld.com wrote:

My sister has recently retired after working for the DWP processing claims for the last 30 years. When calculating capital, any ESA you received within the last few weeks is disregarded. It only counts as "savings" once the NEXT lot of ESA goes in, so forget about it. Again, the cold weather payment is disregarded, so forget about that too. The only problem you might have, is they will now want bank statements going back maybe a year, instead of the usual 2 or 3 months.. Even if you DID go over the £6000, so what. It would simply be a small overpayment of a couple of quid. You are worrying about nothing.. A word of warning though, the DWP know about all accounts registered at your address, so never try to be clever.. Hope this helps..

So, when I transfer to UC and my first payment is a larger sum (once a month) this will probably send me over the £6000 threshold again until bills and payments come out. If I understand correct, I do not need to worry when this happens and don't need to inform them of a change in my savings? Sorry. Finding this all confusing and daunting.

The booklet I have for ESA is £6000. It used to be £5000 for Inc9me Support but changed to 6000 when i got switched over to ESA. Income support was years ago, so that wouldn't be fair. Your dressing me now.