ESA Migration to UC... Does anyone know about this????

Last July I migrated from ESA to UC; I was surprised that every 2 weeks, money was being deposited into my account from the ESA, despite being told it would be 5 weeks until I got an UC payment. When I finally received my first UC payment, under the heading of deductions, it showed that they had deducted the 2 separate ESA payments that I had received. Fair enough I thought, probably teething problems or lack of communication between departments. August, September, October, November, December January the same thing happened. I finally decided to contact UC, mainly because I had got myself so stressed out and worked up because I thought I had done something wrong, and so did my daughters.

My daughter wrote down the questions I needed to ask, and we completed a diary entry, I get really anxious just writing it, my daughter knew I wouldn't be able to actually talk to someone on the phone as I would just spiral. After a few hours, we received a response 😱😱😱😱😱. The UC people basically said they would continue to deduct monthly any money the ESA had paid, but suggested that I contact ESA to make sure they were aware of my UC claim.

The thick plottens......... We contact ESA who "say" they were not aware I was now claiming UC. FYI I found that very hard to believe personally. I was asked if I wanted to close my ESA claim?????? I asked if there were any pitfalls in doing this. I was told no, it would just mean that I would get one monthly payment from UC. The chap said he would start the paperwork, but had to send my details to another department who dealt with cancellations; my daughter told him that she and I wanted to mull it over, and we would contact them the following day.

HERE'S THE KICKER: Exactly 47 minutes later my phone rang, a guy introduced himself as the chap who would be handling the closure of my ESA claim. Before we could even tell him that we hadn't made a decision as yet, he told me that I really should NOT close my claim! And here's why........ When you're claiming ESA the Government pay your NI contributions, so that when or if you hit 67/8 you can claim a state pension. If you are ONLY receiving Universal Credit (and are not working) UC do NOT pay NI contributions!!!!!!!!!!!!! Funny, but I didn't see that advisory blurb in the ESA/UC Migrating information.

Due to cognitive problems, I had forgotten that I did know about ESA NI being linked to my pension. It's written on the front of my ESA folder (thankfully) but that was 15 years and 27 daily drugs ago. I can't help but think of how many people (because I surely can't be the only one) who may have fallen into that migrating trap!