ESA & Universal Credit

Could someone assist with a query regarding Income Related ESA and new UC claims.

Could the contributory element (standard allowance & support group) based on a current Income related ESA award continue if they made a new Universal Credit claim? Particularly if this person has not worked within the last 2 tax years before claiming UC.

Some mismatching of terminology here. There is no ‘contributory element’ of an irESA award. They will have a contributions based ESA claim, and an income based top-up to that.

If they claim UC the old-style cbESA will be converted to new-style, and deducted in full as income from the UC award. The irESA meanwhile stops after a 2-week run-on. 

Always worth considering first if they’re better of remaining on legacy benefits though.