children's savings & benefits
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bellett
Posts: 44 Forumite
Both my children have savings accounts with just under £2,000 each in them. All of this money has been given them over the years by grandparents as Birthday and Christmas gifts - would their savings be discounted in a benefits claim by me and my husband?
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Both my children have savings accounts with just under £2,000 each in them. All of this money has been given them over the years by grandparents as Birthday and Christmas gifts - would their savings be discounted in a benefits claim by me and my husband?
No I don't believe it will be discounted as you have access to the money.
If it was discounted then every parent would shove all their savings in the childrens name and then claim benefit.
Yours
CalleyHope for everything and expect nothing!!!
Good enough is almost always good enough -Prof Barry Schwartz
If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try -Seth Godin0 -
No I don't believe it will be discounted as you have access to the money.
If it was discounted then every parent would shove all their savings in the childrens name and then claim benefit.
Yours
Calley
I understand what you say - but surely the fact that both savings books show only deposits on each child's birthday and at Christmas would prove that we hadn't tried to hide our own savings? Why should my children be deprived of Christms and Birthday gifts from their grandparents because we have had the misfortune to have redundancy thrust our lives off course?0 -
No I don't believe it will be discounted as you have access to the money.
If it was discounted then every parent would shove all their savings in the childrens name and then claim benefit.
Yours
Calley
What you believe doesn't come into it. It's the actual rules that matter.
If it's your kids money, and it's in their own accounts, anything up to £3000 each doesn't affect your benefit claim.
If there was a reason to suspect that someone had moved money into their kids accounts, that could be treated as deprivation of capital and the money could be treated as belonging to the benefit claimant.0 -
What you believe doesn't come into it. It's the actual rules that matter.
If it's your kids money, and it's in their own accounts, anything up to £3000 each doesn't affect your benefit claim.
If there was a reason to suspect that someone had moved money into their kids accounts, that could be treated as deprivation of capital and the money could be treated as belonging to the benefit claimant.
Thank you very much! that is a weight off my mind. The savings books show that the amounts deposited have been twice a year near Christmas and Birthdays so hopefully we shouldn't have a problem.0 -
What you believe doesn't come into it. It's the actual rules that matter.
If it's your kids money, and it's in their own accounts, anything up to £3000 each doesn't affect your benefit claim.
If there was a reason to suspect that someone had moved money into their kids accounts, that could be treated as deprivation of capital and the money could be treated as belonging to the benefit claimant.
Could I have a link for that as I had a look last night and could find nothing. And looked here and I am sure that I read on here that childrens savings would be taken in to account.
Yours
CalleyHope for everything and expect nothing!!!
Good enough is almost always good enough -Prof Barry Schwartz
If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try -Seth Godin0 -
AFAIK, if you have access to their savings (i.e. if you can draw the money out), then they are counted for means-tested benefits purposes if over the threshold.
However, there can be a total (counting ALL savings) of up to £6000 in savings before it is counted.
This is what I understand anyway.(AKA HRH_MUngo)
Member #10 of £2 savers club
Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology: Terry Eagleton0 -
Thanks for all the information. From another site I have found this - which I am posting in case it helps someone else:-
Any new claim to Income Support awarded from the 6th April 2004 will not include child-related elements because support for children will be provided by Child Tax Credit (CTC). Families already on Income Support in April 2004 who have not already claimed CTC will be moved across to CTC at a future date. Any capital belonging to dependant children will be ignored for your benefit claim. You will claim Income Support (or JSA), this is no way affected by any savings your children have. You will be paid Tax Credits for the kids and savings do not count for a tax credit award
Source(s): Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2004
Also I telephoned the council tax office about council tax benefit and they don't count savings that are in a child's name and I can't imagine they would have different rules to the benefits agency
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Thanks for all the information. From another site I have found this - which I am posting in case it helps someone else:-
Any new claim to Income Support awarded from the 6th April 2004 will not include child-related elements because support for children will be provided by Child Tax Credit (CTC). Families already on Income Support in April 2004 who have not already claimed CTC will be moved across to CTC at a future date. Any capital belonging to dependant children will be ignored for your benefit claim. You will claim Income Support (or JSA), this is no way affected by any savings your children have. You will be paid Tax Credits for the kids and savings do not count for a tax credit award
Source(s): Social Security (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2004
Also I telephoned the council tax office about council tax benefit and they don't count savings that are in a child's name and I can't imagine they would have different rules to the benefits agency
HB and CTB d in fact have completely different rules on this issue. For HB and CTB a child's income or capital is completely disregarded.
For income support, where the child (or young person) is included in the award, their income is treated as belonging to the claimant and their capital affects the award if the amount exceeds £3000, at which point allowances for that child are removed from the assesment.
Of course, many claims will not include the child as they will be under Child Tax credit instead. And I've no idea what rules they use for Tax Credits.0 -
All new claims for IS will not include any child elements, child elements must be claimed via tax credits. Tax credits do not count capital, you do however have to declare all interest received on all bank accounts (including childrens) above £300*
* NB it is not just interest that falls under the £300 excess declaration - there are loads of others.0 -
For your own IS claim, there is a maximum capital limit before your award requires a reduction - these limits do include capital held in childrens names.*
*Having looked into this further, it appears the children's capital is totally ignored. However, the application form requires childrens bank balances to be stated - assume that it so they can check to ensure the accounts are genuinely childrens accounts (OP ok here).0
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