Benefits check up guide and tool discussion
Comments
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Then that should be down to entitledto not MSE, I would imagine as the tool doesn't belong to MSE as such.
On each page (if you follow the link in the OP) is MSE branding.
They wanted to people to "discuss" it, just thought I would raise it.
*shrugs*
D70How about no longer being masochistic?
How about remembering your divinity?
How about unabashedly bawling your eyes out?
How about not equating death with stopping?0 -
dseventy
Thanks for your suggestion, i will look at adding a note somewhere in the non tool section of the guide.
Wendy*** Get the Martin's Money Tips Free E-mail at www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips ***0 -
Hi all
There’s been a few comments here about the benefits tool calculation of savings interest.
Entitledto uses the government’s formula to work out the interest you are assumed to get, which may not be the amount you are actually getting.
The rules are difference for over and under 60s but if you click on the ‘need help answering a question’ bar and ‘more information on capital over £xxx’ link, this is fully explained.
In brief, the government formulas are:
If you are under Pension Credit age, the government assumes you receive £1 per week for every £250 of savings you have above £6,000. If you are over, the government assumes you receive £1 per week for every £500 of savings you have above £10,000.
The tool is also focused on income based benefits rather than contribution based. If you meet the criteria for the benefit but your income is too high you may be eligible for the contribution based payment, speak to your local Jobcenter to check.
Hope that helps
Wendy*** Get the Martin's Money Tips Free E-mail at www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips ***0 -
Hi all
There’s been a few comments here about the benefits tool calculation of savings interest.
Entitledto uses the government’s formula to work out the interest you are assumed to get, which may not be the amount you are actually getting.
The rules are difference for over and under 60s but if you click on the ‘need help answering a question’ bar and ‘more information on capital over £xxx’ link, this is fully explained.
In brief, the government formulas are:
If you are under Pension Credit age, the government assumes you receive £1 per week for every £250 of savings you have above £6,000. If you are over, the government assumes you receive £1 per week for every £500 of savings you have above £10,000.
The tool is also focused on income based benefits rather than contribution based. If you meet the criteria for the benefit but your income is too high you may be eligible for the contribution based payment, speak to your local Jobcenter to check.
Hope that helps
Wendy
This font is vertually unreadable for me with perfect eyesight, I hate to think what its like for anyone who needs glasses and its very unhelpfull for a member of the team to use on the forums.0 -
So on a scale of 1 - 10 how reliable is this benefit checker tool? & will it take into account all the new benefit changes?0
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I'm confused.
According to this calculator, with a household income of around 42k, we're borderline for tax credits.
By playing around with pension contributions I can get it to give us tax credits.
Currently awaiting a decision for DLA for one of our children. If I put that we receive that into the calculator then we get lots of tax credits.
Had a letter through to say they weren't renewing our tax credits claim as our income was over 42k (no mention of pension contributions) but we could still renew if we wanted and it would make things easier in the future.
Phoned this morning and after 40 minutes in a queue I was told that in the budget, any families with an income over 40k wouldn't get any tax credits. So the DLA decision, pension contributions, etc don't matter.
So, does anyone know which is right - they guy I spoke to on the phone or this calculator?
If the calculator is wrong, are there plans to fix it? It seems odd to me that it is a new calculator but wouldn't take account of the recent budget?0 -
Ok, after having a look at various internet sites, I believe that the guy I spoke to is wrong. £40k is the point at which they _start_ to reduce, not the point at which they stop.JimmyTheWig wrote: »Phoned this morning and after 40 minutes in a queue I was told that in the budget, any families with an income over 40k wouldn't get any tax credits. So the DLA decision, pension contributions, etc don't matter.
Therefore we can claim.
Makes me cross that they can get these things wrong and put people off claiming!0 -
Hi all
There’s been a few comments here about the benefits tool calculation of savings interest.
Entitledto uses the government’s formula to work out the interest you are assumed to get, which may not be the amount you are actually getting.
The rules are difference for over and under 60s but if you click on the ‘need help answering a question’ bar and ‘more information on capital over £xxx’ link, this is fully explained.
In brief, the government formulas are:
If you are under Pension Credit age, the government assumes you receive £1 per week for every £250 of savings you have above £6,000. If you are over, the government assumes you receive £1 per week for every £500 of savings you have above £10,000.
The tool is also focused on income based benefits rather than contribution based. If you meet the criteria for the benefit but your income is too high you may be eligible for the contribution based payment, speak to your local Jobcenter to check.
Hope that helps
Wendy
I was recently unexpectedly widowed and am 57 years old....I have never worked as such, just brought my two children up, but I do have some money that was left to me by my late mother......my husband left me no means of support......I went on this site to see if i would be entitled to any benefits but it seems that the entitlement calculator assumes i could get 462 pounds a week from my savings....I would really appreciate it if you could advise me where I could invest my savings to bring in that amount so I wouldn't need to ask for any help!
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As has been pointed out, these are the government guidelines, rather than the tool's.Please advise why / how this otherwise useful tool suggests I receive a weekly income of 380 pound on capital of 200,000 pounds i.e. almost 20% or ten times the best available through UK banks after the GFC ruined us all.
Can anyone tell me where to get 20% interest?
But I suspect that the point isn't that you can get 20% interest. The point, I'm guessing, is that you can use some of your savings to live on.
You can take an income of £380 a week from your £200k. As your capital reduces you'll, presumably, be entitled to more benefits.0
This discussion has been closed.
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