Savings and benefits

tweetyshells

Can anyone tell me how much savings you are allowed to have and keep if you were to need to claim benefits like housing benefit, tax credits etc thanks.
Also do they count childrens savings?

GlasweJen

if the kids money is in an account with the kids name then no it wont be counted.

at £16000 you wont get any housing benefit, under £6000 you'll get full entitlement and between those 2 numbers it's a sliding scale where they reduce the amount you get pound by pound (i think).

For tax credits only the interest on the savings are counted as income.

tweetyshells

Really you can have up to 6000 and it not be counted?
I dunno why but i had 3000 in my head for some reason.

healy

tweetyshells wrote: »

Really you can have up to 6000 and it not be counted?
I dunno why but i had 3000 in my head for some reason.

The figure was £3000 for the lower capital limit for many years but has been raised to £6000 in the last couple of years.

simpywimpy

I was under the impression that the kids money was included in the savings limit so Ive learned something new there

GlasweJen

I'm quite sure that if you can prove that it's the kids then they can't touch it but that doesn't mean you can sink all your savings into your kids accounts. If they took kids money then their own child trust fund initiative would go down the toilet.

[Deleted User]

simpywimpy wrote: »

I was under the impression that the kids money was included in the savings limit so Ive learned something new there

Upto £3000 in a kids own account DOESNT count,more than that then it does

simpywimpy

Thanks for clearing that up. I was sure I'd heard it does count in some way. Otherwise we'd just put everything in their names and claim poverty

GlasweJen

they would catch you at that and make you live off it anyway. It's called deprivation of capital and it's illegal.

mummytofour

Hope you dont mind if I just ask a smiler question?
Supposing there was a lump sum in trust for you and all you got was the interest to live off does anybody who how that would be classed?

[Deleted User]

mummytofour wrote: »

How you dont mind if I just ask a smiler question?
Supposing there was a lump sum in trust for you and all you got was the interest to live off does anybody who how that would be classed?

tbh i`m not sure,but i suspect the income from the investment would be treated as any other income when it came to means tested benefits and most of it would be lost,there are some examples where for a short time capital can be put in trust without affecting benefits the best example is if you sell your house but dont use the money immediately to buy a new one,sometimes the DWP will allow that money to be ignored as long as its not accessable until you buy another property usually within 6 months