Savings, limits & new rules from April

wazza

Hi, had an interview with the benefit fraud department few months ago. Apparently they had details of old accounts which had savings of more than £8,000 about 4 years ago. Have been on income support since end of last year. My savings during the period of claim has been below the £3,000 limit. My children have savings. their accounts has my name on it because they are under 10 years old. have found out that i can now remove my name from their account and leave it in their name. only one account has more than £3,000, i think about £3,800.

at present my accounts in total is around £1,000 but received a letter from benefits office saying ii have under £5,000 savings and they are going to deduct £6 per week. what i want to know is where they got that figure from.

the fraud office said they will contact me after their investigation. i have not heard anything yet after 2 months.

shall i ring the benefits office and ask where they got that figure from or wait till the fraud department get back to me with their findings? i have a month in which to appeal i believe. feel like going to CAB and see what they say.

any advice will be greatly appreciated.

also how often do they review my savings and make adjustments.

thanks

Fran

If the accounts "had your name on" then they were your accounts, not your children's, that's where they'll be getting the figures from. I would definitely take all the paperwork to Citizens Advice including the "children's accounts". They will be able to negotiate on your behalf and also tell you exactly where you stand.

wazza

since the kids are over 7 years old i can have my name removed from their accounts. is that advisable and how do i go about notifying benefits of this change. am i correct in saving childrens savings are not taken into account for income support? the thing is my wife left me and the kids. i had initally opened the accounts for the children for her. she is the one who put the money in. she has kept the books in case i spend the money. she wants the money for the kids only.

Fran

I would certainly put the children's accounts in their names. As far as I know children can also have up to £3,000 savings each. You should check all this with CAB though, to make sure that you have up to date information about all of your situation and how best to tackle the fraud investigation question. As fraud is a criminal offence you really do need their advice on this.

wazza

at present when on income support and JSA u are allowed to have savings of up to £3000 before they start deducting money from your benefits.

i have heard that from April this goes up to £8,000. Does that limit applies to new claimants who apply after April or does it affect existing claimants. What i am trying to determine is at present i have savings of £5000 for which i have money deducted from my benefits. From next April will i get the full benefit amount?

Anthillmob

indeed. we dont ask about childrens savings (for proof) unless they have over 3k.

Fran

I've just read your edit. :rudolf:

The problem you have is that they will want to see these books as they are in your name. I don't know what they will say if you tell them you haven't got them as they are in your name. Can you contact the places where the accounts are and cancel the account? Your ex will have to open an account herself in their names for their benefit if she wants to save for them. Please contact CAB!!!

Fran

Another question to ask CAB.

Wazza, I'm going to merge your two threads, I hope this is OK with you.

Spendless

wazza wrote:

at present when on income support and JSA u are allowed to have savings of up to £3000 before they start deducting money from your benefits.

i have heard that from April this goes up to £8,000. Does that limit applies to new claimants who apply after April or does it affect existing claimants. What i am trying to determine is at present i have savings of £5000 for which i have money deducted from my benefits. From next April will i get the full benefit amount?

Can't you just go in to the bank/building society and ask for a duplicate passbook?

Savvy_Sue

Spendless wrote:

Can't you just go in to the bank/building society and ask for a duplicate passbook?

They might give a statement to say that at X date there was £Y in the account but I can't believe they'd issue a duplicate passbook unless the original had gone missing, which it hasn't. And I'm not sure that the benefits people will accept a statement, because wazza might have had pots of money in the accounts and then moved it out just before asking for the statement.

If ex won't give the passbooks over once you've taken your name off wazza, I suggest you ask her to photocopy them (to show movements in and out of the account).

But go and see CAB!

wazza

thanks for the replies. will discuss it further with CAB

thanks Fran for combining two posts together.