Pay off mortgage with redundancy money?

Notebook

Hi All
Being made redundant and should get around 20k.
Am I allowed to use this to pay off my mortgage? I havent a job to go to yet, and if I did this and it left me with say 5k, would I be able to claim benefits, or would I not be allowed to put myself in this position - if you see what I mean.
Thanks

cabbage

Hi
Deprivation of capital - its only your intention at the time of using the money not what you actually use it for. Its deprivation if you have got rid of it with the intention of claiming benefit. Technically you could blow it all on wine, women and song but if it wasn't your intention to get rid of it to claim benefits then that's ok. You may have to challenge the decision.

For income based benefits - savings of between £6,000 and £16,000 will reduce the amount of benefit you receive as the DWP will assume you will receive an income from your savings/capital.

There is no entitlement to income based benefits if you have more than £16,000.

If you are eligible to claim contribution based jsa (jobseekers allowance), your savings and any partner's earnings are not taken into account and do not affect the amount of benefit you get. You can claim contribution based jsa for 6 months.