Income support and savings

Gatesygirl

I have savings of £16,000 which i have saved up over a lifetime and need to claim income support. Is there any way that i can reduce my savings to £6,000 so that it does not affect my level of benefit without the government checking up on me?

Can premium bonds be traced by the government?

Are bank accounts able to be checked.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated as i do not see why when i have worked all my life that i should be penalised for having saved a bit of money.
:j:j

bryanb

I don't see why I should have to contribute to your living expenses when you can pay them yourself!
Could you explain how you are likely to be penalised?

Indie_Kid

There are rules (I'm sure someone will be along soon to explain them?) about disposing of capital.

briona

Gatesygirl wrote: »

I have savings of £16,000 which i have saved up over a lifetime and need to claim income support. Is there any way that i can reduce my savings to £6,000 so that it does not affect my level of benefit without the government checking up on me?

Can premium bonds be traced by the government?

Are bank accounts able to be checked.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated as i do not see why when i have worked all my life that i should be penalised for having saved a bit of money.
:j:j

The purpose of this board is NOT to help anyone commit benefit fraud.

You are hardly being "penalised". You save money for a rainy day – that rainy day has apparently now come, so use your savings rather than leeching off the State. Any attempts to spend or hide this money will be treated as 'Deprivation of Capital'. I suggest you Google that...

FYI, NS&I (supplier of Premium Bonds) is backed by HM Treasury so good luck trying to hide your money from the Government!

healy

Gatesygirl wrote: »

I have savings of £16,000 which i have saved up over a lifetime and need to claim income support. Is there any way that i can reduce my savings to £6,000 so that it does not affect my level of benefit without the government checking up on me?

Can premium bonds be traced by the government?

Are bank accounts able to be checked.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated as i do not see why when i have worked all my life that i should be penalised for having saved a bit of money.
:j:j

You will not receive any IS until your savings are below £16000 and it will be at a reduced rate between £6000 and £16000.

This board is not intended to be used to ask how to fiddle the system.

Yes the Government/DWP can trace and check bank accounts etc and if you try to hide the money sooner or later you are likely to be caught and face a fraud investigation.

You are not being penalised.

karenx

Even if you spend some etc you will still be treated as having the same amount of savings. So you may aswell just use them for day to day living untill it reaches a point where you can claim IS.
Why save when you arent going to spend it anyway? Ususlly people save for something and if an emergency came along (ie no income) then they usually use that to help them!

Whiteknight

Gatesygirl wrote: »

I have savings of £16,000 which i have saved up over a lifetime and need to claim income support. Is there any way that i can reduce my savings to £6,000 so that it does not affect my level of benefit without the government checking up on me?

Can premium bonds be traced by the government?

Are bank accounts able to be checked.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated as i do not see why when i have worked all my life that i should be penalised for having saved a bit of money.
:j:j

You could spend your money on whatever you want to reduce your savings but I get the impression that you don't really want to do this. Instead you want to hide it away so that you can get more money from the Government. You might want to give your money away (you are more than welcome to give it to me to hold for you - however I will not be able to give it back to you) except you will have to explain where your money has gone - they will find out even if you don't declare the savings. Please also note if you go on a mad spending spree to keep receipts for large expenditure.

snowball1972

Dont see why my taxes should subsidise you, when i have no savings and have worked every day since being at school!

tr82

I could normally answer the OP's questions.

Sadly I deprived myself of £9.40 earlier, bought two bottles of wine and now can't remember the answers. Tragic, innit ?

:beer:

viktory

Bloody hell, the newbies on this board are busy - second thread on the bounces asking for advice on deliberate deprivation of capital in order to claim state benefits.

dippy3103

Yes, bank accounts can be checked, and if the DWP has good grounds to suspect fraud it can be done without your permission (by an authorised officer) using the Social Security Fraud Act. If they (being your savings) have been in a bank account this may very well be identified by Data Matching anyway.
If you have allways worked, is there not a contributory/non means tested benefit that you would be entitled to?