can you save up a bit of your benefit each month or does this affect your allowance??

loveangel88

i recieve DLA and IS long term sickess and i just wanted to know about saving a small amount each month about £20 or £30, is this allowed?? as obviously it builds up after a while, im just planning to keep the money as rainy day funds for any emergencies etc

thanks in advance

healy

loveangel88 wrote: »

i recieve DLA and IS long term sickess and i just wanted to know about saving a small amount each month about £20 or £30, is this allowed?? as obviously it builds up after a while, im just planning to keep the money as rainy day funds for any emergencies etc

thanks in advance

You can save money whilst on means tested benefits. The lower capital limit is £6000 so you can have this amount without it affecting your benefit. Once you have over £5500 you would need to inform the DWP.

DLA is not affected by savings.

dmg24

It has not started yet, but the Saving Gateway may be a good idea for you.

loveangel88

dmg24 wrote: »

It has not started yet, but the Saving Gateway may be a good idea for you.

thank you for the saving gateway link, it sounds perfect for me and i shall be opening one has anyone on income support had any letters about it yet?

dmg24

loveangel88 wrote: »

thank you for the saving gateway link, it sounds perfect for me and i shall be opening one has anyone on income support had any letters about it yet?

I'm not sure - someone did start a thread about it but it turned into a benefit bashing thread so think it ended up in Discussion Time!

I think it is a great idea, even if just to get people into the habit of spending. Maybe keep an eye on that webpage to see if more details are released?

loveangel88

dmg24 wrote: »

I think it is a great idea, even if just to get people into the habit of spendingQUOTE]

i think you mean saving? lol
I am deffo a spender but ive decided i do need some sort of rainy day fund. the idea of the goverment topping it up is a very good idea, if you save 600 over the 2yrs (£25 x 24) you would get a top up of half that?
or have i mis read it?

TOBRUK

healy wrote: »

You can save money whilst on means tested benefits. The lower capital limit is £6000 so you can have this amount without it affecting your benefit. Once you have over £5500 you would need to inform the DWP.

DLA is not affected by savings.

Hi healy, I know DLA is not affected by savings but say if you are on DLA, long term incapacity but getting IS (with any IB you are entitled included) and you save a little of DLA, this would be affected (if you also receive IS) wouldn't it?

I'm sorry I don't think I'm putting this across very well: if you saved some DLA and it eventually added up to the capital limit (if you were also receiving IS) then the DLA you have saved will be affected wouldn't it? Sorry if this isn't clear - I'm not having a great morning!;)

_______________________________________________

Just want to say healy, I hope things are better for you today after that appalling thread yesterday, I was absolutely disgusted by those personal attacks on you for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I was unable to report this abuse as a couple of buttons have disappeared from my MSE including the thank you button for some reason!

You are well respected here by many and I found it very upsetting.

Indie_Kid

Torbuk - that is correct. Whilsy DLA doesn't affect your benefits. If you save it, it does.

Healy - why is the lower limit is £6k, why do they need to know if you have £5500+ ?

TOBRUK

Thank you sh1305, I know the limit is a lot of money but you need to save some of your DLA for things you need to make life easier. Yesterday I spent £305 for a one handed keyboard (lucky I was VAT exempt for this) which is a lot of money just for a computer keyboard!! When you buy products for your disability they are so expensive!

Tehya

TOBRUK wrote: »

Thank you sh1305, I know the limit is a lot of money but you need to save some of your DLA for things you need to make life easier. Yesterday I spent £305 for a one handed keyboard (lucky I was VAT exempt for this) which is a lot of money just for a computer keyboard!! When you buy products for your disability they are so expensive!

Hello,

Someone in my carer's group used their HRM DLA to save up for an electric wheelchair but after a while it would have put her above the savings limit (I wish the government would use some common sense here especially if the person can prove what they need it for) so what she ended up doing was using the first two thousand as a large deposit before the savings got too large. This was risky but she would never have got the right wheelchair otherwise.

As someone has said already items for disabled people are expensive so some sort of government scheme to save for large purchases would be good, maybe I should write to whoever is our new MP in a few weeks.

Tehya

TOBRUK

Tehya, it's a difficult one isn't it. If your means tested benefit and DLA which is non means tested goes into the same account it comes under savings limit. What I mean is that DLA isn't limited as far as savings is concerned but if you also receive IS there is a savings limit. As you try and save up for things you need for your disability needs (which can be extremely expensive items) you save what you can out of your DLA for these, but, you come under limited savings.

I was thinking ... (dangerous I Know!) but, if you were able to have your DLA in another account (separate from e.g. IS account) which you could prove as non means tested savings for such items - and didn't have savings limit, it would be helpful. This would probably be too complicated to set up and they probably wouldn't allow it!