JSA and fixed term deposit savings

leamingtonspaceman

scooby088 wrote: »

I wouldn't take what is said by the customer advisors at the jobcentre as set in stone, they are about as clueless as me.

Unfortunately, this is true in the majority of cases. It happens because the system is so complex.

Every JCP employee has access to a shortcut on their desktop that is fully searchable and staff are told time and again to refer to this. It has all the legislation there in a 'customer service A-Z'. If in doubt, ask your JCP advisor to refer to this. My friend who used to work at JCP in the North of England was always tearing his hair out that his colleagues didn't use it.

CCFC_80

leamingtonspaceman wrote: »

Yes ceridwen...another prime example of why flexibility exists in the system. Good post.

If someone earns 30k a year and saves their surplus cash, and then someone who also earns 30k spends their surplus, they have both paid the same tax and NI. Why should the person who has saved be denied help from the state should they need it? If they were ill they wouldn't be denied NHS treatment and told to go private because they have saved.

Good post and completely agree with everything. As is always the case this goverment and previous governments loves to reward those people that have spent,spent,spent but does not give a s*** regarding the people who have worked their a**s off during their lifetime and saved.Obviously there should be some sort of sensible limit on savings to receive benefits but 6K is about now a 1/4 of the average national salary.

Greenqueen_2

tonybur wrote: »

In nutshell... your fine they SHOULD disregard it in full

FROM THE JSA PROCESSING GUIDE (DMG)

"Money that is not available to the customer cannot be treated as income, and must be fully disregarded until which time the customers right to call upon such funds"

This presumes that you have not invested the money a weeks before claiming .. as this would be classed as depravation of capital- in which case it would attract notional income ( be taken into account at the rate of £1 in every £250 or @1/500 depending on age..

I have a modest holiday home which I saved for all my working life. When I recently became unemployed and tried to claim JSA I was asked to sell it.

andreww1

OP here. First of all thanks to everyone who replied to my initial question. I do appreciate the advice.

One thing to clear up is that the £30k I have is not a bond or 'savings bond'. It's a fixed term deposit and, as such, there is no recognisable secondary market where it can be sold. Neither is there any option of withdrawing form it, penalty or otherwise, as I said in the original post. I'm hoping that tonybur is correct, as he seemed to be quoting directly from dwp guidelines, and it will be disregarded.

Anyway, I put in a claim over the phone today, so we'll see how that turns out.

ceridwen

Greenqueen wrote: »

I have a modest holiday home which I saved for all my working life. When I recently became unemployed and tried to claim JSA I was asked to sell it.

I know of this provision - and dont agree with it personally.

I think people are given a certain amount of time in which to sell a second home before being expected to use the money tied up in it to live on (think its 6 months???)

ceridwen

andreww1 wrote: »

OP here. First of all thanks to everyone who replied to my initial question. I do appreciate the advice.

One thing to clear up is that the £30k I have is not a bond or 'savings bond'. It's a fixed term deposit and, as such, there is no recognisable secondary market where it can be sold. Neither is there any option of withdrawing form it, penalty or otherwise, as I said in the original post. I'm hoping that tonybur is correct, as he seemed to be quoting directly from dwp guidelines, and it will be disregarded.

Anyway, I put in a claim over the phone today, so we'll see how that turns out.

Wishing you luck with this - and do keep us informed...

CCFC_80

andreww1 wrote: »

OP here. First of all thanks to everyone who replied to my initial question. I do appreciate the advice.

One thing to clear up is that the £30k I have is not a bond or 'savings bond'. It's a fixed term deposit and, as such, there is no recognisable secondary market where it can be sold. Neither is there any option of withdrawing form it, penalty or otherwise, as I said in the original post. I'm hoping that tonybur is correct, as he seemed to be quoting directly from dwp guidelines, and it will be disregarded.

Anyway, I put in a claim over the phone today, so we'll see how that turns out.

It's quite surprising with the amount of knowledge on this forum by so called benefit experts and anyone who may have worked at The JCP that you cannot get a straight answer to your initial question.This could have saved you time with your phone claim today and further time when you go down there discussing your so called back to work plan. My gut instinct is that you will not be successful with your claim,however Good Luck.

Uncertain

andy46 wrote: »

It's quite surprising with the amount of knowledge on this forum by so called benefit experts and anyone who may have worked at The JCP that you cannot get a straight answer to your initial question.

I think that is because most of the "experts" are only actually expert about what they think the law SHOULD be rather than what it really is!

leamingtonspaceman

Uncertain wrote: »

I think that is because most of the "experts" are only actually expert about what they think the law SHOULD be rather than what it really is!

Spot on. No such thing as an 'expert'...as there is always something new to learn about everything.

dmg24

andy46 wrote: »

It's quite surprising with the amount of knowledge on this forum by so called benefit experts and anyone who may have worked at The JCP that you cannot get a straight answer to your initial question.This could have saved you time with your phone claim today and further time when you go down there discussing your so called back to work plan. My gut instinct is that you will not be successful with your claim,however Good Luck.

His question was answered in the first response, with supporting evidence provided later. I am certainly not an expert, but the question was very straightforward.