Whats counted as savings?

HappyMJ

wazza wrote: »

I believe gold and silver are classed as savings :-(

If it is I know people who have quite a few ounces of gold and silver jewellery which would take them over the limit. It doesn't count unless held as an investment.

Pollycat wrote: »

I'm not sure what they would treat as 'savings' in your case but when DWP calculate entitlement to Pension Credit they also include money in current accounts even if that money is used to pay bills.

Some of that can be excluded. The last months pay can be ignored for a month. i.e normal pay £2,000 per month then £2,000 of whatever you have in the current account can be ignored for 1 month whilst you spend it on normal reasonable monthly expenses and bills. When you actually get pension credit and other benefits then an amount equal to 1 month of benefit can be ignored. Otherwise, I'd be notifying them every time I got a fortnightly housing benefit cheque as I've gone over £6,000 and notifying them again when I had paid the rent at the end of the month bringing me back under £6,000.

Pollycat

HappyMJ wrote: »

Some of that can be excluded. The last months pay can be ignored for a month. i.e normal pay £2,000 per month then £2,000 of whatever you have in the current account can be ignored for 1 month whilst you spend it on normal reasonable monthly expenses and bills. When you actually get pension credit and other benefits then an amount equal to 1 month of benefit can be ignored. Otherwise, I'd be notifying them every time I got a fortnightly housing benefit cheque as I've gone over £6,000 and notifying them again when I had paid the rent at the end of the month bringing me back under £6,000.

The woman I met from DWP who came to see me and my Dad about me being made appointee for him wanted to see evidence of savings plus bank statements from the date he went into the care home.

She said they took a snapshot of his finances and included money in his current account when calculating his claim for pension credit.

Maybe I'm muddying the waters here as the OP isn't talking about PC.

rogerblack

HappyMJ wrote: »

If it is I know people who have quite a few ounces of gold and silver jewellery which would take them over the limit. It doesn't count unless held as an investment.

The only way gold/silver can not count is if it's held to be personal possessions.
It would be pretty easy to argue if you've got a couple of wedding rings in a household.

Rather less so if you've got a few ounces of gold that happens to be in the form of Jewellery, entirely unsuitable for anyone in the house to wear, and of no sentimental value.

If the only reason you have it is to (or can be argued to be) to make you eligible for benefit, it's clearly counted.

Benefits_Bod

On the valuation of stocks and shares for means-tested benefits, 10% should be disregarded from the gross value for benefit purposes.