£16k savings reductions

ever

FBaby wrote: »

It's not so hypothetical if in addition to all these benefits, you get very nice maintenance payments each month that you get to keep....

That may be the case for some, but my ex became very disabled due to serious medical problems in 2010. As a result, he pays £5/week total. I don't understand why people want to assume I'm somehow living large all because of a hypothetical question.

FBaby

I don't understand the basis of such calculation if the likelihood of it happening is no greater than that of winning the lottery. Much more fun to imagine spending millions won than what would happen if you miraculously managed to save £16K whilst on benefits?

Gentile

FBaby wrote: »

I don't understand the basis of such calculation if the likelihood of it happening is no greater than that of winning the lottery. Much more fun to imagine spending millions won than what would happen if you miraculously managed to save £16K whilst on benefits?

Yep. It was nothing but trying to deflect the fact that the thread was about indirectly hinting that he was getting paid lots more than needed, it was being used to pay off debts and then save a lot of cash. On top of that, he is worried that after he has managed to save 16K he might get reduced benefits ! How many working families would love to have that much savings? Many are struggling being unable to save.

ever

Clearly some of you are solely seeking arguments if you can't put two and two together here. I said that I would be off IS in one year and that I had not even started saving. If you're so thick you can't realise from that information that it is well and truly hypothetical and not the reality of my situation, you might spend less time so wound up on forums. I'll leave you to your rants, though. Enjoy.

SandraScarlett

Gentile wrote: »

If I was seeking arguments I have would picked up on you being an American citizen and using UK to fund your lifestyle. I havent done so. I am only debating based on your OP. You are in receipt of several benefits totalling about 300 quid a month and you are using it to pay your debts off and save a lot of dosh. If you wanted a situation based on fantasy you could have started a thread on how to spend a million if you won the lottery.

It's £300 a week.

xx

ever

flashnazia wrote: »

But your wording of the question makes is really odd for a hypothetical one (as you put it).

As my post history shows, I've only been on IS for a year. I will be off it next year. There's no way for me to have possibly saved £16,000 short of having zero rent, bills, and living expenses. Even if I hadn't outright said it was hypothetical, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out if they were curious. Someone posted the answer to my question straight away. What is the point in people chiming in with off-the-wall assumptions and judgements? It's completely non-constructive.

FBaby

So why are you asking? Surely you have enough to think of to be bothered with starting a thread that doesn't apply to you at all. Unless it applies to a someone close to you.

ever

Because I got an email from one of my kids' child trust funds (The Children's Mutual) about savings and it made me think about it and want to look into how having savings affected benefits. When I saw people could have up to £16,000 in savings and still be allowed to claim means-tested things, I was curious about how the deductions worked because I saw that both housing benefit and the out-of-work benefits allowed you to have so much but vaguely referred to reductions.

I don't understand why it's so difficult to believe that someone can just be curious about something. I looked online and didn't see anywhere that had anything more than a vague reference so I figured I'd ask here because a lot of posters seem to really know their stuff. It's not as if starting a thread here is some arduous task.

FBaby

It is the fact that you refer to your own situation that makes it very confusing and would lead people to believe you are querying in regards to your own situation.

but I'm hoping to aggressively save after I get my debts paid off and I'm just curious

ever

Oh, that wasn't my intention. It was just because I figured it would be more helpful to have numbers to go on since benefit figures aren't the same for everyone, particularly housing benefit. Being able to refer to an actual number just made it easier to understand, I thought. I do hope to aggressively save when I'm able to (which realistically won't be until after I'm employed, hopefully next year), but that thought it what spurred my interest.