Can I Protect My Savings While on Benefits?

Dunroamin

mrobsessed wrote: »

Your maths is way off. By my understanding, if I had 16K savings I'd get nothing, so 15K will be about £4 a week.

I'd be on Contribution based JSA for 6 months so wouldn't need to worry about savings until then anyway, and could only claim motgage interest relief after about 9 months of benefits.

13 weeks...

Ravenshade

Where are you guys getting either 9 months or 13 weeks from?

https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest/overview doesn't say anything of the sort...

According to my calculations this is what Mrobsessed could get...
JSA Income Base £35 per week (this is with 15k in savings)
Variable help with council tax... I only inputted £300 for a figure.

https://www.dwpe-services.direct.gov.uk/portal/page/portal/ba/lp?_piref301_66309_301_66308_66308.__ora_navig=action%3Dentitlement%26pageno%3D11

Pollycat

Ravenshade wrote: »

Where are you guys getting either 9 months or 13 weeks from?

https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest/overview doesn't say anything of the sort...

According to my calculations this is what Mrobsessed could get...
JSA Income Base £35 per week (this is with 15k in savings)
Variable help with council tax... I only inputted £300 for a figure.

https://www.dwpe-services.direct.gov.uk/portal/page/portal/ba/lp?_piref301_66309_301_66308_66308.__ora_navig=action%3Dentitlement%26pageno%3D11

I know exactly where Dunroamin is getting the 13 weeks from. :cool:

From the link you gave!

I agree the 'overview' doesn't mention 13 weeks but if you click on 'What you'll get' it says this:

How SMI is paid

SMI is normally paid direct to your lender after a waiting period, which is 13 weeks after you’ve claimed benefit.
If you’re getting Pension Credit, there’s no waiting period.

OK?

Cornucopia

mrobsessed wrote: »

But while that may be an option, in practice how useful would that be?

If I was able to put, say, £5k into a pension scheme in the next few weeks, and then in a years time needed the money, wouldnt it only be worth a fraction of what I'd paid in if I cashed it in so early?

I'm not sure that you are looking at it in the right way.

The system is set up, rightly or wrongly to strip away excess savings before paying benefits. You cannot protect those savings as cash, or cash equivalent.

Therefore you have to look at what you can do. A small pension is going to be better than losing the money. Equally, you could buy a car or pay money off your mortgage.

midnight_express

SMI is payable 13 weeks after you become entitled to JSA IB. It only pays towards the interest not capital.
OP if I were you I'd be stocking up food and other household stuff and looking at ways to cut out goings. £15k won't last long. £71 a week isn't enough to live on when you've got a mortgage to pay.

mrobsessed

Ravenshade wrote: »

Where are you guys getting either 9 months or 13 weeks from?

As I understand it, I'd be on Contribution Based JSA for six months, during which time I can't claim anything for my mortgage. After that I go onto Income Based JSA and have to be on that a further 13 weeks before I can claim mortgage relief. You only get it if your income is assessed as low.

Total = 9 months.

mrobsessed

I should point out that the 15K figure is comprised of:

About 9.5K redundancy payment
About 2K of notice and holiday pay
And about 4K I've saved

I intend to get double glazing with my savings which will be 4K, so I've basically got 10K left and might pay a couple of K off my mortgage too.

I'm not exactly going to be swimming in cash.

mrobsessed

midnight_express wrote: »

OP if I were you I'd be stocking up food and other household stuff and looking at ways to cut out goings. £15k won't last long. £71 a week isn't enough to live on when you've got a mortgage to pay.

I've already cut my outgoings very tightly for the last 4 months since we got the news about work. I've been saving about 40% of my wages coming to several thousand. I'm also paying up front for anything I can like house insurance and car tax.

I want to spend on the house and have had my bathroom done which cost 3K and now want the double glazing done which is another 4K. Ultimately I might have to rent out a room, the whole house or even sell it, so I think this is a wise move.

sammyjammy

mrobsessed wrote: »

As I understand it, I'd be on Contribution Based JSA for six months, during which time I can't claim anything for my mortgage. After that I go onto Income Based JSA and have to be on that a further 13 weeks before I can claim mortgage relief. You only get it if your income is assessed as low.

Total = 9 months.

Not if you have an underlying entitlement to Income based JSA, you would get it after 13 weeks as would anyone else.

Naf

missapril75 wrote: »

So asking for details of accounts that wouldn't be discovered was just a red herring. Gotcha.

But the OP hasn't asked that; they have asked if any accounts are exempt, which is different to ones that wouldn't be found. I'm glad I'm not so cynical as to assume everyone is a cheat out to pull a fast one right from the get go.