JSA - Bank Statements?!

duckobsession

I've been asked to produce a bank statement in order to start my new claim for JSA. Apparently this is because I have over £5000. £5679 to be precise.

I'll be honest, I do find this plain intrusive...there's a lot of things on my statement that are personally embarrassing such as the bedroom purchases that me and my partner make....I shall say no more!

Would a ministatement be acceptable, or is there anything else I can do here?

pupgrum

duckobsession wrote: »

I've been asked to produce a bank statement in order to start my new claim for JSA. Apparently this is because I have over £5000. £5679 to be precise.

I'll be honest, I do find this plain intrusive...there's a lot of things on my statement that are personally embarrassing such as the bedroom purchases that me and my partner make....I shall say no more!

Would a ministatement be acceptable, or is there anything else I can do here?

This is why I use my credit cards for all purchases, pay my household bills using one current account and have my salary coming into a different current account. All that will show if I produce the bank statement with my salary showing is I've been paying my credit card bills and paying another bank account. The ATM mini statement worked for me but that was over 10 years ago. I'm not sure if this still works.

You can also ask your bank to print off a bank statement showing only your income and total outgoings each month, or you can use a black marker and remove the descriptions showing how you're spending your money and just leave the amounts.

shortcrust

I'd just black marker the stuff you don't want them to see. Personally, I couldn't begin to care that DWP staff might see the details of my 'bedroom' purchases.

Alice_Walker

It needs to be a full, non black markered(!) statement. The staff won't care what you're doing with your money as long as you're not transferring it out to deprive yourself of capital.

shortcrust

Alice_Walker wrote: »

It needs to be a full, non black markered(!) statement. The staff won't care what you're doing with your money as long as you're not transferring it out to deprive yourself of capital.

Surely that's not what this is about. If they're after deprivation of capital then it doesn't make sense to only check the people who declare capital. They would want bank records from every claimant, which isn't the case (or is it?! it's been a while since I claimed...).

Alice_Walker

shortcrust wrote: »

Surely that's not what this is about. If they're after deprivation of capital then it doesn't make sense to only check the people who declare capital. They would want bank records from every claimant, which isn't the case (or is it?! it's been a while since I claimed...).

They used to ask for statements from all claimants, to check for any other sources of income as well as potential deprivation of capital. Now they only ask for statements if you've got over £5,500 to check for DoC.

So yes, it is what this is about

sammyjammy

Alice_Walker wrote: »

They used to ask for statements from all claimants, to check for any other sources of income as well as potential deprivation of capital. Now they only ask for statements if you've got over £5,500 to check for DoC.

So yes, it is what this is about

No they didn't, DWP have never asked for statements from all claimants that would be ridiculous.

shortcrust

Alice_Walker wrote: »

They used to ask for statements from all claimants, to check for any other sources of income as well as potential deprivation of capital. Now they only ask for statements if you've got over £5,500 to check for DoC.

So yes, it is what this is about

That doesn't make sense to me. Are they only interested in catching out those who are daft enough not to move out enough to get under the 5,500 limit?

xapprenticex

For the record, they request bank staments from EVERYONE who claims, when I had to claim, I had to produce bank statements, it's not nice but you have no choice.

End of the day, you need something from them and they need something from you, just look at it like that.

And don't black anything out,

duckobsession

Ok, so what do they do with the bank statement? Are they going to go through it with a fine tooth comb, pick it apart and interrogate me? I transfered £1000 in (emptied my ISA account) are they then going to want to see that account statement too, and so on?!

For the record, I've signed in many times over the years and I've NEVER had this.

Also, it's a royal pain in the !!! because my bank do not have a branch in my town.

Owain_Moneysaver

duckobsession wrote: »

I transfered £1000 in (emptied my ISA account) are they then going to want to see that account statement too,

It's up to you to satisfy them that you meet the conditions for claiming benefit are met.

If they think the £1000 is income and you want to prove to them that it is actually a transfer of savings then yes, you will have to show them the ISA account statement showing the transfer.