ESA savings

K80_Black

Bit of a vent, apologies if it's innapropriate for this board - no useful information here, skip if you're looking for that!


It's alnost impossible to live a normal life on long term benefits. You can't save for big purchases like a new car even if you live frugally and save every spare penny because as soon as you reach the magic £6k figure you're punished for having savings. You also cannot get much credit because you're seen as a high risk, despite for example me having PIP awarded for 5 years, and someone in a job could be made redundant tomorrow. (I realise that there are perfectly legal and legitimate workarounds to everything - 6k will get a second hand car, and you can always save again and part exchange etc etc. I don't drive, it was just an example!)



It really grinds my gears when people say things like 6k is a 'ridiculously large' amount to have whilst claiming any sort of benefits. ESA is for people who cannot work due to medical reasons - does being disabled mean I'm not allowed to aspire to have better things than a council flat and a bus pass? If I can manage money well and save over 6k on the equivalent of less than minimum wage, shouldn't I be applauded for it, not punished? How am I meant to have build up a safety net for if this money ever stops?



I realise this is from the view of a long-term disabled person who has been on benefits almost all their adult life and is likely to stay that way. Yes, there should be measures in place to give money to those who most need it - but an arbirary cap on your bank balance is really not a true measure of wealth. Those who are lucky enough to already have cars and houses and are unfortunate enough to become to ill to work expect to keep the cars and houses they aquired. People like me who haven't been able to build up assets before becoming unwell are basically told they never can.



I wonder if those who think £6k in savings is 'ridiculous' would be willing to sell up all their possessions, until they had under £6k in assets before claiming a penny in benefits. It's for people with 'nothing' after all.

micky2phones

Hi, some good points here, but if you watch Rich House Poor House
some of the family on there have 2/3000 pounds a week to spend after bills.

So in that respect 6000/16000 pounds is not a lot, but even when i was working 40 plus hours a week i couldnt save that amount.

But we are all different some save, some spend, some put money into a pension so dont

Carrieanne

JamoLew wrote: »

I certainly wouldn't class £6000-£16000 savings as modest.

My wife and I work full time, are not entitled to any benefits etc and would love to have such modest sums of money at hand.

I could have submitted similar several years ago but then decided to live beneath my means in order to accrue some rainy day savings, and it proved easy as I adopted a need rather than want attitude. One simple saving netted £800 in one year by doing without a cup of coffee then a meal later on during weekly shopping trips. Cancelling a Sky TV subscription saved another £300. Ditching having a takeaway most weeks was also no hardship and a boon for the waistline to boot which boosted the kitty by another £300 or so.