Low Income - No Benefits or Tax Credits Allowed!!!

ROldfield

Yes, I am penalized if I have saved yet someone with the exact same income has spent and not saved they are getting £400 a month and yet for me being careful I don't get the £400?!

So would you like me to splash out on cars, tech, holidays etc, not have any savings and the taxpayer give me £400 a month to effectively enjoy my life and spend my money?


Taking it back some years when I was at college the same thing happened, as my parents earnt above the threshold I wasn't entitled to ema so had to work to pay for my college books, stationery, car to get to work, my parents never and didn't have to give me any money towards those things.

But yet my friends with parents on a lower income with getting paid £1,000s a year to go to college and they were spending it on nights out, holidays and cars while not having to work.

ROldfield

Yes, but what if I had to pay for a new boiler or new car?
You can't touch the money that's in your pension!
That's the reason I haven't put it in a pension, if there was a pension scheme where you could have your money but still have access to it I'd do that.

Flugelhorn wrote: »

... or if you really treated your savings as pension then it would be locked up until you were 55 and hence possibly not counted now

ROldfield

If I could i'd give the money to a family member to be below the threshold but the UC look at where all the money has gone from years previous.

Carrieanne wrote: »

I suspect many people in the OP's situation would be sorely tempted to withdraw their cash savings in a hurry to take the total below the lower £6K threshold so as to make a new UC claim around 9 months hence.

ROldfield

At least you understand where I'm coming from.

TELLIT01 wrote: »

I understand your frustration but there is nothing you, or we, can do about it. It has been said many times that the systems benefits the !!!!less and actually encourages them to be bone idle because they know the 'system' will always be there for them.


For some reason MSE seems to think the letters F & E & C & K followed by 'less' is rude.

Mr_Costcutter

Sometimes it is easier to focus on what one hasn't got, rather than appreciating what one does have.

ROldfield

I appreciate that but I strongly believe in being fair no matter what the circumstances and I don't believe this is fair.

Mr_Costcutter wrote: »

Sometimes it is easier to focus on what one hasn't got, rather than appreciating what one does have.

Mr_Costcutter

My comment wasn't meant unkindly. The situation you are in at the moment may seem unfair and I'm sure many people feel the same way, but it is no good focusing on such a situation unless you can change it.

calcotti

This is a big change between UC and Tax Credits. There was no savings threshold for Tax Credits - depending on your point of view that was a sensible policy so as not to discourage long term saving or unecessary support provided by the state to people with the means to support themselves. We know which way the government has gone.

If the savings were in pension funds they would be ignored for UC. Difficulty now is that if you move them to a pension fund that will almost certainly be seen as deprivation of capital and you will be treated as still having access to the money.

If you have any debts you can pay these off and this will not be seen as deprivation of capital.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/778104/admh1.pdf

Deprivation of capital
The law
H1795 The law says people are treated as having capital they do not have if they deprive themselves of capital to get UC or more UC. The capital people are treated as having is called notional capital.

H1796 People are not treated as having capital of which they have deprived themselves if
1. it reduces or pays a debt owed by the person or
2. they purchase goods and services and that expenditure was reasonable in the circumstances of that person’s case.

TELLIT01

tacpot12 wrote: »

You can guarantee that Person B has not spent the money they didn't save on income-producing assets. People that spend all their money usually have very little to show for it at the end of the day.

That is precisely my point. By spending every penny they earn, they can rely on state handouts. I speak from personal experience as my father and father-in-law both earned good money during their working lives. One purchased their own property and contributed to pension schemes. The other ****** it against the wall every weekend and lived in renter accommodation all their life. Come retirement one had their rent and council tax paid, etc etc. Who was the mug?

Alice_Holt

Surely this thread should be in the discussion area, not on this board.
Perhaps a board monitor could move it.

The OP should get some pointers on how to sensibly provide for his retirement years. Holding pension assets as savings is foolish as:
a) It denies him the valuable pension tax relief;
b) Savings rates are below RPI. His retirement pot is declining in real terms. Over, say, 30 years the inflation risk is considerable;
c) If he moved his pension pot onto a suitable platform, and bought necessary items for the child, his emergency savings pot may reduce to below £16k.

I would advise him to speak to his accountant about setting up a pension scheme. Or if he hasn't an accountant (advisable for the self-employed), then ask some sensible questions on the pensions board here. There are some very knowledgeable posters who could guide him to the most appropriate and best value pension options.