Foreign spouse issue regarding Universal Credit

PeteDenton

Any advice would be appreciated on this. 
I am self employed (limited company) and no longer have any work or income. 
I have a Thai spouse who still lives in Thailand (she has never lived in the UK).  I would like to claim Universal Credit, but don't know how this will affect me, being married to a non UK citizen. 
Will I need to include any money/savings she has in Thailand?
Am I OK to send her money from my savings? (She's also out of work now).

Is anyone in a similar situation or can advise?

Jeremy535897

I'm no expert on UC but to be treated as a couple it says:
"The Department for Work and Pensions counts 2 people as being in a couple if they live in the same household and are:

• married to each other
• civil partners of each other
• living together as if they were married".

Your last point could be a problem, though. If you currently have sufficient savings to reduce or eliminate a claim to UC (between £6,000 and £16,000), and you make a payment to your wife that reduces those savings thus increasing your UC, that payment might be disregarded because you deprived yourself of capital:
"DMs have to show the claimant's or partner's purpose was to get UC or more benefit if they decide claimants or partners have deprived themselves of capital. Getting UC or more UC may not be the claimant's or partner's predominant purpose but it must be a significant one. So when claimants give away all their capital to a relative just before claiming UC their
 1. main, or predominant, purpose may be to benefit the relative and
 2. intention, or significant purpose, may be to reduce their capital so they can get UC or more UC."

SnowTiger

PeteDenton said:

Any advice would be appreciated on this. 
I am self employed (limited company) and no longer have any work or income. 
I have a Thai spouse who still lives in Thailand (she has never lived in the UK).  I would like to claim Universal Credit, but don't know how this will affect me, being married to a non UK citizen. 
Will I need to include any money/savings she has in Thailand?
Am I OK to send her money from my savings? (She's also out of work now).

Is anyone in a similar situation or can advise?

Your wife would have no recourse to public funds in the UK unless she had indefinite leave to remain, which she would get after living here for five years and fulfilling visa requirements.  Therefore you won't be able to include her in your UC claim.

Sending your wife money many be viewed as deprivation of assets.

As you wife has savings in Thailand, why doesn't she use them?

DWP defines a couple as: 

1. Definition of a couple

The Department for Work and Pensions counts 2 people as being in a couple if they live in the same household and are:

• married to each other
• civil partners of each other
• living together as if they were married

I don't think the DWP define you and your wife as a couple.

PeteDenton

Thanks for your answer.
That's what I'm worried about. Unfortunately she's going to be in a bad situation too, so will need funds to get through this period. But it  like might look I'm trying to pull a fast one.
Difficult to know what to do. Especially now we're both in stuck in separate countries.

SnowTiger

PeteDenton said:

Thanks for your answer.
That's what I'm worried about. Unfortunately she's going to be in a bad situation too, so will need funds to get through this period. But it  like might look I'm trying to pull a fast one.
Difficult to know what to do. Especially now we're both in stuck in separate countries.

I would expect that sending your wife a few hundred pounds a month for living expenses would be okay, whereas sending her a lump sum of thousands just before making a UC claim, bringing your savings below the £16,000 or £6,000 limits, would look suspicious.

The DWP does get details about savings and they do crunch the numbers.  There's a pretty good chance that some time in the future they'll send you a letter asking you to explain where your savings went.