Calls to scrap Universal Credit savings threshold

whizzywoo

@kremlinbot
So you would scrap the savings limit completely would you?
Or would you just  have a higher limit on it?
And where would that limit be?
£50,000?   £100,000? £1,000,000?

kremlinbot

whizzywoo said:

@kremlinbot
So you would scrap the savings limit completely would you?
Or would you just  have a higher limit on it?
And where would that limit be?
£50,000?   £100,000? £1,000,000?

Maybe have a universal basic income for the period of the lockdown, its not like those ideas haven't been brought up before - that might mean that the rich get government money that they don't need, but I don't think its ridiculously unfair. Or like I mentioned, if you brought house equity in to the equation, it would balance the difference between homeowners and savers a bit better.

LilElvis

megw said:

@Jeremy535897 what would you say about those who have sacrificed everything to save hard for a deposit these last years and are going to spend the next months eating into their deposits, and giving up on their dreams of buying a house anytime soon? - (not asking from personal standpoint, just feel it's unfair on those in that situation.) - e.g. couple in this article - 
https://inews.co.uk/news/universal-credit-savings-threshold-coronavirus-outbreak-dwp-benefits-2534964

So should we disregard savings only for those who are "saving for a deposit"? What about those who are already homeowners and are saving to send their children to university, towards their pension or future care costs? Should there be a higher limit for those in the South of the country - after all, £16k would be sufficient for a 10% deposit in large parts of the country but not in London and the home counties. If you want "fairness" then call for the upper limit of £2,500 per month be removed - high earners have paid more than this in tax so why shouldn't they receive a "fair" return if furloughed?

Jeremy535897

megw said:

I'm wondering about people who have their savings trapped in LISAs right now. Because they face a 25% withdrawal penalty, and it counts as savings when claiming UC.

See UC ADM H1:
"Lifetime individual savings account
H1659 The Lifetime individual savings account is available for people who are aged 18 to 40 when it is opened. It is similar in many ways to a normal individual savings account with the addition of a government bonus of 25% paid on the contributions made by the saver of up to a limit of £4000 annually. This Lifetime individual savings account should be treated as capital from the outset with a value of
 1. 75% of the surrender value where the person is under age 60 or
 2. 100% of the surrender value where the person is over age 60 taken into account."

HandcreamGuru

Universal Basic Income is a fair solution.

gary83

benefits are supposed to be a safety net there to protect the people who need it, when they need it, we were never supposed to all get Universal Credit. the bill for this pandemic we’re going to be facing as taxpayers is going to be ginormous enough as it is without handing out more money to people that don’t need it.

go to the savings & investment board on here and everyone’s constantly talking about the need of an emergency fund to get you through a few months unexpected hardship - that rainy day has now arrived, just much more dramatically & effecting much more people than we thought it would. If you have over £16,000 in your account then why shouldn’t you expect to spend some of that? If you were saving up & thinking about spending your savings on a house in a few months might be glad you haven’t just bought if this hits the prices of houses.

SXX

yes I agree the savings limit should be scrapped on UC for the time being.  I put in a huge effort in saving hard and my current savings are for a specific reason (no not for a world cruise) so I do not want to dip into the savings as it will put me back several years.

gary83

Almost 9000 people have died in the UK so far, society has already changed more than we could have imagined just a couple of months ago. If you started a new job or switched jobs after the 28th of Feb you get no support. if you work in healthcare your probably struggling harder than most, knowing your colleagues have died because of this virus knowing there’s not enough protective equipment to go round.

Yet some people think the part thats not fair is that if they have over £16,000 in the bank they’re expected to spend some of that to support themselves?

I think some good has come from this, things like the support for the NHS & key workers, increased neighbourhood spirit & support for the elderly & vulnerable in the community and the staggering response to the call for NHS volunteers. There’s also been quite a big sense of entitlement. people have been made redundant before this & will be made redundant again after this & haven’t/won’t be fortunate enough to be able to fall back on the furlough scheme, they didn’t clamour for a universal credit payment for all at that point. 

Benefits should go to those that need them, what’s the point of them going to everybody, we’d all just end up paying for it anyway?

Thrugelmir

The UK Government is scheduled to borrow £45 billion this month. A truly frightening figure. As we are all going to be poorer as a consequence. This only the beginning as well.

LilElvis

SXX said:

yes I agree the savings limit should be scrapped on UC for the time being.  I put in a huge effort in saving hard and my current savings are for a specific reason (no not for a world cruise) so I do not want to dip into the savings as it will put me back several years.

Lots of people save for a "specific reason" - doesn't mean that they shouldn't adjust their priorities in a world-changing situation. Be thankful you have resources to call on rather than be worrying how you are going to pay for the basic necessities. What's another year of two of saving in the general scheme of things?