UC and car sale

SvonW

Hi there, I would appreciate some help please. OH is selling his classic car which he has owned for more than 3 years and will most likely achieve a price of 14k for it. He wants to buy a different car with that. As we're in receipt of UC since 2 years he is worried DWP will regard the money as savings and we'll lose our UC, at least partly. Can anybody shed light on this please?

sammyjammy

They will, for the period that you have it so I suggest he looks to buying and selling on the same day.

calcotti

Your UC entitlement is based on your circumstances on the last day of your assessment period. If you can arrange to buy and sell within the same AP it will be fine.

NedS

I don't know the answer as I'm not a decision maker, but I'm wondering if deprivation of capital may be an issue here. Once the car is sold, you have the capital. If you then purchase another classic car, that could be considered deprivation of capital if the DM takes the view that these are two separate unrelated transactions. In your mind they may be related (swapping one car for another), but a decision maker may just view the purchase of the new classic car as a standalone transaction and view that as an unnecessary purchase, especially while you are claiming means tested benefits. I have seen stranger decisions.

calcotti

NedS makes an interesting point. The counter argument is that as there is no obligation to sell the first car it cannot plausibly be argued that selling and buying has been done with a motivating aim of increasing benefit entitlement.

Is the classic car actually used?

Grumpy_chap

Is having a classic car not considered as part of the UC assessment as savings / investment in any case?
It would be daft if UC considered £16k bank savings as ineligible but not the collection of classic cars.  Why, what about the original Picasso paintings?  The Ming vase?  Jewellery and watches?

calcotti

Grumpy_chap said:

Is having a classic car not considered as part of the UC assessment as savings / investment in any case?
It would be daft if UC considered £16k bank savings as ineligible but not the collection of classic cars.  Why, what about the original Picasso paintings?  The Ming vase?  Jewellery and watches?

That’s why I was wondering if the car is in use.

Grumpy_chap

How do you define the car being in use?
Does attending a handful of shows a year count as "in use"?  I would say not, but I know nothing.
But the very fact it is described as a "classic car" suggests it is not used for work, supermarket etc.

SvonW

The car is used nearly daily for transport during the months where roads are salt-free. As far as to my knowledge,  the car is disregarded capital.... even when it is a classic.

tomtom256

Cars and goods such as watches paintings etc are a mute point and subjective to actual value, hence why they are not asked about where benefits are invovled.

Whoever heard of anybody claiming benefits whilst having a picasso etc. The line had to be drawn somewhere, you could own an expensive sports car, but fall ill and be unable to work, should you have to sell the car or not be able to claim as you have this expensive car or should normal chattle and goods as they used to be called be ignored?

You could literally go around in circles, however have £20,000 sat in a bank that you can immediately access is completely different to have a car sat on your drive worth £20,000.

Spoonie_Turtle

tomtom256 said:

You could literally go around in circles, however have £20,000 sat in a bank that you can immediately access is completely different to have a car sat on your drive worth £20,000.

This exactly. If you don't have access to the money (and putting something up for sale doesn't mean you'll even be able to sell it, let alone get the full value) then you can't use it to live off.