Deprivation of Capital and Income based benefits

wilfred30

If he loses his job, he won't be able to buy a house anyway unless his partner earns enough to get a mortgage on her own.

poppy12345

dulededulede said:

Yes, it is shocking really. I've just been reading up on bits that don't make the most sense to me at least. But providing their intention was never to gain benefits, the money has always been earmarked for home purchase, then usage of the money for that purpose cannot be seen as anything other than the equivalent of them already having a home. There is a rule about it not counting towards your own home. But I assume they'll need to check.

Deprivation of capital doesn't apply here because if they have savings of £16,000 they are excluded from claiming Universal Credit completely. The disregard you're thinking of is when someone has recently sold their house and are planning on buying another. In certain circumstances it can be disregarded for 26 weeks.

unkle

poppy12345 said:

unkle said:

poppy12345 said:

unkle said:

Sadly, you can be penalised (or feel as if you are) for being sensible/prudent.
I'm about to be made redundant, have never been out of work since I started in July 1989, never claimed a single benefit etc.
Yet, of course, I will only be entitled to the new JSA of £70 odd a week as my savings etc exceed the limit....... sometimes makes you wonder why you bother doesn't it!

I know what i'd rather have...

Agreed, but I could quite easily have spent the lot, expensive holidays, newer car etc, if I had £5k in savings/asset we'd get over £30k a year in benefits! 

Claiming benefits isn't the greatest thing in the world. It's not as easy as some people think it is and i'm sure there'[s going to be a lot more people realising this very soon. The benefit cap applies to some people also.

Again agreed, but the means tested element weighs to the side of those who spend rather than save! If i'd have holidayed to Florida every year rather than a UK seaside i'd get over £2,500 a month now rather than nothing, just seems a bit odd to me. Then again maybe I should spend like mad on an around the world holiday for 3 months (when allowed!) then pick up my £2.5k a month. The amount also seems ludicrous, over £30k a year, which if I were working would be around a 45k a year gross salary. I've gone wrong somewhere along the way ;-)

kingfisherblue

unkle said:

poppy12345 said:

unkle said:

poppy12345 said:

unkle said:

Sadly, you can be penalised (or feel as if you are) for being sensible/prudent.
I'm about to be made redundant, have never been out of work since I started in July 1989, never claimed a single benefit etc.
Yet, of course, I will only be entitled to the new JSA of £70 odd a week as my savings etc exceed the limit....... sometimes makes you wonder why you bother doesn't it!

I know what i'd rather have...

Agreed, but I could quite easily have spent the lot, expensive holidays, newer car etc, if I had £5k in savings/asset we'd get over £30k a year in benefits! 

Claiming benefits isn't the greatest thing in the world. It's not as easy as some people think it is and i'm sure there'[s going to be a lot more people realising this very soon. The benefit cap applies to some people also.

Again agreed, but the means tested element weighs to the side of those who spend rather than save! If i'd have holidayed to Florida every year rather than a UK seaside i'd get over £2,500 a month now rather than nothing, just seems a bit odd to me. Then again maybe I should spend like mad on an around the world holiday for 3 months (when allowed!) then pick up my £2.5k a month. The amount also seems ludicrous, over £30k a year, which if I were working would be around a 45k a year gross salary. I've gone wrong somewhere along the way ;-)

I don't get anywhere near £2500 a month on benefits. I care for my severely disabled son, and I receive £110 a week. Council tax have messed up, and I'm trying to sort that out at the moment, so I'll be a bit better off when I'm paying less than the current £120 a month council tax, but I'll still have to pay something. I don't get housing benefit, as I own my house (with no help from my ex with the mortgage or endowments). I did get some help towards the mortgage until a couple of years ago - around £22 a week. I have a free eye test every two years, and a small amount of help towards glasses. I get free prescriptions, but rarely need them. So, nowhere near £2500 a month.

calcotti

unkle said:... i'd get over £2,500 a month now rather than nothing, ...

And you picked that figure how?

dulededulede

wilfred30 said:

If he loses his job, he won't be able to buy a house anyway unless his partner earns enough to get a mortgage on her own.

Been so stressed over this I hadn't even considered that. Ultimately, i think it better to let them come back here if necessary to mainain the lowest outgoings possible and to let her continue to save her income. That's if she will want to do that. Fact is they want independence and once you have it in any way there sometimes isn't any return to what there was before, regardless of the savings. Neither are on great earnings so it would be a case of him getting a job again. What a mess. If he'd gone down the mortgage route at the same age I did he'd have a home now and none of this would be classed as it would just be their home and completely disregarded. Jobs will be about regardless of their nature and for a time that is the only option probably but my home is available anyway. 

dulededulede

Thank you everyone. Sounds torrid overall. However, if anyone has any idea on this particular question. Assuming after their first six months in a home of their own they either come back to either her maternal home or our home to avoid as much unnecessary expenditure as possible. If it took him say six months to get a job again, not unreasonable to think you could get a job in that time, but he'd have to be thinking of a job to stay in so that he can use this employment as a means to an end. Specifically to build employment credibility again for mortgage purposes. What time frame is usual for a mortgage lender to expect a person to have been in a job before they will see it as deemed sufficient time to consider for a mortgage. Is it working in a specific job for 6, 9, 12, 18 months? He may end up doing stop gap jobs before he locates a job he considers for longer term. Just what term in that job would gain him competitive advantage for getting a mortgage. 

dulededulede

No worries, most mortgages it appears look to between 3 and 9 months employment. Thank you all. Bye

unkle

calcotti said:

unkle said:... i'd get over £2,500 a month now rather than nothing, ...

And you picked that figure how?

On the online benefit calculator on the gov website, just entered our details but with £5k capital. Changed it to above £16k and it came out zero!

Spoonie_Turtle

unkle said:

calcotti said:

unkle said:... i'd get over £2,500 a month now rather than nothing, ...

And you picked that figure how?

On the online benefit calculator on the gov website, just entered our details but with £5k capital. Changed it to above £16k and it came out zero!

Would you mind enlightening us about your situation? I don't understand how it could be so high. Only means-tested benefits take savings into account, and if you earned enough to be exempt from the benefits cap, they'd take those earnings into account (i.e. make deductions from the benefits) so I still don't see how you would be entitled to that much. Unless you're in a grace period with zero earnings, but then I still cannot work out how that amount resulted from means-tested benefits alone. 

(The benefits cap for a family (couple and/or children) us £20000 outside of London, or £23000 inside London.)