This will be seen as deprivation, won't it?

tazwhoever

If parents transfer it into JISA, what's the reasonable time to wait before applying for UC? I guess many would have normal bare trust accounts for children who are young. 

Numberwang_2

tazwhoever said:

If parents transfer it into JISA, what's the reasonable time to wait before applying for UC? I guess many would have normal bare trust accounts for children who are young. 

I think DWP would decide, besides if it really was the child’s money then wouldn’t it already be in a child’s account earning better interest than in an adult account?

Numberwang_2

realfrankturner said:

Many thanks, yes I would agree actually.
I am going to do half and half, 5.5k into JISA and 5.5k kept back just in case I think
Again thankyou for the advice.

Possibly look at kids savings accounts, top jisa is about 2.95%, but Santander kids current account is 3% up to £2k, hsbc 2.5% up to £3k both easy access, or Halifax 1.44% but has monthly saver at 3.5%, without tying money up for years.

andrewmp

Do parents not have access to JISA amounts?

tazwhoever

No, many banks do children accounts. Therefore, they are bare trust accounts (not adults). That's why I was asking for transferring from bare trust to JISA. 

andrewmp

What about other children's savings accounts you can access?  Is that not better for you scenario?

Numberwang_2

Taken from Martin Lewis tweet April 2020

I was asked "Do kids savings count towards the £16k max limit for universal credit?" I've checked -
No if in a Junior ISA -
No if under £3k in other kids savings
 Yet if u deliberately stuff cash in kids accounts for this purpose its "deprivation of capital” and does count.

·

2 Apr 2020

Technically I should note it's £16,000 of capital not savings - I was just writing savings as that was the question I had.

realfrankturner

My fault for not putting it into an actual account long ago.
I will just have to dea with the £75 a month less I get as I won't touch the savings, but still going to probably put some into a JISA though.
It is what it is, I can't prove anything.

poppy12345

Numberwang_2 said:

 Yet if u deliberately stuff cash in kids accounts for this purpose its "deprivation of capital” and does count.

Yes of course it is and i'm really confused why you would think otherwise. You can't be expected to "give" your money away and then still be able to claim a means tested benefit.

mjm3346

realfrankturner said:

Not that I advocate this, but there's little chance they will find out even if you do it straight away, they only really look further into things if they receive a complaint that you may be being dodgy.
When I signed up I didn't have to produce any documents apart from my rent.
So if you say did it today, and signed up tomorrow saying no savings, you aren't technically lying, and nothing will probably come off it.
As long as you know it's for the right reasons, and being honest is of course always best, but as I said technically you ain't lying.

Apart from anything else they are already aware of the money on the ongoing claim