Universal Credit and Savings

Llin

Hi all,
My friend has just been laid off and will have to claim Universal Credit which he's never done before.

Do you know if having some savings will stop him getting the full amount or not? He's got roughly £3k in his savings account. I said I'd sit down and help him budget so it would be really good to know if there's a point when savings would be taken into consideration etc.

Thank you

Lx

calcotti

All explained here here
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Savings-and-other-capital-overview-Universal-Credit
If he has more than £16,000 he cannot claim at all. Savings below £6,000 are ignored. Between £6,000 and £16,000 there is a deduction of £4.35/month for every £250, or part thereof. Therefore £3,000 makes no difference.

TELLIT01

It might be worth investigating entitlement to New Style ESA to see if they qualify for that as it isn't means tested.  I'm guessing they are single, but don't know if there would be any advantage in doing so.

calcotti

TELLIT01 said:

It might be worth investigating entitlement to New Style ESA to see if they qualify for that as it isn't means tested.  I'm guessing they are single, but don't know if there would be any advantage in doing so.

He would need to have a health condition limiting his ability to work in order to be eligible for ESA.

Llin

So so helpful, thank you all.
He is single but doesn't have any underlying medical condition.

Thanks again

L

Spoonie_Turtle

TELLIT01 said:

It might be worth investigating entitlement to New Style ESA to see if they qualify for that as it isn't means tested.  I'm guessing they are single, but don't know if there would be any advantage in doing so.

Did you perhaps mean JSA? 😉

Llin

I wondered if it was JSA too.
Do you claim JSA and Universal Credit or just 1? I'm so clueless when it comes to these things. He lives in a Council house so hopefully he'll get housing benefit too? We're in Scotland - I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

Thanks,
Lyndsay 

calcotti

Llin said:

I wondered if it was JSA too.
Do you claim JSA and Universal Credit or just 1? I'm so clueless when it comes to these things. He lives in a Council house so hopefully he'll get housing benefit too? We're in Scotland - I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

Thanks,
Lyndsay 

He will not get Housing Benefit unless he already gets it. Help with rent is included in Universal Credit. The help with rent will cover all of his rent unless he has more bedrooms than he is deemed to need for his household. If he has a partner they both need to claim and entitlement is based on joint income and savings.

Applying for UC will end any existing Tax Credits or Housing Benefit awards.

He can claim new style JSA  as well as UC if he has a complete NI record for the tax years 2018-19 and 2019-20 but it is only paid for six months and is deducted from UC so there is no financial gain in claiming both.

There is a benefit checker here
https://dwp-benefits-checker.shorthandstories.com/step-1/index.html
He can use a benefit calculator to assess entitlement 
https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

He may also be able to claim Council Tax Reduction from his local authority.

Llin

This is so helpful thank you.
He has full NI payments only from Jan 2020 - not the year before. He was a student, not unemployed.

He lives in a 1 bedroom flat and receives no benefits at all at the moment, he never has.

I'll have a look at the calculator link.

Thanks again,

Lyndsay 

calcotti

Llin said:

This is so helpful thank you.
He has full NI payments only from Jan 2020 - not the year before. He was a student, not unemployed.
He lives in a 1 bedroom flat and receives no benefits at all at the moment, he never has.
I'll have a look at the calculator link.
Thanks again,
Lyndsay 

In that case claiming UC is what he needs to do. It can't be backdated so the sooner he does it the better.
Universal Credit - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)