ESA income-support 6k savings limit

lala2662

Hello please advise me I'm so scared, I'm on PIP and ESA income-support. I thought that the person claiming ESA income-support benefit cannot have savings over 6,000 and I didn't until I got back pay from PIP (about £2000) two day ago, so I looked online because I knew that my balance went slightly over £6000 by £600 so i would have to pay back some money, however I saw online that the whole household's savings cannot be over 6,000 when claiming ESA income-support is this true? I live with my mum and she is on Universal Credit and working, not on any ESA or LCWRA. It always says online that while claiming Universal Credit YOUR AND/OR YOUR PARTNERS savings cannot be over £6,000 but we are not partners she is my mum, I alway assumed that it was the same for ESA income-support, however after seeing online today that the whole household's savings cannot be over £6,000 I'm so confused and scared. So anyway after seeing this online I asked my mum to help me count all our money together and it comes to a little over £10,000 and it's been around this amount (sometimes £8,000 , £9,000 etc. depends on what's bought) The point being is that it's been over £6,000 For about 1 year and few months. I'm so so scared I had no idea I really thought it was £6,000 per person that was claiming unless it's a couple, what do I do? I'm so scared will she also have to pay back Universal Credit? Is Universal Credit also £6,000 per household or per partners? I'm so confused and scared. Also few things that I want to mention;- I'm not sure if they are relevant/important but just in case they are;- We live in Scotland, I'm 22 years old. Even though we have separate incomes I from ESA and PIP and my mum from work and UC, since we live together we split our expenses we both pay for rent, food, heating  etc. Next I think this may be important;- due to my PTSD I don't leave the house so my ESA is paid into my mum's bank account and then she takes that money and her money and she pays for the things mentioned above. I'm just so scared. 

Spoonie_Turtle

You and your Mum are separate for benefits purposes, you're fine
When it says 'household' for benefits purposes it means partner/dependent children under 19, neither of which applies to you.

PIP backpay is ignored for 12 months.  I don't know whether you should still inform ESA so they know what amount of it is to be ignored in case it's flagged up at any point, others will be able to advise on that.  But you are not falling foul of any rules, please try not to worry.

lala2662

Spoonie_Turtle said:

You and your Mum are separate for benefits purposes, you're fine
When it says 'household' for benefits purposes it means partner/dependent children under 19, neither of which applies to you.

PIP backpay is ignored for 12 months.  I don't know whether you should still inform ESA so they know what amount of it is to be ignored in case it's flagged up at any point, others will be able to advise on that.  But you are not falling foul of any rules, please try not to worry.

Thank you so so much for reading and replying.
And the fact that my ESA is paid into my mum's bank account that doesn't change anything? 

Spoonie_Turtle

lala2662 said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

You and your Mum are separate for benefits purposes, you're fine
When it says 'household' for benefits purposes it means partner/dependent children under 19, neither of which applies to you.

PIP backpay is ignored for 12 months.  I don't know whether you should still inform ESA so they know what amount of it is to be ignored in case it's flagged up at any point, others will be able to advise on that.  But you are not falling foul of any rules, please try not to worry.

Thank you so so much for reading and replying.
And the fact that my ESA is paid into my mum's bank account that doesn't change anything? 

It shouldn't do, she can prove your ESA is your money. 

However it might be simpler now with PIP, in case your savings start to increase, if your money were paid into a separate bank account that she still has access to.  That way if your savings go above £6,000 (excluding the PIP backpay for 12 months) you'll know exactly how much you have.

Though the rules are that income (e.g. ESA and PIP payments) only become savings if they're not spent by the end of the payment period.  So PIP is paid every 4 weeks, what's left from a payment only counts as savings at the end of 4 weeks, by the time of the next payment.

wild666

If you get ESA and PIP you can be constantly over the £6,000 limit as they have to take 4 weeks PIP payments into account when working out the limit. At present it's £627.60 so they should discount the £627 as being over the £6,000 when they work out the savings limits. 
I had this problem 6 years ago and they said I owed the DWP £400 in overpayments but didn't reduce my ESA as it was then under £6,000. What I did do, although they say savings can be money kept at home, is withdraw money if the £6,000 limit was going to be over by more than one months payment of PIP when my next ESA was due, sometimes it was as much as £300.

lala2662

wild666 said:

If you get ESA and PIP you can be constantly over the £6,000 limit as they have to take 4 weeks PIP payments into account when working out the limit. At present it's £627.60 so they should discount the £627 as being over the £6,000 when they work out the savings limits. 
I had this problem 6 years ago and they said I owed the DWP £400 in overpayments but didn't reduce my ESA as it was then under £6,000. What I did do, although they say savings can be money kept at home, is withdraw money if the £6,000 limit was going to be over by more than one months payment of PIP when my next ESA was due, sometimes it was as much as £300.

Thanks so much for replying and reading.
And they didn't ask you for reasons/receipts why you were withdrawing money? 
I am honestly so grateful for the money we get but at the same time i have never been so stressed 24/7 before, now ever since i got the money I am constantly paranoid that I will do something that the DWP considers 'wrong' and that this will result in them taking money away 

wild666

If you receive ESA as well as PIP they have to remove that months PIP payment, currently £627.60, if they are thinking of reducing any ESA and if after the £627 is taken into account it falls below £6,000 they cannot deduct anything from the ESA payment.
They cannot say that an ESA claimant should have used 25%, 50% or 75% of the PIP payment when they are going to put in that fortnights payment or months UC/ESA payment. You can have the full amount of PIP in the account until the next PIP payment is due and after that until the next ESA payment is due and be over £6,000. 
What counts is that the account should have no more than £5,999.99p in it when an ESA or UC payment is due. 
If the account has exactly £6,000 in it then they could deduct £1 per week