Money & Income Related Benefits

HillStreetBlues

Having a think of how much money a person could have before any deductions.

I'm basing it on UC £1300 pm & PIP £691 every 4 weeks from Apr23

A person could have £7991  and still be under £6k capital limit  (£1991 income & £6000 cash)

I believe the COL are disregarded £600   (is there any other payments I'm missing?)   so that could bring it up to £8591 (£1901 income, £600 disregarded, £6000 cash)

In the month there are 2 PIP payments,  the income for that month would be £2682 income & £600 COL = £3282 
So it would be possible to have £9282  and still not have a deduction.

Is my thinking correct?

gbhxu

This is what I've received April 22-March 23

£650 - (£326+£324) - COL ESA
£150 - PIP
£150 - Council Tax Reduction
£50   - (2x£25) Council Tax Discretionary Payments
£400 - Electric 
£200 - Alternative Fuels Payment

Depending on your interpretation, these could be considered COL payments

£150 - Warm Home Discount
£25   - Cold Weather Payment

My personal total is £1600 or £1775 depending how you look at it

Spoonie_Turtle

The energy payments may not be disregarded (£400 EBSS, £200 AFP and £150 WHD may not be disregarded - would need to check the legislation.

HillStreetBlues

I was getting mixed up it was £650 last year  also the £150  disability additional payment  So it's £800 the disregarded.
Not sure any others are disregarded.

Also the Social Security (Additional Payments) (No. 2) Bill  has the same wording, so if my reading of it is correct that will be another £1050 disregarded.

So that would be £1850 disregarded by this time next year.

I'm surprised that there isn't a time-limit on the above disregards, or am I reading it wrong?

ManekiNeko

Backdated benefits payments are disregarded for 12 months, so I'd assumed the same time limit would be true of the Cost of Living (COL) payments.

Would be interested in the answer if anyone knows for sure. Although in my case, it's rather academic as I'm not over the savings threshold anyway, plus I'm pretty confident I'll need to spend the COL payments much sooner than 12 months (due, aptly, to the cost of living).

Spoonie_Turtle

ManekiNeko said:

Backdated benefits payments are disregarded for 12 months, so I'd assumed the same time limit would be true of the Cost of Living (COL) payments.

Would be interested in the answer if anyone knows for sure. Although in my case, it's rather academic as I'm not over the savings threshold anyway, plus I'm pretty confident I'll need to spend the COL payments much sooner than 12 months (due, aptly, to the cost of living).

I'm not up to finding the legislation again just now but there was no time limit mentioned, and it would have to be explicitly stated.  I suspect because the intention was that it would be spent on things that have skyrocketed in cost.  But it does leave some confusion as to the reality of what happens around the key thresholds (£6k and £16k for working-age benefits, £10k for pensioners).

ManekiNeko

Ahh ok yeah, I hadn't realised that a deadline needed to be explicitly stated, so that changes my understanding of the things I've read so far. (E.g. I hadn't seen any deadlines mentioned, so I made the (incorrect) assumption that it must be treated the same as backdated payments.)

Hmm yes, that's a good point 🤔 I wonder what'll happen in the future. 🔮