Savings and claiming UC.

ThunderHoof

I've read that there's a savings limit which prevents people from claiming UC if they have over £16k savings. When I was on JSA I remember that you could claim NI based JSA for 6 months without your savings being taken into account, does anything like that exist for UC? Or is there a way to reduce your effective savings based on the type of account it's in?

Spoonie_Turtle

ThunderHoof said:

I've read that there's a savings limit which prevents people from claiming UC if they have over £16k savings. When I was on JSA I remember that you could claim NI based JSA for 6 months without your savings being taken into account, does anything like that exist for UC? Or is there a way to reduce your effective savings based on the type of account it's in?

No disregard for normal savings for UC as it is means-tested.  The JSA is based on NI contributions, it is not means-tested which is why savings are ignored, they are irrelevant. 

For UC any proper pension pot is ignored, and the only surefire way to spend some and not be treated as if you still have it is to pay off debt (including overpaying a mortgage, if applicable) or perhaps buy a home if you don't already own one.

Otherwise if you were to spend more than you reasonably need to - as determined by a DWP decision maker - they can decide you have deliberately deprived yourself of capital in order to claim a means-tested benefit and will treat you as still having the savings, so you still wouldn't be eligible to claim UC.

poppy12345

They can look at claiming New style JSA if they've worked and have class 1 NI contributions in tax years 2020/21 and 2021/22. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-jobseekers-allowance#eligibility

seatbeltnoob

I was going to post about the £16K savings limit, it's been £16K for a very long time and in the last few years the 16K has obviously gone down a lot in real terms.

It's a really unworkable limit, for anyone whose privately renting in the south east, 16K just wont be enough savings to prove to a landlord that you've got enough savings to cover the rent if you fall under hard times (housing element of universal credit does not cover all the cost of housing here).

The 16K cap really needs to be upped to 20k at this climate.

gbhxu

seatbeltnoob said:

I was going to post about the £16K savings limit, it's been £16K for a very long time and in the last few years the 16K has obviously gone down a lot in real terms.

It's a really unworkable limit, for anyone whose privately renting in the south east, 16K just wont be enough savings to prove to a landlord that you've got enough savings to cover the rent if you fall under hard times (housing element of universal credit does not cover all the cost of housing here).

The 16K cap really needs to be upped to 20k at this climate.

Also...

If the DWP assume that you should be getting a £1 a week for every £250 over £6000, they should be telling you how to invest to get this mystical amount.

The trouble is that most investments are yearly payouts so don't really help

ThunderHoof

poppy12345 said:

They can look at claiming New style JSA if they've worked and have class 1 NI contributions in tax years 2020/21 and 2021/22. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-jobseekers-allowance#eligibility

Thanks, so it's still possible to apply for jsa potentially despite the fact that uc was supposed to replace all these benefits, it's a confusing system. 

Spoonie_Turtle

ThunderHoof said:

poppy12345 said:

They can look at claiming New style JSA if they've worked and have class 1 NI contributions in tax years 2020/21 and 2021/22. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-jobseekers-allowance#eligibility

Thanks, so it's still possible to apply for jsa potentially despite the fact that uc was supposed to replace all these benefits, it's a confusing system. 

Universal Credit replaced income-based JSA (along with all the other means-tested income-replacement benefits, except Pension Credit), not contributions-based JSA.

Muttleythefrog

ThunderHoof said:

poppy12345 said:

They can look at claiming New style JSA if they've worked and have class 1 NI contributions in tax years 2020/21 and 2021/22. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-jobseekers-allowance#eligibility

Thanks, so it's still possible to apply for jsa potentially despite the fact that uc was supposed to replace all these benefits, it's a confusing system. 

In a nutshell (and avoiding an endlessly technical and 'correct' description) Universal Credit attempts to unite working age income related benefits under one roof... but not contribution based. ESA and JSA historically had both a means tested and contribution based possibility.... the latter type (differently named for confusion) for both benefits remains.

sammyjammy

gbhxu said:

seatbeltnoob said:

I was going to post about the £16K savings limit, it's been £16K for a very long time and in the last few years the 16K has obviously gone down a lot in real terms.

It's a really unworkable limit, for anyone whose privately renting in the south east, 16K just wont be enough savings to prove to a landlord that you've got enough savings to cover the rent if you fall under hard times (housing element of universal credit does not cover all the cost of housing here).

The 16K cap really needs to be upped to 20k at this climate.

Also...

If the DWP assume that you should be getting a £1 a week for every £250 over £6000, they should be telling you how to invest to get this mystical amount.

The trouble is that most investments are yearly payouts so don't really help

Its not based on the amount of interest they expect you to get on your savings, its about notional income and they expecting that you make that contribution to topping up your benefit yourself from your savings.

I think its right that it hasn't gone up, its pretty generous compared to other countries, many working people don't have £6k of savings no matter £16k plus.

seatbeltnoob

gbhxu said:

seatbeltnoob said:

I was going to post about the £16K savings limit, it's been £16K for a very long time and in the last few years the 16K has obviously gone down a lot in real terms.

It's a really unworkable limit, for anyone whose privately renting in the south east, 16K just wont be enough savings to prove to a landlord that you've got enough savings to cover the rent if you fall under hard times (housing element of universal credit does not cover all the cost of housing here).

The 16K cap really needs to be upped to 20k at this climate.

Also...

If the DWP assume that you should be getting a £1 a week for every £250 over £6000, they should be telling you how to invest to get this mystical amount.

The trouble is that most investments are yearly payouts so don't really help

That's like 21% return p.a. Maybe DWP expect you to become a crypto bro

NedS

seatbeltnoob said:

gbhxu said:

seatbeltnoob said:

I was going to post about the £16K savings limit, it's been £16K for a very long time and in the last few years the 16K has obviously gone down a lot in real terms.

It's a really unworkable limit, for anyone whose privately renting in the south east, 16K just wont be enough savings to prove to a landlord that you've got enough savings to cover the rent if you fall under hard times (housing element of universal credit does not cover all the cost of housing here).

The 16K cap really needs to be upped to 20k at this climate.

Also...

If the DWP assume that you should be getting a £1 a week for every £250 over £6000, they should be telling you how to invest to get this mystical amount.

The trouble is that most investments are yearly payouts so don't really help

That's like 21% return p.a. Maybe DWP expect you to become a crypto bro

At those rates one can only assume DWP are expecting you to draw down on that capital and not just spend the natural yield.