£30000 from sale of house whilst claiming UC

theoretica

You also probably need to inform yourself about 'contrived tenancies' as this issue may come up if UC examine your case in any detail.  It should be thought about whenever renting from a relative.

Spoonie_Turtle

Well this is a confusing thread for latecomers with the initial post and any subsequent responses from the OP deleted!

poppy12345

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Well this is a confusing thread for latecomers with the initial post and any subsequent responses from the OP deleted!

It's situations like this where i wish i had quoted their first comment. They clearly didn't like the advice they were given so deleted all their comments. This doesn't take away the fact they spent their money on doing a house up that doesn't belong to them and in my opinion makes no sense at all.

Devongardener

I seriously wonder if maybe there’s some coercion from the relative here, getting the OP to spend money on this apparently uninhabitable property and suggesting they would still be able to claim UC, thus in effect getting the state to pay to improve it.   The OP doesn’t say whether there is already a tenancy in place, only that they haven’t moved in yet. It’s sad that the OP didn’t seek advice before committing so much of the divorce settlement and putting themselves in such a precarious position.

poppy12345

Devongardener said:

 The OP doesn’t say whether there is already a tenancy in place,

They said they had a tenancy agreement but they removed that comment as well as all other comments. One of the questions that's asked when you claim UC is do you have savings so i don't understand how they didn't know they needed to report the lump sum they received.

seatbeltnoob

Devongardener said:

I seriously wonder if maybe there’s some coercion from the relative here, getting the OP to spend money on this apparently uninhabitable property and suggesting they would still be able to claim UC, thus in effect getting the state to pay to improve it.   The OP doesn’t say whether there is already a tenancy in place, only that they haven’t moved in yet. It’s sad that the OP didn’t seek advice before committing so much of the divorce settlement and putting themselves in such a precarious position.

it seems like hiding capital to me. I'm not even one of those judgemental types. Do what you have to do. If you're hiding capital - it's just not very clever at all.

PM, when chanceller had dodgy arrangeents with US green card and enjoed benefits of his wifes non-dom status. I dont think he was living his lavish lifestyle from his income.

Nadeem Zahawi tried to dodge £3M in taxes.

The £16K limit is just too low, it was used since the inception of UC in 2012. Link gere: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/221579/uc-draft-regs-2012-memorandum.pdf

The £16,000 capital limit was the same back then. In real terms, 16K from 2012 would be £21.4K today.

£16K today just isn't much of a safety net. Loads of private landlords want 6 months upfront from DSS rentors and that will often times be the lions share of your £16K savings.

Moving costs + deposit + 6 months rent upfront could easily be £16K.

So I have no judgement towards OP. But if I was an assessor looking at the facts, I would certainly judge this as some sort of money laundering. taking capital off their hands to put in the hands of the related landlord for "safekeeping". I wouldn't buy that someone with their means is going to splash out that sort of money doing up a house.

A lot of homeowners wouldn';t even spend that sort of money on doing it up. You pay for materials and DIY as much as possibe. My last rental property I did up, I just bought a few taps and fittigs, laminates and assocated materials, paint. carpet for stairs. All in all about £800 spent and most of the labour was my sweat blood and tears cursing the landlord for not paying a tradesmen to do it for me.

seatbeltnoob

I'm not sure if you can put £30K into a pension fund. It's not redeemable until at least age 55. So once it's paid you have no access to it so you should be safe from UC capital limits.

I'm not sure how a normal civvie wouldpay money into a pension fund though. Youd have to have a business with nest or similar pension provider.

poppy12345

seatbeltnoob said:

I'm not sure if you can put £30K into a pension fund.

OP wasn't working so the maximum you can pay into a pension in these circumstances is £2,880/year.

Chrysalis

I would expect property improvements to be deprivation of capital , property repairs for critical things not, however this should be the responsibility of the landlord so I would expect the DWP to ask questions on that.

Already is going to be a problem by not initially declaring the money.

Bear in mind the DWP, consider not many things as essential living costs.  I remember when I was on IB and I asked for a crisis loan, the DWP told me straight they expected me to default on utility bills, tv license, and would only cover food costs.  Couldnt believe what I was hearing as I am someone who strives to pay all my bills.

Granted deprivation of capital wont be quite so harsh but I would be surprised if they consider what has been reported here as ok.  Debt repayment I am not sure how they would treat that, if had a high interest, the argument could be made it was done to get rid of the interest and they might accept it, but they might also say you could have got by paying min payments.

seatbeltnoob

poppy12345 said:

seatbeltnoob said:

I'm not sure if you can put £30K into a pension fund.

OP wasn't working so the maximum you can pay into a pension in these circumstances is £2,880/year.

OK interesting to know, can also pay off gaps in national insurance contributions if they have any.