Worried about benefits review and going over £6K savings limit

CGold

Should I just upload my statements for now? The deadline is 13th Oct. 

I'm not sure what the best agency is to approach for help. Any suggestions aside from CAB?

poppy12345

CGold said:

poppy12345 said:

With transferring amounts to someone else's account then this could cause issues if the transfers were often and regular. If they can see it's to keep your savings under the £6,000 then yes there could be issues. It will be down to a decision maker to make the final decision on that. 

Am I not even allowed to pay my parents some money for rent, bills and upkeep when I am living in their home? That seems so strange to me.

Of course you're allowed to pay your parents money for your "keep." In my comment above i was referring to your comment where you said you transfer anything you have if you have more than £6,000.

CGold

poppy12345 said:

CGold said:

poppy12345 said:

With transferring amounts to someone else's account then this could cause issues if the transfers were often and regular. If they can see it's to keep your savings under the £6,000 then yes there could be issues. It will be down to a decision maker to make the final decision on that. 

Am I not even allowed to pay my parents some money for rent, bills and upkeep when I am living in their home? That seems so strange to me.

Of course you're allowed to pay your parents money for your "keep." In my comment above i was referring to your comment where you said you transfer anything you have if you have more than £6,000.

I see. Yeah I only did that a couple of times because I had been asking them and asking them to talk about what I should be paying each month and they kept putting it off, so I panicked. I think I'll have to try to just figure out what I can afford & what would be about right for a lodger or something in the area and present them with that, because I don't know when they'll next be up to doing anything.

CGold

HillStreetBlues said:

OP please don't worry, the overpayment  will not be as much as you think, as been pointed out there will be money that won't be included in the £6k limit
Any COL payments, any benefit payments in that month,  disregarded back payments, it's amazing how they add up.
I also wouldn't trust UC to calculate any back payments correctly.

Also it would be reasonable to have to pay your parents back once you got the correct awards from UC & PIP

I didn't know COL payments & benefit payments in that month would be discounted. The latter especially I find confusing why they'd discount it.

poppy12345

The reason why your benefits payments are disregarded until the end of the period they are paid for is because of all bills you have to pay and the money you need to live off for the period. When claiming UC what counts is your total money on the last day of your assessment period.

Spoonie_Turtle

CGold said:

HillStreetBlues said:

OP please don't worry, the overpayment  will not be as much as you think, as been pointed out there will be money that won't be included in the £6k limit
Any COL payments, any benefit payments in that month,  disregarded back payments, it's amazing how they add up.
I also wouldn't trust UC to calculate any back payments correctly.

Also it would be reasonable to have to pay your parents back once you got the correct awards from UC & PIP

I didn't know COL payments & benefit payments in that month would be discounted. The latter especially I find confusing why they'd discount it.

Because for UC, income doesn't count as capital until any if it is left at the end of the next assessment period after receiving it.

In terms of housekeeping, yes it is entirely reasonable to be paying some.  The only reason transferring lump sums from your savings may be an issue is housekeeping would usually be expected to be paid regularly out of your income (and how you spend your income is of no concern to them, it's just how you spend 'excess' savings when it affects how much benefit you're entitled to).  But you've explained why that's not the case yet.

The Deprivation of Capital issue is when somebody has deliberately reduced their savings (capital) in order to increase benefit entitlement.  It's actually DWP's responsibility to prove that's the intention behind expenditure, but as always it ends up being on the claimant to disprove that assumption.
However for the lump sums for the computer and car, having the amounts match what they cost is a good start.  It depends whether you paid them back as soon as you could, or (from their point of view) waited until you had the maximum savings to not affect benefit entitlement before paying them back.
But ADHD should certainly be a mitigating factor, and possibly your parents' lack of financial urgency.  And as already advised, if it is decided there was any DoC, that decision does carry a right of appeal.


Looking back at your first post, the information in the first two paragraphs you wrote is the most pertinent (except the part about not being able to pay the going rate - that's completely irrelevant).  That is the overall explanation, really.

I hope you're able to get everything straight and sorted, I'm sorry to hear of the difficulties you're having as a family and the review is not coming at a good time for you! 
But UC do need to know about you having had more than £6,000 in savings, and it's best you tell them rather than they find out.  You could even send a journal message today saying that in advance of the review you've realised you didn't tell them because X Y and Z so you're starting to work out how much extra you had when.

Alice_Holt

Spoonie_Turtle said:

CGold said:

HillStreetBlues said:

OP please don't worry, the overpayment  will not be as much as you think, as been pointed out there will be money that won't be included in the £6k limit
Any COL payments, any benefit payments in that month,  disregarded back payments, it's amazing how they add up.
I also wouldn't trust UC to calculate any back payments correctly.

Also it would be reasonable to have to pay your parents back once you got the correct awards from UC & PIP

I didn't know COL payments & benefit payments in that month would be discounted. The latter especially I find confusing why they'd discount it.

But UC do need to know about you having had more than £6,000 in savings, and it's best you tell them rather than they find out.  You could even send a journal message today saying that in advance of the review you've realised you didn't tell them because X Y and Z so you're starting to work out how much extra you had when.

       Yes, seems very sensible to me.

CGold

Thank-you all for your help. I have left this message in my journal:

Would it be possible for someone to call me about my review? I know I have gone over £6,000 in savings at times, as I have needed to pay my parents back some rent I owe them whilst living at home. My mum has been very mentally ill for quite some time and is now so bad we've had to admit her to hospital as of yesterday, so sorting out my payments with them has been very hard. We are in crisis as a family and struggling just to keep things stable right now. I am seeking advice from an agency to help me with my finances, but I haven't been able to do this until now as I have been caring for my mum.

I'm not sure if they actually do phone calls. I'll have to explain things in a written message if not. I will call MoneyHelper and / or Citizen's Advice tomorrow to get help working out how much I'll need to pay back. I feel really stupid for letting this happen, but at least I'm trying to get on top of it now.

KxMx

If it helps I had a compliance check recently too.

Uploaded id and 4 months of bank statements (actually 6 for one account as they issue quarterly statements) . 

Added a journal note re CoL as they've taken my capital over £6000.

I then had a phone appointment where I was asked about transactions which turned out to be:

Window cleaner £12 pm
Broadband £29 pm
Rent
2 credit cards
1 Paypal DD which was £23 and my sole PP transaction for the 6 month period. 
I had to explain that if PP uses your bank account as funding source, it shows up as a DD. 

NO questions about all the money in from eBay (selling used personal items).
Was regular over the 6 month period before petering out. 

She confirmed that CoL payments are excluded as capital, I was asked to upload individual statement pages showing all my CoL payments so she could do the calculation.

(I had to google the historical payment dates to know which statements to look at)

I then had a journal message to say my check was complete and my payments were correct.
And a reminder about what to do if capital goes over £6000, which was entirely fair as from my own calculation it stood at £5700.

HillStreetBlues

KxMx said:

If it helps I had a compliance check recently too.

Uploaded id and 4 months of bank statements (actually 6 for one account as they issue quarterly statements) . 

Added a journal note re CoL as they've taken my capital over £6000.

I then had a phone appointment where I was asked about transactions which turned out to be:

Window cleaner £12 pm
Broadband £29 pm
Rent
2 credit cards
1 Paypal DD which was £23 and my sole PP transaction for the 6 month period. 
I had to explain that if PP uses your bank account as funding source, it shows up as a DD. 

NO questions about all the money in from eBay (selling used personal items).
Was regular over the 6 month period before petering out. 

She confirmed that CoL payments are excluded as capital, I was asked to upload individual statement pages showing all my CoL payments so she could do the calculation.

(I had to google the historical payment dates to know which statements to look at)

I then had a journal message to say my check was complete and my payments were correct.
And a reminder about what to do if capital goes over £6000, which was entirely fair as from my own calculation it stood at £5700.

Out of interest if you don't mind sharing, how much over £6k was you?