Universal Credit Savings.

Gary37

Hello I have savings of just under the £6000 threshold, but I pay my rent every 6 months, so as my wages goes through into my bank every month(£1000) it goes well over the threshold by the time my rent is due in 6 months, but when I pay my rent and take off expenses It's back down to under the threshold. one person I asked said it doesn't count as capital and another said it does.
Can someone be so kind to tell me if Universal credits disregard this as capital or not.
Thanking you.

Spoonie_Turtle

Income counts as capital (savings) if there's any of it left at the end of the next assessment period after you received it.

So unfortunately yes, accumulating money for rent does count as capital, as there is no provision to disregard it.

Gary37

Thanks Spoonie for the reply. I have just asked this question in my uc journal and this is the reply. No, you do not need to Report it, as it will naturally drop with your living expenses and so is not regarded as capital for UC purposes . Regards Jan   Now I'm really confused.

Spoonie_Turtle

It's possible they just skim-read your message and thought you were asking whether you're supposed to report your income as capital (which normally, when people are paying all their usual living expenses on a monthly, for most it would go down enough to not accumulate).

Unfortunately any overpayments even if due to official error - such as wrong advice - are recoverable so you do need to get this sorted.

Unless anyone here knows otherwise, I think you should report it as a change in savings, write as much detail as you can (and you'll also need to know when and how long you went over each £250 increment above £6,000) and leave it to a decision maker to decide.  The people on the front line of responding to journal messages aren't always fully conversant with all the rules.

poppy12345

Gary37 said:

Thanks Spoonie for the reply. I have just asked this question in my uc journal and this is the reply. No, you do not need to Report it, as it will naturally drop with your living expenses and so is not regarded as capital for UC purposes . Regards Jan   Now I'm really confused.

That's very poorr advice you've had there from UC and it's not correct. Spoonie is right, any income you have left at the end of the next AP is capital and you must report the changes if you have more than £6,000. Is there anyway you can pay your rent monthly instead of 6 monthly?

Gary37

Poppy I've just come off the phone an hour ago and another uc person said the same as Jan in my journal, so I really don't know where I go from here, I even said are you sure as people are telling me the opposite.
Yes after the 6 months I'm going to ask my landlord if I can pay monthly but if you are right then I need to pay uc back.

Gary37

Hi Spoonie and poppy This is the question I asked them.     

I've just received a payment from my works of £1,402.28
however this has put my bank account over the £6000 saving limit to
£7,376.90.
My question is,I pay my rent every 6 months which is due by 25th july
(£2,490) so i keep the money in my bank.
Do I need to report the full amount of £7,376.90?
Also I'll be taking money out daily for personal use.
Do I need to report the amount in my bank
Thanking you
Gary

Muttleythefrog

Unfortunately Universal Credit bog standard staff are often clueless but happy to give false information... I cannot see reason why the monies would not count as savings. (I had advice in writing and by phone on permitted trips abroad and both were incorrect - a decision maker on the other hand knows the rules).

I would do as proposed.. report any monies when over £6k and then you will find out one way or another and definitely when I first saw the opening post I thought 'try to arrange monthly rent payments' not least since I would imagine those receiving them would ordinarily prefer such. 

ETA: Wasn't aware of the previous post outlying a different scenario than perceived.

Spoonie_Turtle

"I've just received a payment from my works of £1,402.28

however this has put my bank account over the £6000 saving limit to

£7,376.90.

My question is,I pay my rent every 6 months which is due by 25th july

(£2,490) so i keep the money in my bank.

Do I need to report the full amount of £7,376.90?

Also I'll be taking money out daily for personal use.

Do I need to report the amount in my bank

Thanking you
Gary"

Okay so the actual question you've asked them is not the same as what you've asked us.

You don't need to report that current, full amount yet as your income is not savings until the end of your next assessment period.


Any of this left unspent by the end of the next AP will be savings.  If that's over £6,000 (without your next wages on top) then you will have to report it.  And so on with each subsequent month.

Although, if you've recieved Cost of Living Payments and have any of those unspent, those are disregarded so your actual savings total for now might be lower anyway.

Muttleythefrog

As above... the question is different to U/C in my perception and I'm therefore not surprised at answer you got. I was under the impression you were climbing above £6k over the 6 months before paying rent and it reducing below £6k. So if that is happening then refer the advice we've given. If that is not happening and what you imply to U/C is happening then refer Spoonie advice in previous post. If you understand what Spoonie is saying in previous post then you can translate that into the real world situation you face and act accordingly... and of course it should make sense to you why you are getting different answers... because you're presenting probable/unclear different scenarios... one which is about monies held above the savings limit that are spent in the same assessment period and the other where monies are held above the savings limit over a period of months.

... and obviously for the benefit of yourself and possibly the landlord advise pursuing a monthly payment of rent instead regardless of which scenario is more likely/accurate.

Gary37

Thanks everyone I guess I'll have to pay back the over payments that I'm more than willing to do, as I read it that I didn't need to report it until after I pay my rent money every 6 months.