Universal Credit and capital more than £16,000

Largs

Hi.  Hope someone can help with a question regarding myself inheriting money from my dads estate.

He passed away earlier this year.  In December the estate is due to be settled.  My share of his estate will be more than £16,000 and I understand this will end any entitlement to the Universal Credit.  Does anyone know, do I ask them to terminate the claim or does the claim stay open?  I don't send them fit notes now.

I get the standard allowance and a premium as I have LCWRA due to illness.  I understand I need to let City Council know aswell to do with Council Tax reduction.

Thanks in advance for help.

sammyjammy

Just report your savings balance when its in your account in your UC journal, they will do the rest, same with council, report it to them and they will close the claim

Muttleythefrog

It's a question I wanted answered also as soon same will happen to me but I never got an answer. I think advice out there may be to simply use the close claim option online as that would mean no possible overpayments to be repaid should they take time in making a decision on savings level. Yes local authority inform them at same time although they likely will get informed by UC too. 

MikeJXE

My cousin inherited £50,000 last year so he spent it on a new car and caravan to stay below the £16,000

NedS

There is also an option under Report a Change for Money, Savings and Investments. If you report/update the total amount of savings there, that will prevent any overpayment (reporting £16,000 or more will generate a NIL award on your next statement)

Just writing on the journal is what can potentially cause issues, as either agents don't see it, or they see it but do not take the correct action.

Universal Credit is supposed to be self-service, so it's better to actually update the details held on your claim yourself (so it's done) rather than writing on the journal and hoping someone else does it for you.

As mentioned, another alternative is the Request to close your claim option, also found under Report a Change, although again that does kind of depend on them actually closing your claim promptly.

poppy12345

MikeJXE said:

My cousin inherited £50,000 last year so he spent it on a new car and caravan to stay below the £16,000

If it's means tested benefits they are claiming, when they received the money did they report the changes? If they didn't then they should have and let a decision maker decide whether there's still any entitlement to their benefits.

Muttleythefrog

MikeJXE said:

My cousin inherited £50,000 last year so he spent it on a new car and caravan to stay below the £16,000

If they reported that new level of savings as required they likely would have lost entitlement (to means tested benefits)... it would come down to a decision maker to determine if the spending after was unreasonable and therefore deprivation of capital (which if so then they consider you still have it) and I suspect they would have (or did they not?) If their savings were/remain between £6k and £16k (working age) they should be reporting that if claiming say Universal Credit as it would affect amount.

If they never reported this then they should be aware Universal Credit is targeting millions of claimants for bank statement trawls while the government just in the last week has amended a data bill to enable greater scrutiny of claimant accounts without fraud suspicion. I imagine that this kind of activity is precisely what automated banking checks would pick up on as suspicious... high level of money received (taking well over £16k) and very large purchases. So I hope they have acted and will be acting lawfully... as fraud is a pretty serious crime.

Largs

Many thanks everyone for help.

HillStreetBlues

Wondering if anyone knows if there has been any case law on this scenario?
Person on UC with £5k capital told of inheritance of £30,000, before person gets inheritance borrows £20,000 and buys a car, once inheritance is sorted  the £20,000 is paid back.
On the face of it, it would be allowed under UC as under £5k you can do what you like with money including borrowing, and paying off a debt can't be classed a DoC

Largs

Muttleythefrog said:

It's a question I wanted answered also as soon same will happen to me but I never got an answer. I think advice out there may be to simply use the close claim option online as that would mean no possible overpayments to be repaid should they take time in making a decision on savings level. Yes local authority inform them at same time although they likely will get informed by UC too. 

Hi.  I was reading online about New Style ESA.  (Contributory based) I think I will close the Universal Credit claim and claim this the following day, if I don't qualify for any benefit payments, I may qualify for National Insurance Credits.  They can only say no.

ElwoodBlues

poppy12345 said:

MikeJXE said:

My cousin inherited £50,000 last year so he spent it on a new car and caravan to stay below the £16,000

If it's means tested benefits they are claiming, when they received the money did they report the changes? If they didn't then they should have and let a decision maker decide whether there's still any entitlement to their benefits.

As per sammyjammy, I thought you only need to report your savings at the end of each AP? And your UC entitlement is based on how much you have in the bank at that point each month. So if you receive and spend the money within the same AP, it doesn't get reported to DWP? Not saying it's ethical, but isn't that how it works? Or do claimants have a duty to report capital changes immediately if it puts them over the threshold?