Universal credit

Intel1982

Hi,

I was just discussing my income and it was suggested we might qualify for universal credit, I've got a couple of questions if anyone could help?

My husband works and receives £52k before deductions, and a yearly annual £7.5k bonus at Christmas.

I receive carers allowance as I look after our two autistic kids, one is on high rate care, the other on low rate care and both on low rate mobility.

We have used the bonus to overpay our mortgage, so our savings are below £6k - we have only just done this, would this be considered depreciation of assets if we add only applying just now? 

My husband pays £512 into his pension just now but we had intended to increase this to around £783 a month, would this also be treated as depreciation or something along those lines? These are things we were planning to do before we realised we may be entitled to any additional help. 

We own our own home and have no other additional income/assets etc. 

Thanks for reading!

Muttleythefrog

Best thing is to head to one of the couple of very trusted benefit calculators.

try

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/    and click on "for individuals"

Regarding deprivation of capital... sorry brain not working this morning.. rules can be complicated in application but Universal credit is quite a liberal regime. Both things probably fine. First check entitlement as those other questions may become irrelevant.

Intel1982

I did the turn to us calculation and it was giving us an entitlement but I'm not sure whether that's because I entered the additional pension contributions, I'm wondering whether we would be entitled at all without these.

Yamor

Both things would be fine. Paying off your mortgage would not be an issue, nor would making pension contributions.

You should be entitled to over £500/month of UC.

Intel1982

Thank you, do you know if there's a cap to how much we add to his pension?

Just to add he pays a certain amount from his gross wage and we add extra from his net wage don't know if that makes a difference.

Thanks

kaMelo

Intel1982 said:

Thank you, do you know if there's a cap to how much we add to his pension?

Just to add he pays a certain amount from his gross wage and we add extra from his net wage don't know if that makes a difference.

Thanks

Given your husbands gross income, and not knowing any other circumstances, are you affected by the HICBC?

As for pension contributions, the legislation states 'any relievable contributions' are to be deducted from income when calculating UC.
P55 (5)
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2013/9780111531938/regulation/55

As to what relievable contributions means. “relievable pension contributions” has the meaning in section 188 of the Finance Act 2004(3);
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2013/9780111531938/regulation/53

The Finance Act 2004 section 188
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/12/section/188

Without doubt the easiest method would be to increase contributions into the workplace pension scheme. "Relievable pension contributions" in accordance with the legislation made into a personal pension should also be deducted from earnings when calculating UC qualification, achieving that however seems to be proving a problem for some people.
Here is one such example.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6001734/universal-credit-and-private-pension-contributions/p1

Intel1982

Yes we have partially paid back the child benefit for the past couple of years by filling out a self assessment tax return. Thanks for information 🙂