UC Bank Statements

Crystal16

We are a couple and have both been asked for 4 months of bank statements. We are going to send them in on Monday.

Here is where my problem lies, between us we have just under £6000 across the two bank accounts.  Lots of things come out of the accounts each month for example rent, water, gas, virgin, online food shopping etc.

Every month I withdraw £1000,  £430 of this is my husband's pip, when he first claimed it it was dla and he never had a bank account so it got paid into mine.  He uses this money for example he tops up the electric meter with £100 per month because he is always cold and has the fire on ll the time, he buys supplements and vitamins which he thinks helps his condition, he likes reading and listening to music so buys books and cds etc.  Just a quick snapshot of what he spends his money on.

I have £570 out of that I pay full council tax of £150 per month, tv licene £15,  asda christmas savings stamps £30 a month, cigarettes (I know bad) about £100 a month, window cleaner £10 fortnightly, Gardner £20 fortnightly.  Might buy odd things for the house, last week I bought rugs, cushions and paint for the living room.  Might go out for a meal once a month, top up on my food shop etc, again just a quick snapshot of how we live.

I am just thinking how bad it looks on paper £6000 in savings and withdrawing  out £1000 a month.

It wouldn't matter to me if they asked for 1/2/3 years of bank statements because they would all generally say the same thing.

My husband receives his state pension and pip, I work part time and we receive anything from £250 to £650 per month uc.

I would be interested to know what others think on this matter.

tacpot12

You don't need to worry about the amount you are withdrawing. Most people will draw out a similar amount. 

Crystal16

tacpot12 said:

You don't need to worry about the amount you are withdrawing. Most people will draw out a similar amount. 

Thanks for the reply tacpot12, I worry about everything 

tacpot12

Crystal16 said:

tacpot12 said:

You don't need to worry about the amount you are withdrawing. Most people will draw out a similar amount. 

Thanks for the reply tacpot12, I worry about everything 

No problem. That's why it's good to have a forum like MSE. You can ask questions and hopefully find that you don't need to worry.

KxMx

How much in Cost of Living payments have you received? 
That amount will be disregarded from your capital. 

What I did after uploading my statements was add a journal note confirming my COL amount. 

After the phone appointment, at their request I uploaded individual bank statement pages to show the CoL payments in.

So your applicable capital might not be near 6k.

Crystal16

KxMx said:

How much in Cost of Living payments have you received? 
That amount will be disregarded from your capital. 

What I did after uploading my statements was add a journal note confirming my COL amount. 

After the phone appointment, at their request I uploaded individual bank statement pages to show the CoL payments in.

So your applicable capital might not be near 6k.

We received all of the COL payments, not sure of the total amount but I will check for them in the bank statements. Thank you for the good advice

HillStreetBlues

If you have nearly £6k in monies, some of that will be income not capital.
The PIP money and the pension and your wages will be income in the AP that they are paid.
So for example if PIP, pension & wages  = £2k  have you have monies of £6k   only £4k is capital. Also as pointed out CoL payments could well be another deduction.

Crystal16

HillStreetBlues said:

If you have nearly £6k in monies, some of that will be income not capital.
The PIP money and the pension and your wages will be income in the AP that they are paid.
So for example if PIP, pension & wages  = £2k  have you have monies of £6k   only £4k is capital. Also as pointed out CoL payments could well be another deduction.

Thank you, I didn't realise it worked like that.

peteuk

If you dont go over £6K then its ok.  

However I would add, if your account goes lower than the COL payments then you cant claim to still have them so that amount wont be discarded.  

If you do go over £6K, then your UC will be reduced by £4.35 for every £250 or part of there in, that your over £6K. 

KxMx

I was over 6k on paper at my review. After they did the calculation taking off CoL payments, I was officially under and no deductions applied.
I hadn't declared over 6k because without the CoL I knew I wasn't over. 

Newcad

It's often a good idea to keep your monthly ins/outs in one account and your savings in another to make it easy to see which is which. (It doesn't need to be a 'savings account' just a seperate account).

Your monthly ins/outs are not counted as savings/capital.