Benefits capital limit

louiseS_2

Hi
My adult son claims UC and pip for autism and mental health issues. He has had a bad time recently and rarely left the house. So he hasn't spent much money. He now has breached the capital limit of £6,000. 
Does a build up of benefit count as capital? He pays me for rent/food but not regularly. Is there a limit to how much he can pay me?
To my mind the fact that his depression has been very bad is the reason why he has not been managing his money well. Would the DWP accept this as mitigating factor?
Thanks
L

sammyjammy

There is no limit on how much he can give you, its between the two of you, why not come up with a monthly figure that he gives you each month, it will be easier for you to budget and its right for him to contribute.  Did he get the cost of living payments?  These can be deducted from his total capital for a period of time.  Yes money received in benefits becomes capital if its not spent in the month its received.

Get him to post in his journal what his capital is and point out that he had xxx cost of living payments, easier to keep them informed. 

Jyana

You are allowed to charge him a reasonable amount for board/keep, this is perfectly acceptable and to be expected, especially in today's climate. They DWP would not find that unusual at all.

If he has had any of the Cost of Living payments over the last couple of years, they would not count towards the £6,000 limit if he has saved them as they came in rather then spending them, but all other amounts would apply without any exceptions in his case. For example, if you have £8,350 in savings and £1,850 of that is disregarded as it is CoL payments, then you would pay £8.70 a month on the remaining £500 that is over the £6,000 limit. (£4.35 per part of £250 is charged each month)

They simply do not allow any excuses for the build up of saving due to health at all. So work out exactly what is the amount he has, including any possible disregarded amounts, and from there you can see if you need to inform them of his savings.

poppy12345

Is there any reason why he doesn't pay you for board regularly? He would have to pay if he was living anywhere else. I'd advise you to sit down with him and talk to him about it and come to an agreement that he pays you X amount of money every month. 

I live with my daughter and there's just to 2 of us. She claims the same benefits as your son and we share the cost of all bills and pay 50% each. Every month I will take 50% of her share. She has ASD and a learning disability but she needs to understand that things in life aren't free. 

peteuk

Hitting the £6K threashold will mean a deduction in his UC.  This is at the rate of £4.35 for each £250 or part of there in that he goes over £6K.

His UC is not counted as capital until the next assessment period. For instance if assessment period is 27 Jun-26 Jul with his payment 03 Jul, then the payment on 03 Jul is what he is meant to live off for the month.  Anything left at the end of the assessment period will then be classed as capitol.

If he received the COL payments and can prove they are still in the account then these can be disregarded so lifting the amount he can have in capital without incurring a deduction.

HillStreetBlues

Are you sure he's breached the £6k lower capital limit?  How much monies does he have?  How much is his UC? Does he claim any other benefits?  And as others have said had he kept his CoL payments?
If he has was entitled to all CoL payments and including income he could have approx £8k in monies and maybe more.

louiseS_2

Thanks for your comments. We will sort out back payments to me for rent/food and then ongoing. It's not that he doesnt want to pay me anything it's just that he has been putting it off due to his mental health issues.  
I think he will have to pay back some UC. Is there any chance of a fine?

HillStreetBlues

louiseS_2 said:

Thanks for your comments. We will sort out back payments to me for rent/food and then ongoing. It's not that he doesnt want to pay me anything it's just that he has been putting it off due to his mental health issues.  
I think he will have to pay back some UC. Is there any chance of a fine?

Not enough info to know,  how much over?  how long it's been going on?

poppy12345

louiseS_2 said:

  
I think he will have to pay back some UC. Is there any chance of a fine?

You've been asked questions by various members which you haven't answered. No further help can be given without answering those questions. 

SirSteven1986

Following as coming up to near 6k point after years of saving bits n bats! Can anyone tell me the process of what happens once declare it is straight forward or will you have to send evidence of how you got it up to this point 

Jyana

SirSteven1986 said:

Following as coming up to near 6k point after years of saving bits n bats! Can anyone tell me the process of what happens once declare it is straight forward or will you have to send evidence of how you got it up to this point 

When you inform them you are over the limit they generally ask to see 4 to 6 months worth of your latest bank statements to show the applicable amounts. If you are claiming any disregard amounts, such as CoL payments or benefit back payment, etc, they usually ask to also see the statement that shows you receiving said payment but not all the statements between that and now.