UC how much in savings change do you have to report?

blackstar

What amount is counted as changes to savings? Just wondering if you have savings over 6k and ofcourse savings fluctuate over the month up and down and if you have over £6,000 in money, savings and investments, your payment will be reduced by £4.35 for every £250 you have between £6,000 and £16,000.

But as ofcourse savings fluctuate how are you suppose to know when or by how much you are suppose to report a change in savings? 

I called UC and they said that if they change significantly then report it but they couldn't give me a figure on how is considered significant?

So a bit confused. 

HillStreetBlues

If you have  capital (this is different from savings) of over £6k then you need to report how much total capital at the end of each AP.
You also have to take into account any capital that is disregarded.

blackstar

Pauline Boyd  that's easy enough then and don't need to subtract anything?

So for me say my assesment peroid is the 28th of every month I simply add up all my savings and add it to my journal and that's it. No need to subtract things left over or earnings etc on our joint claim?

As its very complex trying to work out capital that I'd disregarded.

Could I just not say in the journal ok as of this date as its the end of AP date ie the 28th this is the total I have in savings, I have not made any deductions to this as find it very complex. Thank you 

peteuk

blackstar said:

What amount is counted as changes to savings? Just wondering if you have savings over 6k and ofcourse savings fluctuate over the month up and down and if you have over £6,000 in money, savings and investments, your payment will be reduced by £4.35 for every £250 you have between £6,000 and £16,000.

But as ofcourse savings fluctuate how are you suppose to know when or by how much you are suppose to report a change in savings? 

I called UC and they said that if they change significantly then report it but they couldn't give me a figure on how is considered significant?

So a bit confused. 

So as you’ve noted in your reply your assessment period is 28th, is that 28th to 27th? Or 29th to 28th?

Any income during the assessment period is disregarded until the following assessment period.  So if you are paid on 27th and you declare your capital (not just savings) on 28th then anything from your income won’t count.  But will still need declaring.  Equally if you were on UC at the time and recieved any COL payments these are also disregarded as long as you can in theory say you still have them.

I would also add the reduction is £4.35 for every £250 or part of there in, above £6K.  So if you declare £6001, your UC will be reduced by £4.35.

HillStreetBlues

blackstar said:

Could I just not say in the journal ok as of this date as its the end of AP date ie the 28th this is the total I have in savings, I have not made any deductions to this as find it very complex. Thank you 

If you break it down it's actually not that complex.
Say your AP is 28th to 27th.  On the 27th you add up all monies (including cash, money in current account, savings etc) say it's £10k. Then you add up all income from the 28th to 27th, this includes benefits payments and wages. Say that;s £2k
You then deduct the £2k income from the £10k monies the leaves £8k
If there are no disregards then capital reported is £8k
But if you have kept any of the Cost of Living payments for example they are disregarded, so if you have kept £900 of them that would be deducted from the £8k
Then you capital reported would be £7,100.  

Spoonie_Turtle

As for what fluctuation is significant,
If, after deducting everything you've received in the assessment period, it has crossed a multiple of £250 in either direction, it needs reporting.

So for instance let's say one AP you have £6723.  Next AP you have £6420, that needs reporting because £6500 is a multiple of £250 and it's crossed that.
If in the following AP it's changed from £6420 to £6371, that doesn't need reporting because it's still in the 6250-6500 band.