UC and if you go over 16k?

blackstar

Just wondering if your savings at some point during the assesment stage tip over the £16k limit for a coyple of days and then goes back under £16k where it usually is do you have to report it? What happens?
In regards to UC?

poppy12345

For UC your entitlement is based on your circumstances on the last day of each assessment period. As long as you're not over on that date then it will be fine. 

blackstar

poppy12345 said:

For UC your entitlement is based on your circumstances on the last day of each assessment period. As long as you're not over on that date then it will be fine. 

Thanks. Is there any kind of gov.uk information on that?

Also wanted to ask. 
We are allowed to pay an extra 10% on our mortgage, can we do this without UC seeing this as deprivation of capital? 

marcia_

blackstar said:

poppy12345 said:

For UC your entitlement is based on your circumstances on the last day of each assessment period. As long as you're not over on that date then it will be fine. 

Thanks. Is there any kind of gov.uk information on that?

Also wanted to ask. 
We are allowed to pay an extra 10% on our mortgage, can we do this without UC seeing this as deprivation of capital? 

 Paying debts including your mortgage is not deprivation of capital.

 

blackstar

poppy12345 said:

For UC your entitlement is based on your circumstances on the last day of each assessment period. As long as you're not over on that date then it will be fine. 

Thank you. I hear many different things like

A) what you said
if at any point you go over 16k you must report it immediately, no matter what point in the AP.

I was trying to find some kind of goverment guidance on this issue but just can't seem to find any. 

huckster

Government.uk says report changes to money, savings and investments as soon as they happen. I don't think legislation says report on last day of assessment period(AP)  it is just that is when UC calculates award based on information on the claim. 

Logically if you think about it, someone could have £30k in their Bank in the middle of a UC AP and then on the last day of the AP they report only having £15k.  I suspect UC fraud prevention would be alerted to an amount over £16k in the account and the claimant in this case would be contacted to provide information. And then questions would be raised about what happened to the missing £15k.

https://search.app?link=https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-money-savings-and-investments&utm_campaign=aga&utm_source=agsadl1,sh/x/gs/m2/4

blackstar

huckster said:

Government.uk says report changes to money, savings and investments as soon as they happen. I don't think legislation says report on last day of assessment period(AP)  it is just that is when UC calculates award based on information on the claim. 

Logically if you think about it, someone could have £30k in their Bank in the middle of a UC AP and then on the last day of the AP they report only having £15k.  I suspect UC fraud prevention would be alerted to an amount over £16k in the account and the claimant in this case would be contacted to provide information. And then questions would be raised about what happened to the missing £15k.

https://search.app?link=https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-money-savings-and-investments&utm_campaign=aga&utm_source=agsadl1,sh/x/gs/m2/4

Thanks that makes sense.

So you think if I went over the 16k at any point during the AP I should report it?

HillStreetBlues

I agree with @poppy12345
I go over the lower limit during my AP but by the time my rent & bills are paid I'm below it. Reporting it would just lead to possible needless confusion as the only date that matter is the last day of AP.

huckster

Yes, if you have savings significantly over £16k. But as @HillStreetBlues says if the normal spending would bring back under £16k as at last day of AP, then leave until last day of AP to report.  

DWP will always say report straightaway because that is easier to understand and it would then deal with situations where someone had a large amount in the middle of an AP,  which was then reduced over a few days to less than £16k, without any explanation attracting investigative suspicion.

blackstar

huckster said:

Yes, if you have savings significantly over £16k. But as @HillStreetBlues says if the normal spending would bring back under £16k as at last day of AP, then leave until last day of AP to report.  

DWP will always say report straightaway because that is easier to understand and it would then deal with situations where someone had a large amount in the middle of an AP,  which was then reduced over a few days to less than £16k, without any explanation attracting investigative suspicion.

Thanks. As in  our situation oir savings will always between 14k - 15 1/2k but after certain things go in there's a chance it may peek over 16k for a couple of days during the AP and then drop back down. So just didn't know what to do?

Spoonie_Turtle

blackstar said:

huckster said:

Yes, if you have savings significantly over £16k. But as @HillStreetBlues says if the normal spending would bring back under £16k as at last day of AP, then leave until last day of AP to report.  

DWP will always say report straightaway because that is easier to understand and it would then deal with situations where someone had a large amount in the middle of an AP,  which was then reduced over a few days to less than £16k, without any explanation attracting investigative suspicion.

Thanks. As in  our situation oir savings will always between 14k - 15 1/2k but after certain things go in there's a chance it may peek over 16k for a couple of days during the AP and then drop back down. So just didn't know what to do?

If you mean the total of everything you have goes over £16k, that's not savings.

Savings is what's left over after income each month.

So to work out your savings, total everything up, then total up payments you've received so far in the assessment period.  Minus those payments from the total.  That's your savings.

Also if you've had Cost of Living Payments and they've just accumulated, those are disregarded indefinitely so you can subtract those from your savings total as well.