UC Monthly Assessment & PayPal

Spoonie_Turtle

I don't understand your question, sorry.  If there's nothing in your PayPal account what is it you're asking if you need to declare?

The other issue that appears to have been inadvertently identified is that UC are using your total monies held to make the deduction but your overall total is not the same as your savings.
Income only becomes savings when it remains unspent at the end of the following assessment period.  So your wages and UC received during an assessment period are not part of your savings.  Plus if you've had Cost of Living Payments which have accumulated, those are disregarded indefinitely.  Hence, if you are not minusing those from your overall total, UC are using the wrong amount to take too much of a deduction for savings.

If your savings are just over £10k after minusung income and disregarded capital from your total, then it's all fine and correct.  I think the issue is that your wording 'I have £10,000 in the bank' and 'I declare what money I have in the bank' sounds like you're telling them the overall total not just what counts as your capital.

Gaz1986

Ty Spoonie for your reply.
On the 18th of every month I tell UC what amount of money I have in the bank to the penny.
My wages go in every 25th of the month, so the following month on the 18th I give them the total amount I have.
Example this month on the 18th I had £10,200 left after shopping and other things.
When I do my assessment there is a question asking how many accounts do I have.
I just put my one current bank account down.
Do I need to add my PayPal account?

Spoonie_Turtle

Okay so that's very clear they're using the whole total and taking too much off.  (That's frustrating, evidently the process doesn't offer any clarity and relies on people knowing the intricacies of UC themselves which is definitely not fair.)

What is the exact wording of the question about accounts?

I don't *know* the answer, so the following is an educated guess:
Subject to the wording shedding any light, I'd have thought the answer is no you don't have to because it's not a bank account and you have no money in there.  But equally I can't see there would be any harm in adding it if you wanted to cover yourself.

WelshPaul

You need to declare it.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-money-savings-and-investments#what-we-take-into-account

What we take into account

When we assess your entitlement to Universal Credit, we take into account as ‘capital’ the value of all money, savings and investments you own, or you jointly own with someone else. 

The amount of money, savings and investments you (and your partner) have can affect:

• whether you’re eligible for Universal Credit
• how much Universal Credit you receive

All money, savings and investments you have in the UK and abroad are taken into account, including:

• cash
• money in your bank account, including your main bank account
• current accounts and digital-only accounts such as PayPal
• savings accounts: bank, building society, credit union, Help to Save, Post Office and National Savings and Investments (NS&I) accounts
• savings for children in your name
• money that belongs to someone else, but is in your name
• savings for essential building work (unless from a grant or loan)
• savings for medical care
• Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs): cash, stocks and shares, Innovative Finance, Help to Buy, and Lifetime ISAs
• Premium Bonds, dividends, stocks and shares
• cryptoassets
• property you own but do not live in yourself (apart from in certain circumstances)
• property, land and savings abroad
• inheritance payments
• business accounts and assets for businesses that closed over 6 months ago
• money in trust funds, apart from in certain circumstances
• unspent benefits, for example Child Benefit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
• unspent income

We do not take your debt into account when we work out your total money, savings and investments.

Gaz1986

Thank you all much appreciated.

HillStreetBlues

WelshPaul said:

You need to declare it.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-money-savings-and-investments#what-we-take-into-account

What we take into account

When we assess your entitlement to Universal Credit, we take into account as ‘capital’ the value of all money, savings and investments you own, or you jointly own with someone else. 

The amount of money, savings and investments you (and your partner) have can affect:

• whether you’re eligible for Universal Credit
• how much Universal Credit you receive

All money, savings and investments you have in the UK and abroad are taken into account, including:

• cash
• money in your bank account, including your main bank account
• current accounts and digital-only accounts such as PayPal
• savings accounts: bank, building society, credit union, Help to Save, Post Office and National Savings and Investments (NS&I) accounts
• savings for children in your name
• money that belongs to someone else, but is in your name
• savings for essential building work (unless from a grant or loan)
• savings for medical care
• Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs): cash, stocks and shares, Innovative Finance, Help to Buy, and Lifetime ISAs
• Premium Bonds, dividends, stocks and shares
• cryptoassets
• property you own but do not live in yourself (apart from in certain circumstances)
• property, land and savings abroad
• inheritance payments
• business accounts and assets for businesses that closed over 6 months ago
• money in trust funds, apart from in certain circumstances
• unspent benefits, for example Child Benefit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
• unspent income

We do not take your debt into account when we work out your total money, savings and investments.

You have to be careful trusting websites, even Government ones and sadly that is one wrong is in a few places.

HillStreetBlues

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Okay so that's very clear they're using the whole total and taking too much off.  (That's frustrating, evidently the process doesn't offer any clarity and relies on people knowing the intricacies of UC themselves which is definitely not fair.)

What is the exact wording of the question about accounts?

I don't *know* the answer, so the following is an educated guess:
Subject to the wording shedding any light, I'd have thought the answer is no you don't have to because it's not a bank account and you have no money in there.  But equally I can't see there would be any harm in adding it if you wanted to cover yourself.

I personally think it's a big issue and people are getting less than they should, and the DWP are giving people the wrong info.
Look at the link above and you can see why people just report their monies as capital

What we take into account

When we assess your entitlement to Universal Credit, we take into account as ‘capital’ the value of all money, savings and investments you own, or you jointly own with someone else.

That isn't capital, any income needs to be deducted to produce "capital" and also any disregards such as CoL payments.

Spoonie_Turtle

WelshPaul said:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-money-savings-and-investments#what-we-take-into-account

What we take into account

…

All money, savings and investments you have in the UK and abroad are taken into account, including:

• cash
• money in your bank account, including your main bank account
• current accounts and digital-only accounts such as PayPal
• savings accounts: bank, building society, credit union, Help to Save, Post Office and National Savings and Investments (NS&I) accounts

The context of that is they include any money in a PayPal account.  The OP has no money in theirs, hence the question arose in the first place.

Gaz1986

So reading that 

• current accounts and digital-only accounts such as PayPal

Do I have to report a zero balance in my PayPal?
I know you said it's best to report it, but is it compulsory?

born_again

HillStreetBlues said:

WelshPaul said:

You need to declare it.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-money-savings-and-investments#what-we-take-into-account

What we take into account

When we assess your entitlement to Universal Credit, we take into account as ‘capital’ the value of all money, savings and investments you own, or you jointly own with someone else. 

The amount of money, savings and investments you (and your partner) have can affect:

• whether you’re eligible for Universal Credit
• how much Universal Credit you receive

All money, savings and investments you have in the UK and abroad are taken into account, including:

• cash
• money in your bank account, including your main bank account
• current accounts and digital-only accounts such as PayPal
• savings accounts: bank, building society, credit union, Help to Save, Post Office and National Savings and Investments (NS&I) accounts
• savings for children in your name
• money that belongs to someone else, but is in your name
• savings for essential building work (unless from a grant or loan)
• savings for medical care
• Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs): cash, stocks and shares, Innovative Finance, Help to Buy, and Lifetime ISAs
• Premium Bonds, dividends, stocks and shares
• cryptoassets
• property you own but do not live in yourself (apart from in certain circumstances)
• property, land and savings abroad
• inheritance payments
• business accounts and assets for businesses that closed over 6 months ago
• money in trust funds, apart from in certain circumstances
• unspent benefits, for example Child Benefit, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
• unspent income

We do not take your debt into account when we work out your total money, savings and investments.

You have to be careful trusting websites, even Government ones and sadly that is one wrong is in a few places.

The issue is that some people would hold a balance in their PayPal account, thus making it look like they have less funds than they actually have.

On a review of our claim. I had to produce a statement from PP account showing usage over 4 months. Like OP (& as I told DWP) I only have the account to pay for purchases when retailer allows that method of payment.