Universal credit and lump sum of £5500 from pension

Mittens77

I hope someone can help me 

I'm on universal credit and also get lcwra..total amount is £1249 per month.
£440 is Lha towards rent.  Rent is £700+ per month
I get pip totalling £303 per month
I also have a family member send me roughly £200 per month voluntary cash gift in dribs and drabs to help with bills , debts  etc

All this money is spent each month...nothing left over.

I am over 55 and have a small private pension and have realised that I can now take up to 25% of that in a tax free lump sum. 

I need urgent dental treatment which is going to cost me roughly £2000 ( I do not have an NHS dentist). 

If I take £5500 as my £25% capital lump sum from the pension will this affect my universal credit amount each month? 

If I pay £2000 dental treatment and then have £3500  sat in my current account will this affect my monthly UC amount? 

If over the course of a year that £3500 left is spent ...well on anything from meals, social events treating myself to a weekend away...anything tbh. Will any of this affect my universal credit payments? 

Oh and will that lump sum affect the housing benefit over the course of a year ?

I've had cancer for over three years and it hasn't reduced in that time so who knows if I'll still be around in 10 years when I reach retirement age ! 

Any help much appreciated 

poppy12345

Capital of less than £6,000 is ignored when claiming UC so it would have no affect.

To be clear, as you’re claiming UC you would only be claiming housing benefit if you live in either supported or temporary housing. If you don’t then help with the rent will be through UC known as housing element. As it’s part of UC then the same capital rules apply.

Although what you will receive is less than £6,000 because it’s a pension draw down then you should report this to UC. 

NedS

Yes, DWP should treat any one-off lump sum payment as capital, not income.

As such, it will only affect your UC payments if it takes the amount of capital you have over the £6k limit.

If you were to put the pension into drawdown, and take regular income from it, then this would be treated as income and reduce your UC pound for pound (and you would be responsible for notifying UC that you were in receipt of pension income).

Mittens77

Many thanks.  Much appreciated