question about arrears and the £6000 limit adjusting based on arrears

darto150

I know there's a limit of £6000 cash one can own, at which point benefits get reduced somewhat.

If I had £4,125 in my bank account

and I get arrears of £3000 (that are disregarded in terms of effect on benefits).

So then I have £7,125 in the bank account.

 

Then that would mean that the equivalent to the £6000 limit, is now at £9,000, right?  (£6000+£3000).

and then let's after some time, i've spent some money, and I have £2500 in my bank account

Would they then say that i've spent £500 of the arrears that I got and therefore the new equivalent to the £6000 limit is £8,500?

And if that's the case, would it make a difference if I show them that I have £500 or £700 in cash which I took out  a while back.   so I haven't spent the arrears.('cos adding that cash to the money in my bank account is £3000 or just over, so equals to the arrears)..   So would that then enable the equivalent to the £6000 limit to be £9000 again rather than £8500?

huckster

No, the savings amount is £6000 and if you have more than this, you declare it, requesting for any amount related to benefit payment arrears to be disregarded. 

darto150

Say X=Arrears Amount.

Suppose the money in their bank account is "arrears amount(X)" +£100

Then they spend £1000

Now the amount in their bank acount is "arrears amount(X)"-£900

Could the benefit office look at that and say "ok you've spent £900 of the arrears"

Now suppose the bank accoutn goes up to "original arrears amount(X)"+£500

Would the benefit office say you can no longer disregard amount X as arrears 'cos you already spent £900 of those arrears. So now you can only ever disregard X-£900 ?

eg. suppose somebody received arrears, spent their entire bank account, then accumulated money in there, I doubt they could say "ah that's arrears disregard it". ?  Wouldn't the arrears amount be the amount you received in arrears minus any arrears spent?

And if the amount in a bank account is less than arrears, wouldn't that difference count as arrears spent?

(So then if at any time in the future, arrears are disregarded, it'd be that original arrears amount minus the difference)?

HillStreetBlues

If your capital is £6000  and £1000 is disregarded  for life of claim then capital if needed to be declared would be £5000. If capital drops to £1000  then capital if needed to be declared would be £0.
If capital drops to £0 then the disregard ends as there is no capital to disregard. If then capital increases to £5000  then that's what needs to be declared.

darto150

i'm wondering though if the amount that is disregarded is recalculated. if 50% of arrears are spent?

So if capital is £7000 and £2000 is disregarded   , so £5000 is counted as capital.

And suppose capital drops to £1500 and then rises to £7000.  Does the disregarded amount stay at £2000 or is it adjusted to £1500?

So,  Is £5000 to be counted as capital. Or is £5500 to be counted as capital?

HillStreetBlues

darto150 said:

i'm wondering though if the amount that is disregarded is recalculated. if 50% of arrears are spent?

So if capital is £7000 and £2000 is disregarded   , so £5000 is counted as capital. The £5k figure is used

And suppose capital drops to £1500 and then rises to £7000.  Does the disregarded amount stay at £2000 or is it adjusted to £1500? The £1.5k figure is used

So,  Is £5000 to be counted as capital. Or is £5500 to be counted as capital? The  £5.5k figure is used.

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To make it clear, it's capital at the end of a AP.