Universal Credit Review with money over the 6k Threshold

Yesterwynde21

Hi there, I receive Universal Credit along with Carers Allowance and have been for a number of years. During that time I rarely ever looked at the Universal Credit website and have never visited a Jobcente or had any contact with Universal Credit, and after a few years I forgot about the 6k threshold, wrongly thinking it was higher.

The money in my account is now up to 12k, I recently received a Universal Credit Claim Review in my journal and supplied them with 4 recent bank statements and ID, not remembering that the threshold was 6k.

I have not yet received a telephone call, and am expecting a fine and to pay back money from my bank account, is that all that is likely to happen? And how much money am I expected to pay?

Advice is welcome I am worried sick.

Grumpy_chap

Yesterwynde21 said:

Hi there, I receive Universal Credit along with Carers Allowance and have been for a number of years. During that time I rarely ever looked at the Universal Credit website and have never visited a Jobcente or had any contact with Universal Credit, and after a few years I forgot about the 6k threshold, wrongly thinking it was higher.

The money in my account is now up to 12k, I recently received a Universal Credit Claim Review in my journal and supplied them with 4 recent bank statements and ID, not remembering that the threshold was 6k.

I have not yet received a telephone call, and am expecting a fine and to pay back money from my bank account, is that all that is likely to happen? And how much money am I expected to pay?

Advice is welcome I am worried sick.

Is any of the £12k disregarded?  For example, CoL payment 

peteuk

Yesterwynde21 said:

Hi there, I receive Universal Credit along with Carers Allowance and have been for a number of years. During that time I rarely ever looked at the Universal Credit website and have never visited a Jobcente or had any contact with Universal Credit, and after a few years I forgot about the 6k threshold, wrongly thinking it was higher.

The money in my account is now up to 12k, I recently received a Universal Credit Claim Review in my journal and supplied them with 4 recent bank statements and ID, not remembering that the threshold was 6k.

I have not yet received a telephone call, and am expecting a fine and to pay back money from my bank account, is that all that is likely to happen? And how much money am I expected to pay?

Advice is welcome I am worried sick.

When you sign up for UC you abid by the terms and conditions, I assume as you work there was no need to attend meetings.  

You will be deducted £4.35 for each £250 or part of there in, over £6K.  (So £17.40 per £1K). So if there is no disregards your current reduction is £104.4.  To fully check this you’ll need to go back to when you went over £6K and then work it from there.

TimeLord1

The thing here is how many years and as above any disregarded payments over the time, you are still under the 16k so Universal Credit would remain active.  What may happen is they'll reduce your payment over a set time to pay back any overpaid Universal Credit.

But depending on how far back they check the
reduction is.

 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. Another £4.35 is taken off for any remaining amount that is not a complete £250.

im unsure if the £4.35 reduction was less a few years back or has always been that Limit. 

But I doubt they'll hit you wanting any overpaid amount back in one hit. What are you paying carers allowance for ? Or are you caring for a family member.

Spoonie_Turtle

TimeLord1 said:

 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. Another £4.35 is taken off for any remaining amount that is not a complete £250.

im unsure if the £4.35 reduction was less a few years back or has always been that Limit. 

Always been that limit afaik, it's the monthly equivalent of £1p per £250 weekly like ir-ESA.

Yesterwynde21

Grumpy_chap said:

Yesterwynde21 said:

Hi there, I receive Universal Credit along with Carers Allowance and have been for a number of years. During that time I rarely ever looked at the Universal Credit website and have never visited a Jobcente or had any contact with Universal Credit, and after a few years I forgot about the 6k threshold, wrongly thinking it was higher.

The money in my account is now up to 12k, I recently received a Universal Credit Claim Review in my journal and supplied them with 4 recent bank statements and ID, not remembering that the threshold was 6k.

I have not yet received a telephone call, and am expecting a fine and to pay back money from my bank account, is that all that is likely to happen? And how much money am I expected to pay?

Advice is welcome I am worried sick.

Is any of the £12k disregarded?  For example, CoL payment 

It’s a combination of Carers Allowance and Universal Credit. 

Yesterwynde21

TimeLord1 said:

The thing here is how many years and as above any disregarded payments over the time, you are still under the 16k so Universal Credit would remain active.  What may happen is they'll reduce your payment over a set time to pay back any overpaid Universal Credit.

But depending on how far back they check the
reduction is.

 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. Another £4.35 is taken off for any remaining amount that is not a complete £250.

im unsure if the £4.35 reduction was less a few years back or has always been that Limit. 

But I doubt they'll hit you wanting any overpaid amount back in one hit. What are you paying carers allowance for ? Or are you caring for a family member.

Yes, I'm a carer for a family member. I understand the deductions from future UC but what happens to the money already in my account?

TimeLord1

Nothing but your future incoming payment is disregarded for one month and if unused becomes savings or capital. Being a carer you should be expected to be dealing with a lot going on, so they should understand. But until you hear back about future UC reductions not much you can do maybe visit your local Citizens Advice to see what they advise. It's human error and hectic life today constantly moving and changing. Your not to blame it's stress that makes people not remember.

born_again

No point worrying now. If they have cottoned on, they will ask for bank account statements going back further, in the phone call. To be able to work out overpayments.

So would be worthwhile going back through statements to find when you had more than £6K at the end of your AP. But do not forget to deduct the Cost of Living payments, from that. 

Spoonie_Turtle

born_again said:

So would be worthwhile going back through statements to find when you had more than £6K at the end of your AP. But do not forget to deduct the Cost of Living payments, from that. 

And, to make it explicitly clear for the OP, more than £6,000 in savings.  It's not £6k in total that counts, it's £6k after deducting income - including benefits payments - received in that AP.

Yesterwynde21

It seems like its going to take years to pay back via reduced Universal Credit payments, and as a carer for an elderly family member I have no idea how long that will be.

Am I able to pay money back whilst still on Universal Credit? Or could I leave Universal Credit just to pay it back in one lump?