UC zero award some questions please

kazzyb123

Migrated from tax credits and have lost transitional capital protection due to being over AET in 1st month and having 3 consecutive months below AET. Claim is currently at zero and has been for three months. I get full PIP, contributions base ESA and partner is self employed, we did get carer element and health element.

1. I have started an MR about the claim being at zero even though I know it’s probably right but it doesn’t seem fair when my partner is my carer that the claim has stopped 6 months early. How long do I need to keep inputting his self employed monthly income figures for? I have read that it will close after 6 months of zero payments but if we are waiting for MR will it keep going until we get a reply?

2. In the future if we need to go back to UC what will happen? Is it different if we close the claim ourselves?
3. We will only be entitled again if our savings aren’t there, what is considered as deprivation of savings? We were gifted some money and some we saved that we are hoping to use to move to a more accessible property. Is this OK? 

4.If we don’t move because we can’t get the mortgage and we pay off some of our current mortgage is that OK?
5. Would refitting the 30 year old falling apart kitchen in current house be OK? Retiling the bathroom, garden patio etc be OK? How do I know what is or isn’t OK? I don’t want to get work done and they say you can’t claim because you spent the savings!

4. Do I need to keep receipts for everything we spend from the savings? I assume I do need to so we can show where it has gone if we need to in the future.
5. Should I keep a copy of everything in my journal info about payments etc in case it closes? 

6. Are there any other implications of closing it ourselves like reassessments for ESA or anything if we need to go back?

Anything else I should know or think about?

Sorry that’s a lot of questions but I don’t want to get caught out again in the future because of not knowing the “rules”!

thanks.

Grumpy_chap

kazzyb123 said:

 we pay off some of our current mortgage is that OK?

Repayment of debt is never DoC.

kazzyb123 said:

we are hoping to use to move to a more accessible property. Is this OK? 

5. Would refitting the 30 year old falling apart kitchen in current house be OK? Retiling the bathroom, garden patio etc be OK? How do I know what is or isn’t OK? I don’t want to get work done and they say you can’t claim because you spent the savings!

If you refit the current property, can you ever get to the level of accessibility that you would desire to achieve if you moved elsewhere?

Before spending to improve the current property, you probably need to make the decision whether you will stay at the current property long term or consider the improvements an interim step ahead of an eventual move to a property that is more accessible.

If you spend, say, £5k on the current property, that is unlikely to increase the sales value of the property by £5k when you come to sell.

The devil may be in the detail, but IMO the nature of spend you suggest would likely be accepted as not being DoC.  If the spend is to increase the accessibility of the property to meet health / mobility needs, that would possibly make the spend more justifiable as not DoC.  Only a DM can decide and they will usually only decide after the deed is done.  Others may be able to advise more in this vein.