Universal credit and cash withdrawals

NedS

kingston1506 said:

pumpkin60 said:

   I take my universal credit out in full, I take my pip out in full. I have done for years. When I was on esa I took that out in full. I had to send bank statements to esa every year as I had savings, no one has ever asked what I spent my money on. I wish they paid me enough to ' stash it '  My savings have gone down over the 8 years I've been claiming but not by much, I have never been asked why!
   Once the money hits your bank it is yours to spend as you wish. 

Have you had a Universal Credit review at all? If so did they question your cash withdrawals? 

In what way, exactly, are they questioning it?

Did you make a cash withdraw? - yes

Why did you make a cash withdraw? - I like to use cash to help me manage my spending

What did you spend it on? - can't remember / regular monthly expenditure / none of your business (show me the UC Reg that makes that question relevant), or as I've already confirmed, I withdrew £x on that date.

Edit to add - the only relevant reason I can think for questioning cash withdraws is if someone appears to be making regular cash withdraws to keep under the capital threshold, so cash withdraws near the end of the AP where capital amounts are just under the threshold, or very large cash withdraws to reduce capital.

pumpkin60

kingston1506 said:

pumpkin60 said:

   I take my universal credit out in full, I take my pip out in full. I have done for years. When I was on esa I took that out in full. I had to send bank statements to esa every year as I had savings, no one has ever asked what I spent my money on. I wish they paid me enough to ' stash it '  My savings have gone down over the 8 years I've been claiming but not by much, I have never been asked why!
   Once the money hits your bank it is yours to spend as you wish. 

Have you had a Universal Credit review at all? If so did they question your cash withdrawals? 

     I had a review for uc 2 weeks ago and nothing has been asked. Once the money is in my account it's mine to do as I like with it. The money we get is what the government say we need to live on, therefore if I am ever asked I will just say that and my money  goes on the cost of living. Plain and simple. 
  

 

kingston1506

Ok thank you, I guess I have to wait until I get another review and see if they ask, I’m not drawing out thousands just the odd £50 here, sometimes £100 at max and it goes on living expenses, what can they do anyway, they can’t close my claim or suspend payments simply because I draw out cash here and there 

Muttleythefrog

kingston1506 said:

Ok thank you, I guess I have to wait until I get another review and see if they ask, I’m not drawing out thousands just the odd £50 here, sometimes £100 at max and it goes on living expenses, what can they do anyway, they can’t close my claim or suspend payments simply because I draw out cash here and there 

But just remember if they do ask... it really is probably a case of they lack for any other meaningful questions to ask.. like 'this regular £1000 payment from Mr Magoo each month, can you tell me about that?'. They're primarily looking for undeclared income and undeclared 'excess' capital that would affect (the level of) entitlement.

SimonFF

bazdvd said:

spend in a store with your card and get cashback. 

Wouldn't the cashback appear on the bank statements?

Muttleythefrog

SimonFF said:

bazdvd said:

spend in a store with your card and get cashback. 

Wouldn't the cashback appear on the bank statements?

Depends on how the cashback scheme works with the card in question.... but why would it be an issue on any statement?

hardergamer

Muttleythefrog said:

Exodi said:

Out of curiosity, why do you withdraw the money in cash for every day spending?

Virtually all shops I use for every day spending accept card (many prefer it). I virtually never have cash on me, I can no longer think of a single place I need it - even car parks mostly accept card or payment by app (card). £1 for a trolley or locker, perhaps?

It probably just looks a bit odd. From their perspective, there are nefarious reasons someone might do something like this.

Many reasons people do this... but budgeting is a common reason cited by those with very limited funds especially if they get the income infrequently (it is monthly with UC). My wife uses cash sometimes... although mainly uses cards... the reason she does is because she has lived in the UK ten years and yet still isn't entirely familiar with the currency (there will be millions of people in the UK particularly from overseas who might struggle to recognise coins and notes due to never or rarely having used such in the era of card transactions)..... because she spent her first years using cards. She also almost always spends her cash at charity stores on clothes or homewares... probably saves the charities a few pence. Some people, sometimes for political reasons, simply prefer to use cash. I tend to carry some cash because it is not uncommon for taxis here (emergency use in my case) and supermarkets to only accept cash... the first because they often don't use cards and the latter because it is far from uncommon here in Cornwall for card transacting to go down due to communication issues...lol... I'd say it is a weekly occurrence that in local social media I'll see the 'sorry we can only accept cash as our card machines are not working'. Oh and buses... local buses a nightmare for cards and phones... they say they accept these things but their technology and comms are expletive... people often end up resorting to cash or simply being let on for free... I've seen foreign tourists particularly bemused by it all like they're gone back 20 years in time.

It's the same here in Devon, every other day one of the big supermarkets card payments goes down, meaning the only way to pay is cash, even the mega Lee Mill Tesco Extra off the A38 has problems regularly, along with its petrol station with 12 pumps only taking cash twice this week, and my local Lidl's Sainsbury's and M&S all having to stop card payments 2 or 3 times every week now.