UC - do I need to report savings every month?

funkygal · 7 November at 9:07AM

Just received my first payment for UC.

I have over 6k in savings but obviously less than 16k. This includes cash in a savings account, shares and a Lifetime ISA (25% disregarded).

I don't think I will have spent all my wages and UC by the time I receive my next UC payment. Do I need to declare anything unspent every month? Will they require me to show my bank statements for each account to verify the capital? If so, that would be very annoying and feels like an invasion of my privacy having to show my bank statements each time. When should I declare the monies? Also shares fluctuate, does this mean I have to keep any eye on them just on case they go up or down too much?! The figures for the shares changes everyday! I know about the UC reduction in regards to savings is done in increments of £250.

AP is 2nd to the 1st. UC payment 8th and wages 23rd. Thanks in advance.

peteuk · 7 November at 2:05PM

Capital is based on the last day of your assessment period. That’s all monies you have access to, minus any income or benefits received during that assessment period.

Any monies left over from your wage received in the previous assessment period is classed as capital.

By signing to received UC you agree to certain conditions this includes reporting and change in circumstance, which includes changes in capital. You only need to report if you go up or down the £250 bracket. Eg Oct you report £6251, Nov is £6240, Dec is £6540. You don't need to declare Nov but would declare December.

However if you don’t want to provide your bank statements as it’s an invasion of privacy, close your UC claim. Although I’m not sure if you show them every time you declare but you are open to random checks where they will ask for bank statements.

And yes you need to know how much capital you have, so watch your shares. Potentially on the last day of your assessment period.

if you dont like this, your option is to cancel your UC claim and not worry about sending in bank statements, not worry about share prices.

funkygal · 7 November at 4:07PM

I'm fine with random reviews. Just prefer not to be sending in bank statements for all my accounts, as I have many, every month. Saying that, I'm fine with it if that's what needs to be done each month my savings goes up by more than £250. Just trying to get my head around it as it's my first time on UC.

Spoonie_Turtle · 7 November at 4:55PM

funkygal said:

I'm fine with random reviews. Just prefer not to be sending in bank statements for all my accounts, as I have many, every month. Saying that, I'm fine with it if that's what needs to be done each month my savings goes up by more than £250. Just trying to get my head around it as it's my first time on UC.

Just to be really clear so you don't inadvertently make a mistake, it's when your savings go up or down past a multiple of £250. So for instance if you have £6675 and they go up by £80 to £6755, you would still need to update them because they've crossed a 250 threshold (6750).

Also don't forget it goes the other way too, if they drop below a multiple of £250 that reduces the deduction they need to take.

What's frustratingly complicated is when you put in the amounts for reporting a change, there is no mechanism for distinguishing between capital and income, they just aak for totals in all accounts - I do not know how to get round that, other than sending a journal message after declaring everything and seeing what they do after that.

(Part of me wonders if everyone did that every time, to ensure they weren't having more deductions than necessary, whether it would force DWP to acknowledge the flaw in their system. But that's just an idle thought.)

born_again · 7 November at 5:03PM

funkygal said:

I'm fine with random reviews. Just prefer not to be sending in bank statements for all my accounts, as I have many, every month. Saying that, I'm fine with it if that's what needs to be done each month my savings goes up by more than £250. Just trying to get my head around it as it's my first time on UC.

This will be the bonus when DWP will have access to bank accounts for claimants. Make life a lot easier 👍

KxMx · 7 November at 5:09PM

Not for everyone, bank account balances don't take into account disregarded money.

Spoonie_Turtle · 7 November at 5:14PM

KxMx said:

Not for everyone, bank account balances don't take into account disregarded money.

No but neither does the UC system, only for specific disregarded capital but the totals still include income.

KxMx · 7 November at 5:18PM

I'm over £6k on paper due to Cost of Living Payments, with the disregard I'm under so don't report.

When my claim was reviewed they were absolutely fine with what I'd done.

I'm concerned about repeatedly having to explain this with freer DWP access to my accounts.

carl.waring · 7 November at 9:53PM

No. Well I certainly don't and have never been told to.

Spoonie_Turtle · 7 November at 10:06PM

carl.waring said:

No. Well I certainly don't and have never been told to.

Hopefully that's because you have under £6,000 in savings (capital). If you have above that then you would need to be reporting at the end of every assessment period when they've fluctuated above or below a multiple of £250.

TimeLord1 · 8 November at 11:07AM

As for the DWP having access to your bank account it will be an Ai system within the bank you use that will send a notification back. And as they pay in funds they will have also have access to deduct payments. But how they distinguish what has been paid previously and disregarded amounts we will see if errors arise.