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UC, Bank Temporarily Over £6000?
I am on UC. I also get New Style ESA.
I decided to take out a loan so I could clear some credit cards and a previous loan. I am aware of the £6000 limit for UC and anything more up to £16,000 sees a deduction.
With the loan, my bank account went over £6000. As soon as the loan hit my account, I cleared all the debts off, and my bank balance dropped to less than £500. The loan funds were literally sat in the bank for minutes.
Will there be any implications in this? I have told the DWP via my journal, but I am waiting for a reply, obviously I can provide them evidence of the incoming loan and the immediate outgoings to my credit cards and previous loan.
I can’t help but worry, I’ve done something wrong, but doing this allows me to focus on one payment each month and throw as much as I can at the loan, rather than multiple payments to different accounts.
Comments
-
Your UC payment is calculated based on your circumstances on the last day of your assessment period, so some money taking your bank account temporarily over £6,000 doesn't matter at all. You've used it to pay off debts which is explicitly allowed in the law. You've done nothing wrong at all - and you've covered yourself by telling UC about what happened, so if they do pick it up in the future they already know what happened.
(Also for future reference, your total monies inside savings and income you've received during that assessment period, so a bank total of over 6k won't all be savings anyway. You're doubly in the clear 🙂 )
2 -
You declare money, savings and investments over £6000 at the end of the UC assessment periods.
Taking out loan debt, would not be considered money, savings and investments.
You did not need to send a journal message and they should respond that they you did not need to have informed UC that you took out loan debt to manage your finances.
The comments I post are personal opinion. Always refer to official information sources before relying on internet forums. If you have a problem with any organisation, enter into their official complaints process at the earliest opportunity, as sometimes complaints have to be started within a certain time frame.2 -
Thanks for that, I’ll sleep tonight.
1
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