UC Claim Review

Dave1UK

I work full-time and have been for several years. My wife was also working full-time until late into her pregnancy whereby she quit as she was unable to carry out her work. Ever since we have been on UC whereby they supplement our/my income. We haven't had a review until now, nearly 2 years later.

We submitted our current bank accounts statements and everything in the beginning of March 26 and then few weeks later (now), there was a message stating "Have we sent all banks 4 months statements". I therefore called UC to ask what it was about/what further information they need but the person on the other line couldn't assist apart from leaving a message for the Credit Claim Team as they don't have access to those details. Anyway now a phone appointment has been scheduled (UCR agents only) for both me and my wife which is fine as hopefully we will get it resolved.

To be honest there is a Starling account which I didn't submit statements for which honestly I forgot about as we really don't consider it as "our" account (I know legally it is) but account is for paying bills and rent. We opened this account under my wife's name, when we first moved to our rental, sharing the property with family members and splitting costs, basically treating it as a joint account. We all pay into one account and this account is then used to pay for all bills and rent nothing else, everything is accounted for and no money has ever been withdrawn from a cash machine or sent out to personal accounts etc.

How should I bring this up? As I don't want this to be seen in a negative light or have some sort of penalty or impact. Could this be the reason for the message after the review and should I write a message on my journal now or wait for the call appointment?

Thanks.

NedS

Yes, your wife must declare the account as it is in your wife's name. During the phone appointment, you can bring it up and they will create a ToDo for your wife to upload statements. She can explain the purpose and use of the account.

Assuming you or your wife are transferring money into the account for your share of bills, DWP will have seen those outgoing transactions from your other accounts, and that is most likely how they will have identified that you have not provided statements for all accounts.

Is your capital approaching or over £6k? If not, then it will make no difference, but it must be declared regardless.

Dave1UK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81931040#Comment_81931040

Yes that is correct and would make sense. I transfer/pay the rent+bill amount from my personal account from my wages (as the amount we get from UC wouldn't cover the full amount) around 900 to the Starling account in my wife's name, as do 2 other family members, same amount monthly, bills are regular, any shortfalls like occasionally water bill more than expected or electric/gas we would top it up by the odd £50-£100 each.

Nope, amount in the "joint account" never surpasses ~£3,000 at one time. As our rent+bills is around £2500 monthly.

NedS

I meant do all of your (you and your wife's) combined balances ever exceed the £6k capital threshold for UC, not just that joint account?

Dave1UK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81931113#Comment_81931113

Oh, it is possible that this could have potentially occured at some stage? If you're just taking into account, current accounts and not credit accounts (debt). With credit accounts included then no, would have never been the case.

However with current accounts, given I get my monthly wage around £2,000, UC about £800, and then on top the "joint account" as that consists of others money then (at it's highest ~£3000 at one time as I already mentioned) then is a possibility at some point in time it may have been close to or just exceeded the £6k mark. This would of however only been for a short period (few days at most) as bills are paid/credit cards paid off etc.

Would UC advise me if that's ever been the case?/how would I go about resolving that if it has?

Grumpy_chap

It is the value of capital at the end of the AP.

Income is not capital when received so, if you go above £6k when you get paid and spend that income on heating and eating, it never becomes capital.

born_again

Credit ACC's (debt) are not taken into account for your balances.

Your could go into UC account & report a change adding the bank account. This would mean that they would review the account at the time of the call, if not then it will just extend any period of waiting.

Hope you have included the likes of PayPal account, premium bonds & any other investments you have 👍

Dave1UK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81931306#Comment_81931306

First time I'm hearing about PayPal having to be included, is this really true? I don't really use it for any incoming transactions except the rare occasion, all are basically purchases through eBay etc. Since 2023 I've received a total of £125 on PayPal from personal sales (Facebook).

KxMx

If you declare your PayPal account during the interview, they sometimes then ask for account statements but not always.

peteuk

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81931382#Comment_81931382

It depends on what you use your PayPal account for. Yes it’s an account in your name so you need to declare it. If you use it to send payments then it’s not an issue, some people use it to receive/ transfer and hold money which is when it becomes part of you capital.

Dave1UK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81931443#Comment_81931443

Yeah that's fine, can easily produce those if necessary, as on my bank statements it would show some "PayPal" purchases. Just was not aware of such a thing, don't recall this when signing up 2+ years ago to UC anything being stated about PayPal or the likes.

According to Google it's only recent? 2024/2025 where there has been a spike in UC inquiring about people's PayPal and the like?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81931502#Comment_81931502

Fair enough, but it isn't a bank account/not even investment for my case anyway, can understand if people keep a significant balance to hold money could be deemed as investment/part of capital.

Just wondering how far this stretches across other accounts in a person's name especially in this day and age that have the feature/ability to hold credit?

What if someone had credit on AliExpress (I don't but figuratively), or there is a recent app called TrainPal which had a £30 sign up bonus few months ago, so now I have £30 credit on that app to use towards train tickets etc, I drive so not sure when I'll make use of it. Most of these apps won't even allow you to produce a statement as they aren't intended for specific transactional purposes like a bank/PayPal.

Also with many for example clothes retailers nowadays instead of offering a refund to payment method, they often offer in-store credit this would be in the form of a paper voucher or as credit in app like H&M etc.