UC savings

Marsha2007

Bit of advice please. Myself and husband are on UC. Have savings currently under £6000 threshold. My husband gets Pip HR care and mobility. We have a motability car. Due to the changes that are happening with motability we are considering not renewing the lease at the end of the term. The mileage limits and advance payments just don't work for us anymore. My husband doesn't work, is under pension age but has a small pension which he could take out early. If we were to do this we would use the money to buy a car to replace the motability one. Taking the money would push us over the £16000 threshold but then getting the car would probably put us back somewhere between £6000-£16000.

My questions are:

1. Would it be classed as deprivation of capital by buying a car to replace a motability one?
2. When the savings goes above £16000 does our UC claim close straight away or does it only count the savings that are left at the end of the assessment period? I understand the taper for any savings between £6000-£16000.
3. If the UC claim is closed, when it drops below £16000, do we have to start a new claim and where does this leave us with the new rules for new claimants. (my husband is on ESA Cont/new style and in the support group. Would he lose the support group money he is currently on?

Thank you

Spoonie_Turtle

1. Highly unlikely, especially as you'll have evidence of what kind of specs you've had in Motability cars immediately prior to buying your own.
2. In practice it depends on your savings on the last day of the assessment period. This is because if you were to close your claim due to having over 16k savings and then reopen it within the same AP due to becoming eligible again, it's essentially as if you'd never closed it in the first place so you may as well just … not do that. Do let UC know what's happened after though, once you've bought the car, so that when they see your savings went above the threshold and below again, they already know what happened and don't have to investigate.
3. Having ESA means entitlement to LCWRA straight away but there is a risk (I don't know for sure) that closing and reopening a claim would mean only being entitled to the new lower LCWRA amount. But per #2, that shouldn't be an issue in practice for you.

Marsha2007

Lovely, thank you for replying, much appreciated 👍

KxMx

Due to the existing ESA award the higher LCWRA amount would apply.

TimeLord1

I know the tracking device is putting people off getting mobility cars and mileage limits. And various fees, VAT, and admin charges and choices of vehicles also. I was travelling through west London at the weekend; next to no cars were parked on the streets or off-street, come to that. It reminded me of decades ago when the kids owned the roads.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995335#Comment_81995335

On the back of this.

One person was saying they have dropped Motability & adding (positively) that they were now only paying £150 a month insurance for a car with no black box.

Seems they missed the point that they were paying the same for ins, as they were paying for the 3 year lease of a new car, ins & all maintenance. 🤷‍♀️

TimeLord1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995561#Comment_81995561

Yes it seems freedom of choice comes at a cost whatever way you step. I don't know how much more you can live daily in-a person's life but there is not much today that doesn't cost you or track you.