Childrens Savings And Jsa

oldmotherreilly

Can anybody tell me if my childrens' savings would count towards the £3000 savings limit on income based JSA? We have no other savings but we have saved all our childrens' christening, birthday and christmas money since they were born and added together they will take us over the limit. I am not allowed to use this money for myself according to banking regulations but someone has told me that the Jobcentre will take their money into account for any claim we make. Is this right?

Ted_Hutchinson

NO it isn't right.
Your child's capital is not added to yours.

Capital held by a dependant
IS(Gen) Regs 1987.17
Capital held by a dependent child or young person under 19 is ignored unless they own more than £3,000. .

oldmotherreilly

Thanks for that-it's taken a load of my mind!

helen21_2

Ted_Hutchinson wrote:

NO it isn't right.
Your child's capital is not added to yours.

Capital held by a dependant
IS(Gen) Regs 1987.17
Capital held by a dependent child or young person under 19 is ignored unless they own more than £3,000. .

Hi Ted

Is that £3000 per child or £3000 between the children?

helen21

Ted_Hutchinson

helen21 wrote:

Hi Ted

Is that £3000 per child or £3000 between the children?

helen21

Each child can have £3000 before it would is taken into account.

I should point out that this child's capital cannot be money that has just been moved from the parents account.

If you are asked to produce bank statements and it is clear you have moved capital with the intention of taking advantage of the benefit system then you would be treated as if you had Notional Capital. If the savings have come from relatives and built up over a period of time then it's clearly their's rather than a safe harbour for parents surplus cash.