Savings

klem

Thanks dmg24, ESA, I was afraid of that.

klem

learning_in_earnest

damo73 wrote: »

as well as the above suggestions, the repaying of a long term loan to a family member now that u can afford it is usually accepted as long as it will be confirmed. keep all bank statements.

I'm an income support decision maker

Hi,

I am a disabled lady on DLA for the last 20 years following a severe injury.

My husband - who has worked for the last 40 years (not at the same job) has just been made redundant and is now on contribution based JSA.

We have scrimped and scraped over the last 10 years so as not to incurr large debts and have patched up my car over and over again over the past few years with the intention of getting a newer (if it held up in the meantime) one once my son goes off to Uni - which is now.

I am worried now, that if we replace my car, this will be looked on as a deprivation of capital? We have been lucky up to now in that my car is 18 years old and has over 170,000 miles on the clock, so we feel we are blessed to have it running still!

The company my husband worked for was liquidated, so he only got £3000 from the NI redundancy office and this had to be withdrawn as soon as it went into the account to pay back his mum who loaned us £3500 the week he was made redundant so that we were able to continue paying our mortgage, bills, etc whilst we were waiting to receive payment.

Any help / advice / guidance would be appreciated.

I dont want to do anything that would be seen as in any way fraudulent, but being disabled I really do need a reliable car.

Thanks.

alwaysonthego_2

Your DH is on CBJSA so this is not affected by savings.

When/If he goes on to IBJSA you can have up to £6000 in savings before your benefits are affected.

Do you claim any other benefits apart from DLA?

Can you work?

TBH it would be up to the DM about the deprivation of capital but if you rely on a car and need to buy a new one/or have repairs I would think that the DM would consider your circumstances, but you could ask the DWP before you spent any of your money.

learning_in_earnest

Just DLA and incapacity benefit. Cannot work.

I am hoping he will get a job before income based jobseekers is necessary, but do you know who we would ring/ask?

In some ways it seems ridiulous that I have to ask to spend my own money - especially when its to renew an 18 year old, 170,000 miles car... not exactly extravagant or wasteful - we wouldnt even be looking at a new one, just one about 5 years old...

If there are any DM's on here, I would really appreciate your views.

Thanks

Oldernotwiser

learning_in_earnest wrote: »

Just DLA and incapacity benefit. Cannot work.

I am hoping he will get a job before income based jobseekers is necessary, but do you know who we would ring/ask?

In some ways it seems ridiulous that I have to ask to spend my own money - especially when its to renew an 18 year old, 170,000 miles car... not exactly extravagant or wasteful - we wouldnt even be looking at a new one, just one about 5 years old...

If there are any DM's on here, I would really appreciate your views.

Thanks

It rather depends what you mean by renewing it, I think. If you just buy a better, newer car for a few grand i doubt that you'll many problems. If you go and blow 20 grand on something new and flash it may well be seen as deliberate deprivation of capital.

(Apologies, just seen that this isn't your intention.)

learning_in_earnest

*smile*

Couldnt afford anything flash - even if we wanted to... then again, we're not really the flash type

klem

The dreaded day is about to arrive. Apart from helping my daughter with her education loan as mentioned earlier - which I would have done if I were continuing work - I also have my eldest daughter getting married next year. I am already in the painful and embarassing position of not being able to pay for the wedding entirely. If I give her some money towards the wedding out of my redundancy would that be regarded as capital deprivation?


klem

seven-day-weekend

Almost certainly.

gmetford

Hi all

I'm a social worker looking for a bit of advice on this subject so I can correctly advise a client.

My client currently has no capital at all, not even a bank account. He is about to receive £15,000 from the local authority, due to having been illegally charged for residential care back in the '90s. He receives Income Support and Disability Living Allowance.

My understanding is that because his capital after the repayment will be between the lower savings limit (£6000) and the upper savings limit (£16,000), his IS will be reduced by £1 per week for every £250 in his account above £6000, i.e. £36 per week.

What I'm wondering is this: if my client were to spend most of his windfall rapidly on non-essential items, and then ask the DWP (or is it the Jobcentre now?) to start paying him full IS again on the basis that he only had £6000 left in the bank, would he be regarded as having deprived himself of capital?

Any advice on this would be very warmly welcomed.

Many thanks

Gareth

Wee_Willy_Harris

gmetford wrote: »

Hi all

I'm a social worker looking for a bit of advice on this subject so I can correctly advise a client.

My client currently has no capital at all, not even a bank account. He is about to receive £15,000 from the local authority, due to having been illegally charged for residential care back in the '90s. He receives Income Support and Disability Living Allowance.

My understanding is that because his capital after the repayment will be between the lower savings limit (£6000) and the upper savings limit (£16,000), his IS will be reduced by £1 per week for every £250 in his account above £6000, i.e. £36 per week.

What I'm wondering is this: if my client were to spend most of his windfall rapidly on non-essential items, and then ask the DWP (or is it the Jobcentre now?) to start paying him full IS again on the basis that he only had £6000 left in the bank, would he be regarded as having deprived himself of capital?

Any advice on this would be very warmly welcomed.

Many thanks

Gareth

Seek advice from the DWP. These kinds of payments are often disregarded for a period of time as the claimant should have had this money over a period of time and would likely, as a result, have spent it in the normal day to day way.