Savings limits - time for it to be upped?

Doing it on purpose would be considered fraud so no, they can't legally do that.

Why should car owners get more benefits than non-car owners?

How ridiculous. If you're on benefits how are you saving £16k?
Surely benefits are to support low incomes and people in need?
I get nothing handed to me and feel very resentful if government handouts are used as savings

Those with cash in the bank could have bought a car or jewelry couldn't they? We all know the deal.

Yes, but you can have a car worth 6k or expensive jewellery or anything else and that is not a problem.

"A rainy day. An unexpected job loss. An expected expense."

That's also what tax and social security are for.

"WTH people think they should be able to accrue more than that while taking from the state is beyond me."

Of course not WHILE on benefits. I don't see how that would be possible. The savings would be accrued while working and before losing their jobs.

That's that savings are for.

A rainy day. An unexpected job loss. An expected expense.

if you have no income coming in and 16k plus in savings, hurrah, you have saved for the rainy day, this is it. This is what your savings are for.

Not this bizarre entitled mentality where people think oh no, that's my money, my savings for things I want to spend them on, not actually paying my bills, the government via the taxpayer should do that.

16k is more than enough savings. Most low income working people not claiming benefits couldn't accrue those savings so WTH people think they should be able to accrue more than that while taking from the state is beyond me.

Bit misleading really because you don't actually get to have £16k. Anything over the first £6k is considered income and your benefits reduced.

"it's not a system where you put money in then withdraw it when you need to. As what is drawn is is often far in excess of the contributions."

Very often much less than the contributions too. People who never work are in a minority. Most people have worked at some point.

"Why are you banging on about benefits being something everyone paid in for and acting like it's some kind of savings scheme that you pay in for and then withdraw when you need to?"

Contribution-based job seekers allowance IS contributions-based. I thought this has been integrated into Universal Credit now, but maybe not.
It's definitely the case that people who were/are on contributions-based JSA had the same savings limit you're talking about whereas it was supposed to be contributions-based rather than income based.

It's necessary if you have no income coming in.

Universal credit has an upper savings limit of 16k with reduced benefits from 6k-16k savings.

It's not contributions based, there are few that are.

UC is the primary as in he most claimed for benefit in the UK and you can claim it out of work, never having worked, you can claim it aged 16.

Why are you banging on about benefits being something everyone paid in for and acting like it's some kind of savings scheme that you pay in for and then withdraw when you need to?

That's not how benefits work.

There are a few contributions based benefits but it's not a system where you put money in then withdraw it when you need to. As what is drawn is is often far in excess of the contributions.

And the most claimed means-benefit in the UK is UC which is not contributions based at all.

It's not a punishment. It's the terms of the contract. People are free to spend all their money if it is preferable.

When necessary. It’s not necessary if you have £16k + in the bank.

Have you don’t the maths for this? Taking the higher amount of £10 a month savings, that would take 133 years to save up £16000, not taking into account interest but that won’t bring it down by much.

Again. You have paid in to the system so that you can take out if ever necessary so yes, you should be entitled to the contribution based benefit.

Well, yes it is.

Totally agree with you about building more social housing @Soukmyfalafel .

In virtually every UC claim I see (and I see a lot!), the biggest single element is the housing costs. That money mainly goes to private landlords.

If it went to social landlords instead, not only would the "benefit bill" be significantly lower, but social housing is effectively cost neutral in the medium to long term. The rental income pays back the money "borrowed" to build the property, and once that's done, that income that could be used to improve housing stock or build more. It would be an investment, not a drain.

Average rent for a 3-bed house here is £2k a month. A friend pays £155 pw for her 3-bed council house.

No it shouldn't be increased.

Benefits should be to support people in need while they need it. If you can save over 16k, you can take a few months off claiming.

People on uc can put away 2660 a year into their pension with govt bonus and pension savings do not count
So if you have more than the limit put in your pension for the future
Look up stakeholder pensions
So you can have more than 16k if is locked in a pension

That's not true for families in high rent areas, especially if they're single parents.

Rent on a 2 or 3 bed home in my part of the SE is likely to be around £1400 (2 bed) or £2k (3 bed). A 3-bed house would eat up your entire net pay if you were on £38k, so someone on that salary with 2 or 3 children would easily qualify for UC. And it would only include £1500 or so for rent!

My single parent DIL works FT and gets UC, despite only having one child. She's not on NMW, either.

I think the limit is about right, but as the government have made clear their intention to slash welfare benefits, it’s not going to raised anyway. 🤷‍♀️

I'm just pointing out that this kind of saving, rightly, remains unaffected.

And you shouldn't need it when you have over £16k as you should be using your own personal means.

As it should be.

You come into a windfall, you should use this to live off.

Yes should be updated to £0 as thats what i can save working full time and know loads of people in this position, if you have 16k in your account why the need to be supported .