Can I do this and claim benefits or not?

Yep. Friend living in her very equity rich house and entitled to full benefits. Also gets a decent pension which is exempt from consideration because it’s an army pension from her violent ex who died young (and no, he didn’t die in active service)

JSA is about £92 per week, per adult over 25

That needs to pay all that persons food, bills, transport, everything

Job seekers allowance is not means tested, so yes you can. Universal credit is means tested so you can't claim that

UC isn’t going to cover running a home. If you've got the sort of home that needs "running" perhaps not, however otherwise it's manageable.

If a person is made redundant they can claim "contributions based job seekers allowance" for a certain time period without means testing.

You may also be eligible for council tax discount, but would need to apply separately

DWP does not pay mortgages

DWP can pay mortgage interest only in some circumstances (loan)

Once a certain time occurs, means testing happens

I believe that you can take out insurance to help pay a mortgage

Life insurance
Critical illness/health insurance
Loss of earnings insurance

However, if you have enough savings to pay off your mortgage, what are you waiting for ?
Pay off your mortgage

Because it’s cheaper probably that having to pay the housing aspect

Yes you can claim JSA. It’s not a lot though.

UC isn’t going to cover running a home.
You also need to demonstrate you’re looking for work.

There is a very strong possibility I will be made redundant in the next 6 months and the redundancy payment would clear my mortgage
Leaving me with savings of less than £5k
I’m hoping to get another job fairly soon after this happens but would not need to earn as much if I was mortgage free
If I’m jobless for a few months was hoping to get JSA in the interim
Is this viable? I’m 61 and have worked since I was 16

Maybe several cups first then!!

Yes you can.

For those who naively think housing benefit/UC actually covers rent...no it doesn't. It's set at the bottom third of the market and there's an overall benefit cap.

For me renting a cheap property in my area once I ran down my savings to under £16k (saved for a deposit), and after paying rent I would only have a couple of hundred for bills and all food - or not enough to meet essentials.

It's one of the reasons so many need food banks.

Yes you can. Just not the housing benefit portion.

Incorrect. You’re allowed to pay off debts with your savings, a mortgage is a debt. I only found this out after I did 6 months living off my savings while on mat leave - wish I’d put my savings into my mortgage and claimed uc instead!

Yes you can.
From the government website:

Reducing your money, savings and investments on purpose
You have not knowingly reduced your money, savings and investments if it has been used to:

• pay off or reduce a debt
• pay for goods and services that were reasonable in your circumstances.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-money-savings-and-investments

i don’t think it’s deprivation of sssets IF it goes towards paying debt. (I would ring citizens advice and confirm, but I’m fairly certain)

Under UC yes you can. You are allowed to pay off debts you owe, including a mortgage. You will need evidence. I think it's a fair rule as you can't claim housing element for a mortgage l.

No. It costs the state more than the old system.

Previously anyone mortgaged who received a lump sum had to keep to their normal spending including paying mortgage until they returned to work or capital dropped under £16000. This happened a lot.

In practice many younger people wouldn't have gone on means tested benefits as they would have run down savings, job hunted and got a new job with i.e. a redundancy payout.

There are also various indirect effects. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me the Torys secretly made benefits better for homeowners...but disappointing to find out Friday evening. TTfN.

As others have posted, uou would be paying off a debt to keep a roof over your head. This will save the state providing you with housing benefit.

Having checked this @Lougle is correct and I was wrong. Under the new Universal Credit system the OP would be able to reduce her savings to under £6000/£16000 by paying down her mortgage and claim Universal Credit.

So Universal Credit quietly favours people with mortgages and homeowners over renters.

If you rent, are trying to save say for a mortgage or whatever and you have over £16000 even in a LISA you can't get UC, but if you have a mortgage you can just pay it down and qualify.

In the UK system, unlike others there is no absolute capital limit for owning a home and claiming benefits.

I wonder if this also one reason why many more over 50s are leaving the job market permanently.

Get made redundant, pay off remainder mortgage with lump sum and claim benefits. They wouldn't have been able to do that before. If you claim PIP even get a nice new Motability car...

You can totally claim job seekers for 6 months as its not means tested and pay down your mortgage though it is recommended you have 6 months expenses saved as a cushion too

Is this a fishing expedition for a 'brilliant' idea to seize the houses of anybody who becomes eligible for universal or pension guarantee credit?

The latter would bring in a fair few bob, granted, assuming that the care home fees had been recouped first (which as per the Care Act passed in 2014, has been quite advantageous for private equity firms). But they'd probably need to concentrate on the families/women receiving benefits to sneak it through the usual 'Labour want these people to receive your tax money and hold onto their assets without paying it back, we'll make sure they pay their way if you vote for us' spiel before extending it to benefits paid to pensioners - where the real money can be made.

The rules are you may pay off debt that becomes due. The mortgage debt will not crystallize until the end of the mortgage term. So what this means is if you are at the end of your 25/20/15 year term and still have mortgage outstanding for whatever reason, this is not deprivation of capital.
If you are not at the end of the term, then paying off a chunk of the capital owing will be likely to result in a finding of deprivation of capital. It very much depends on the reason for doing so. This applies to those below state pensionable age. The rules are looser for them and slightly different.

1. I doubt your mortgage provider would let you over pay that much at once 2)if you're deliberately spending to go under the capital limit to claim benefits they would most likely see that as deprivation of capital

@Yapppp it impacts me as a taxpayer who would be paying these benefits yes.

Because she is trying to maximise her profits at our expense.

I.e. saying "seems pointless saving if I don’t get the same access to benefits as the next person".