To wonder why the UC savings threshold is £6,000?

Why if you are a pensioner can you only have £12,570 a year to live on? Works out less than minimum wage if you were working 37 hours a week if you have more you get taxed on it after working 50 years not on benefits it seems unfair. If you have £6000 plus saved you are not poor most people can barely save anything with the cost of living as it is. If you are on benefits as a pensioner you get more help but if you aren’t you loose out. Seems to me working all your life doing the right thing you are worse off all round.

Me too.

Especially since I have a disabled child. Apparently I should be rolling in it.

My redundancy is probably our last chance to have anything approaching significant savings as our ability to earn has been significantly reduced by DS being autistic.

Our last lot of savings (largely from a mis-sold PPI payout) was used to fix our very leaky roof and replace our ancient boiler, that pretty much wiped us out.

People should be encouraged to save. The savings limits need to be increased, of course not everyone will be able to save, whether working or not, but people should be allowed to save enough to cover a number of common crises.

And we've never claimed UC even when we could have because pre roof & boiler the amount was too low to bother with the admin due to DH's varying wages. Post that I knew I was being made redundant and that we would only be able to claim for nine months before our savings were too high and the problem of DH's pay was still there - I was genuinely anxious about us ending up owing money when we were about to have a sharp drop in income.

It was 6k in 2006. I think it’s odd that 20 years later it’s still 6k.

I agree not a lot for people in your situation who cannot work. Will be even less generous now that the LCWRA has halved for new claimants. I honestly don't know how sick single people will survive unless they also qualify for PIP. It's a massive worry.

I agree. How else can they save for a house an not pay rent and in the long run save uc thousands every month

some people spend it on drink /cigs/drugs/takeaways v someone saving £50 a week for example

they both ‘use’ the money but for different things

£6k isn’t a lot. Yes I know the max is £16k but people trying to save so can have money for a car /washing machine /boiler or whatever without using high interest credit

This isn’t necessarily true, if you are renting with children and both parents working, benefits could be very generous. But so they should be - the government gives no shits about the huge levels of inflation year on year with no wage rises to match. It’s an impossible situation for many.

To everyone hating on those on benefits, it’s a minuscule bit of money every month in comparison to the thousand and thousands of pounds all my wealthy clients are desperate to get out of paying tax on. We’re talking people with tens of millions in the bank. Let’s not even talk about the billion dollar corporations!

Let the little people save up for a house or a fucking holiday for goodness sake.

Tell me what then, because I must be doing benefits wrong.

Not true, benefits are very generous in the right circumstances

Yes, c’est la vie.

How many people actually get adaptations though? The majority of new applications are for mental or non-physical conditions. This outdated image of most disabled people being very physically restricted and vulnerable just isn’t the true picture any more.

You’re all so ignorant to the actual

I get £1100 a month because I also work

£650 rent
and then the adult rate

and a child rate can’t remember what they specifically are but I only earn £800 from work so I have £1900 to pay for my car bills as such as petrol tax and insurance and repairs , my rent, my food bill, my daughters dance bill, full council tax with the 25% discount, childcare and all the things like gas electric nothing much more than that but apparently it’s a fortune and we all earn thousands that make us rich on UC have a day off!

I suppose that’s one way of avoiding the maths

Thanks - I knew it had never been increased but it now seems incredibly low.
I'm thinking its not much of a cushion for anything, my Dad used to joke it was enough to bury you, but ... its very low.

Should be set at zero IMO. Many who hold down jobs who dont qualify for UC dont have savings either.

Just in case... Might be worth checking if your local council runs a rent/deposit scheme. Some do but ime do not like to publicise it!

I know. I typed out half my reply before looking at the username so thought I might as well finish before I give any further engagement a miss!

We rent and work and are on UC.

If we get evicted by our landlord, we need around £5.5k to move (deposit, first month's rent, moving costs).

We don't currently have £5.5k or anything near that but I'm hoping to get there over the next year as we're under threat of another eviction (landlord may sell) after only having moved recently (landlord sold). If we couldn't have any savings or the ability to save a bit while on UC, how would we find somewhere new to live? If having around that level of savings meant we couldn't get UC, we would then have to use those savings to pay rent/bills... and then would once again have no money with which to find a new flat.

You really have no idea. My friend just took her LA to tribunal to get a space at a SEN school for her DD. It has cost her thousands of pounds in solicitors fees. She is highly qualified but cannot work full time because at the moment her DD is only managing 2 hours a day in a mainstream school. Even when she starts at her new SEN school my friend will not be able to work full time because wraparound and holiday care is not an option for her DD. Her DD may need care as an adult too so my friend may never work full time again. Her DD won’t cope with the long journey to the school from where they are living now so they are moving to be closer - more money needed for moving costs. Yet some people resent her claiming DLA.

There are more costs to disability than just going to the odd appointment. People should actually listen to those needing disability benefits rather than making sweeping statements about how ridiculous they are.

Do not engage with that poster. They hate people on benefits.

And there's the problem.
If someone can't replace a secondhand car, how do they get to work? Especially if rural.

“A fortune in benefits”

I’d laugh if this wasn’t such a stupid and destructive thing to say.

The vast majority of those claiming UC are working, minimum wage isn’t enough to live on, so even those working full time qualify for some UC to make sure they can pay their rent and feed, clothe themselves and pay utilities. Everyone gets caught out with an unexpected expense sometimes, either a fridge/freezer or washing machine needs replacing, or the car that you need to get to work. If you have no savings how can you replace/repair these things? £6k isn’t much, and those who manage to save anything whilst on UC are budgeting every penny and living frugally. No one deserves to live in poverty, and in fear of not being able to afford to fix their car or replace their fridge.

Benefits are very carefully worked out to ensure that costs are met and no more than that. So no, they aren't ridiculous. They're part of a system, one which is not generous, that provides what is needed to live on.

But I know your views and in your fevered fantasy world, provision of £5 a week and a bowl of gruel would be an adequate sufficiency. To you, benefits claimants need to be punished.

How is that relevant?

It doesn't pay for a great many needed items, treatments, adaptations.