Can I use my savings to pay off some of my mortgage, and then claim benefits?

[BzzzzzOff]

Well aware that I'm about to get flamed for this, but I am fed up with being penalised for being responsible with my money.

DH and I have £30k in savings, which was intended to go towards our next house when the DC start school and I go back to work. Currently I am a SAHM with two toddlers, and DH is on a low income (£24k). We just about manage without needing to dip into our savings, but from next year they will start depleting pretty rapidly as our energy fix comes to an end.

I know how lucky we are to have plenty of savings, but I am really upset that if we'd been reckless and bought the bigger house before having children then we could be on benefits now and receiving all this extra help. As it is, we'll probably never be able upsize as our savings will be gone.

So, I think I'm going to stick £25k onto our mortgage, keeping £5k in the bank, and start claiming Universal Credit. Could this be considered deprivation of assets? Frankly don't care if this is "immoral", I am just wondering how careful I need to be in order to protect the savings I worked so hard for.

if you did it just prior to claiming UC then it probably would be seen as deprivation of capital. But cars are a 'necessity' so I'm not sure how successful DWP would be at proving it!

So I'm struggling beyond belief but I'll be paying towards your benefits because you intend to commit fraud. Absolutely beyond morally corrupt. I have no problem with genuine need for benefits but this isn't it. This disgusts me.

she’s forced to use her savings which isn’t fair.

But it's fair for the hard working tax payer to pay for her lifestyle choices?

I think not.

It's not the government bailing her out. It's you, It's me, it's people struggling with their heating bills.

I read it the same.

@Dinoteeth

on a personal level I can see why that's tough, but honestly, why should be benefits be handed out to people who have got money & just don't want to use it on daily living?

www.uceplus.co.uk/deprivation

Not sure how reliable this is but it says you are allowed to pay off debts and I would have thought a mortgage was a debt? Deprivation of assets/capital is when you transfer, give away, gamble money, assets etc in a deliberate effort to conceal? Be very interested to know the outcome.

@BzzzzzOff Savings are for a rainy day or anything else you might need.

You sound grabby and totally without a conscience.
Benefits are for people who are genuinely struggling.
Not for people intent on defrauding the system and getting rid of their savings , or hiding them, to beat the rules.

I don't know how you can even consider this and expect people to say it's fine.

At the very least look into offset mortgages so you're not paying more interest than you need?

Calm down, I wondered how long it would take before the woe betide me, and you’re talking insulting people like me who truly née benefits posts.

Your sensitivity and insecurity is not her problem and she is right the middle class continue to be squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.

But she didn't, so it's a moot point. Instead she wants to manipulate the system for her own financial gain.

It will be deprivation of capital, they will check and you will be 25k down with no Universal Credit as well.

www.entitledto.co.uk/help/deprivation-of-savings-and-other-capital-universal-credit

No judgement just Don't do it!

You won't get much you won't be able to save you might get help with childcare costs if you return to work but your savings will suffer you can have 6k before deduction and 16k total before you lose it totally personally I would try and get a job opposite shifts and work through it

@GoonerGirl5231 but if she’d paid her mortgage off with it 3 years ago, she would now be able to claim and therefore be better off.

If she'd paid her mortgage off, she'd have £100s each month more to live on and would not be able to claim anything!

@Herejustforthisone

i think the tone is 'resentful' rather than spiteful.

and I understand.

On that incredibly low family income salary, you would be entitled to a very substantial amount of UC with two children under 5.

however because you have savings more than £16 (tapered from £6-£16k), you Have presumably declared your savings and receive zero in benefits?

if you have over £16k in the bank you won't get anything...

And as for thinking you are lucky? Well, no not really. Your partner is on an incredibly low income to be only provider for 4 people and if you have declared to DWP - the you will receive zero in benefits aside from CB.

so you must live hand to mouth pretty much

so firmly not in the “resentful” or “jealous” camp

No. She wouldn't be. Even if she had no savings I suspect she would be entitled to less than £100 unless the children have disabilities. They don't help with the mortgage.

I’m on universal credit OP and living in poverty. And for you to say 24k is a low income is frankly insulting to people on UC living off £340 a month

Exactly.

so… the op has either not declared and receiving substantial UC

or she is receiving zero and a family of 4 surviving on just an income of £24k a year

heads up op… if you have not declared and you are receiving benefits fraudulently, paying off a substantial part of your mortgage and / or notification from bank to Hmrc of substantial savings in excess of £16k will trigger a compliance call, so brace yourself

detail.
detail.

this is a family of 4

I’m in SE and £24k entirely supporting a family of 4…. Would be incredibly low. Not insulting. Fact.

@Gumreduction - don’t let your facts get in the way of people’s blind outrage.