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.

@Gumreduction you haven't even read the opening post have you?!

Why? If she is entitled to benefits why shouldn't she claim them? She'd probably be better of on benefits than working factoring in childcare, free time plus all the satellite benefits and cost of living help she will get. If her husband looks for a better job he will be paying more tax as the budget has just outlined, when they can get 10% increase in benefits without having to do that. It's a no-brainer.

24k for a family of 4 with no benefit top is very low, just because yours is lower, doesn’t mean theirs isn’t low. However OP luckily has more than a years income in savings and can go back to work if she chooses.

This type of bitterness only affects your own mental health.

I've also done what the state considers the 'right thing'. I don't understand your mentality, it wouldn't occur to me to change my life in response to a couple of people.

Why not start dealing drugs instead? I hear that pays really well.

You are absolutely incorrect.

2 children under 5.
£24 income
The family would be entitled to at least £585

An elderly relative who has been careful all his life is now splashing out on a new tv, three mobility scooters (don't ask) and various other little luxuries. His wife has gone into a home, he is headed the same way, and resents paying for care.

Well yeah if they were earning £24. They earn more than us with two children of a similar age and a mortgage. We get £200ish. How would she get that amount?!?

I get 2 child allowance for DC with no additional needs and earn 24k and I definitely do not get less than £100. I don't want to share exact figures but excluding rent it's still a few hundred. No childcare costs.

If you blew it on a holiday - that would be deprivation of assets

paying off mortgage - in not world whatever would this be regarded by DWP / HMRC as deprivation of assets

No you are incorrect, no idea were you are getting your figures from but you are wrong. Even OP doesn’t think she’d be entitled to that much.

Exactly.

a lot of people spout nonsense.

going on one of the government benefit calculators if you insist on spouting that op would be entitled to less than £100

I still don't think it would be too much more than a couple of hundred though. Unfortunately us house owners get no help really!

I would.

It seems we are being squeezed and penalised for doing the ''right thing'' at the moment.

You have to look after yourself.

Go on the gov calculators

Really - two children under 5
on an income of £24k with no other income whatsoever.
it will be in excess of £575

I'm quite sure you can't claim UC with savings like yours. Why would you think you can? £24,000 isn't low enough either.

Leaving the benefits question aside, it makes no sense to have 30K in savings unless the interest rate is greater than your mortgage rate (which seems pretty unlikely). So I don't think it's immoral to pay money off the mortgage as you should have done this by now anyway.

But she wasn't referring to benefits claimants there was she? The lack of reading comprehension on MN never fails to astound me.

Surely the whole point of savings is so that you have some money in case something comes up or there are hard times and you have something to fall back on.

The poster probably didn’t even read the op

just saw one about benefits and presumed that it must be attacking her and so off she fires

I hope it’s counted as deprivation of assets and you’re turned down for benefits.

What a fucking tone deaf situation - £30k in savings and wanting fucking sympathy.

Unfortunately the cost of living crisis could not have been anticipated, so we are now having to dip into the savings. We weren't before

So you need to get a job. With two small children you probably will need to work around your partner's hours as childcare is so expensive. What did you do pre-kids?

www.uceplus.co.uk/deprivation

many people overpay their mortgage, they also wouldn't be considered to have deprived themselves of funding to gain access to benefits

Of course it won’t be
and rightfully so
not a holiday to Maldives
Securing housing for a family of four with rocketing inflation

and I fail to see the “sympathy” being requested.

a £24k income where I live in the SE for a family of 4 - would most definitely elicit sympathy in any event

Honestly they are really inaccurate. Anyway it is all semantics.

@Floomobal its not as its a debt