Universal credit and saving for a house deposit

[Musereader]

I am a single parent with one child, i could not cope without tax credits as my rent, council tax and childcare costs are more than my montly wage so i rely on the tc to cover the bills and food.

I do work in national goverment on the lowest rung in a call centre and have been looking through the releases we get and i am horrified to find out that you cannot claim UC if you have more than £16k in savings. Between £16k and £6k in savings does mean a reduction in UC. This is not the case in tc

A house in my area ranges from £150 to 200k so a 10% deposit is £15k minimum.

Basically as soon as i save any amount of money that looks like a reasonable deposit i have to use savings to pay childcare because my UC would reduce.

So aibu to hope that the goverment does do a uturn on UC roll out which may mean that i never have to go on UC and be subject to these silly savings rules

Zombie thread.

But it's wrong to be saving to buy a house when on benefits. That's not the point of them. It's to help you on your feet so you can eventually work more so you hopefully don't need them. You have a right to housing, but it doesn't need to be owned. Think we need to actually make some laws that landlords can't charge above mortgage value for the house. That would help a lot of people out.

I think we are missing the point here - in the UK today you can work full time and not earn enough to support yourself

The problem is low wages and high rents - not benefits.

Noone working fulltime should need top ups from the state for any reason and then be restrained by rules.

We could run our economy differently - we really could.

I think YABU.
I work 40+ hours a week, DH is almost retired and he does around 30.
We have about £1k in savings.
We are very lucky to have bought our first house 30 odd years ago and consequently had a good amount for a deposit for this one.
I honestly don’t think we would have been able to afford it without but certainly would not have expected to be able to claim any benefit and be able to save out of what was awarded.

YANBU

I tried to claim because I was banned from working due to lockdown.

I fell through the cracks of covid-specific support - no furlough, no SEISS.

Then the cunts denied me UC because I've been saving up for a house deposit.

If I'd managed to save more and had bought a house I would have received UC as all my savings would've been spent on the house.

If I'd spent all my money down the pub, or on foreign holidays, I'd have received UC.

It's a way to punish those who are financially responsible and then fall on hard times through no fault of their own.

Oh - and my landlord got a mortgage holiday and still demanded rent in full from me - totally legal.

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

and i am horrified to find out that you cannot claim UC if you have more than £16k in savings

Really? I’m horrified it’s so high. People should use their savings before claiming. Welfare was meant to be a safety net not a choice.

If people can save for a house deposit whilst claiming then benefits are obviously far too generous.

But why should two people in the same situation get different amounts of benefits (or not at all) because one saves and one spends? It's absolutely wrong that there's a savings cap.

We have had this before if the tax payer is helping you save for a deposit for a house surely they should do the same for everyone. UC is to help people who have nothing.