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

If you are able to save £400 of the £900 (tc and cb) then it could be argued that you don't need £900 worth of benefits. Can you not see what people are saying? If you ignore child benefit the government is giving the tc to you as it has ascertained that together with your income that is what you need to live on from month to month, not to live on and build up savings.

There are many people who get no benefits (and those who do) who cannot afford to save £400 per month.

I appreciate it is a catch 22 and that if you had a mortgage then you'd probably being less on that than rent but can you not see how you are rubbing people's noses in it by taking money from a welfare system to build up a high savings amount.

It just makes a mockery of the welfare system and further enforces the stereotype of those on benefits being able to have sky tv, the latest phones etc (or as in your case save £400 a month)!

Apologies for the rogue apostrophe there!

I also agree £400 a months sounds like an awful lot, i was on about 50-100 max and saving for 5 or 6 years. But i dont think the point was the money i think the ppint was regardless of if its £1 or £1000 you cant do it.

This is a shocking thread, I can't believe anyone thinks it's right to pay benefits to someone able to save £400 per month

I agree. The only time I have ever been able to save £400 a month is when I was working full time on a salary in excess of £35k.

Bufferingkisses, I admire your thinking, however surely the whole point of the benefits system is to ensure people in need are supported by the state, which in turn is funded by the tax paying masses.
Whilst I do not object at all in being one of those tax payers, and consider myself to be quite lucky, I don't earn enough to save very much each month and neither do I earn too little to qualify for any support. I'd probably be quite pissed off if I thought that someone was able to claim support at the same time be able to save for a house.
You can't justify it by saying you're spending the credits in food and childcare, and saving from your salary. That's just rubbish. There are ways of saving e.g. An isa where you get money paid by the government towards your deposit, this may be a more reasonable way of getting some savings under your belt?

My understanding is that there has always been a limit of savings. As in if you have more than X saved you cannot claim benefits. This was in the 80’s when a friend worked in what was the DSS Office.

Yes Bell except tax credits Have only been BENEFITS for the last five years or so.
Before that they were also extra money for the middle classes on 50k 60k 70k.

Hedgehog ahh yes I see how that would make sense, especially as it would be a nice way to shift the focus off of how badly people are actually suffering due to the UC rollout - "look at me, I'm annoyed that it's possible for me to save £400 a month for a house deposit which lots of people not on UC can't even afford"

Sorry OP if you're genuine but it does seem a bit odd. I know however from my own circumstances on TC though that we are not terribly badly off and can afford to be comfortable enough to have all our expenses met. Meh, who knows.

Actually, reading this I think it's a wind-up/journo

Agreed. You lost me at ‘hobby’.

but those against op is it ok that some do the minimum hrs so instead of working more work the bare min to get the money that if they had upped them now comes out of the public purse

there are faults in all systems

Have people really forgotten 2004 so quickly. Families owning a detached £200k house receiving tax credits.

Tax credits have always been benefits, they've just changed the entitlement threshold over the years. Nothing to do with class, teachers and nurses claim TCs.

Its not easy saving that 400 as that does not allow more than 80 for food, no clothes no toys no taking dd to farms or soft play or swimming cutting out mobile and tv, no holidays of any kind ever all the things that some people see as luxuries and are convinced that if people just cut that out they can afford a house in no time at all. no money for unexpected expenses, broken washing machine etc. at my normal spending level i manage only 100 for savings, was just trying to cut out all the fat and save the max for a house for dd

Do the rules include cash in an ISA?

Also, do you have savings already? If not save what you can to get your savings to £15k. After that take a look at how much you need over that amount. You need a cushion anyway. If you have minimal savings now once you have saved up £15k the rules will have changed anyway.

This sounds like utter dross. There has been a £16k limit for a while. But GFers love to start a bashing thread.

Have people really forgotten 2004 so quickly. Families owning a detached £200k house receiving tax credits

Eh i own a detached house worth more and recieve CTC,what do you mean by that??

You could look into shared ownership or rent-to-save schemes in your area, e.g.
www.helptobuyese.org.uk/help-to-buy/rent-to-buy

So your DD doesn't get to go swimming, go to soft play, go away etc but you spend £200 on your hobby?

Alright then.

I wish I had spare cash to save - I live month to month, have no way of saving up for a deposit so am stuck in the rental trap. But then I work FT and don't claim benefits. I guess I'm in the wrong career... I can't believe there are people on benefits complaining they can't save for a deposit! Unreal...

Tax credits have never had a savings limit. The only proviso was that savings interest or investment interest was less than 16k per year. This would mean a person could quite legally claim tax credits with around 300k savings.

I kind of get your point and I think there is no incentive for people to save.

I was amazed how generous tax credits were when I became a single parent and it is possible to have a lot in savings and still claim as you only declare the interest and don't include Isas anyway. I had a lot in savings (sold my house) but because some of my money was in isas, the interest was under £300. Spent it now mind.

At heart I do believe that benefits are only for periods when people are really struggling and they should not be aimed at people who can save £400 a month.

Well if you can afford to save that amount then I don't see why you would need UC in the first place.

Although I see the point of bettering yourself, I do find it confusing that as a family of four who are not entitled to any help at all, we don’t have anything left over a month to save, we live frugally and don’t have a lavish lifestyle, yet to hear someone could potentially save £16000+ whist they are claiming help from the government doesn’t seem fair?

I think there's a different issue here, one that leaves me feeling pretty torn on the subject.

I don't think that the benefits system should be any more than a safety net to stop situations where people would end up in terrible circumstances. But I also don't think that saving should be vilified as the system seems to.

I don't think that someone who has been reserved and carefully saved should be treated worse than someone who frittered their money away. Clearly that's not quite the case here, but then the OP wanting to save isn't the issue, it's the level of benefits being given that's the issue.

large purchases eg ipad £600, 5 years ago 50cc petrol scooter £1k 4 years ago(stolen and destroyed while on mat leave) large display units for my hobby/collection £300, several expensive rare units in my collection from £80 to £300 all paid for by earnings pre dd thus pre benefit.

It is literally only last month that i have been back at work and not spent a penny on anything frivolous because i didnt have the money and come payday end of september find i had £400 spare so was considering starting the long slog save to a deposit, but i may as well spend that on stuff for dd as no point in trying