To ask how I can successfully ringfence this money? (Please don’t post for moral judgement)

[Jaalp]

I am a single parent to a 3 year old who will start school in the next two years. I have saved up a significant amount of money for schools fees. As a single parent I am constantly worried about job loss or anything else that could affect things. I am aware that if for some reason I was made redundant, for example, if I have more than a certain amount in savings then I would be expected to use this before claiming universal credit etc.

I have no intention of claiming universal credit but life happens and I have to be conscious of the potential things that could happen.

My question is, is there any way to put this money in an account for my child that would be protected as theirs and not counted in an assessment for universal credit etc should that ever happen?

Please don’t make this is a private school bashing thread or about playing the system etc. I’ve worked hard all my life and intend to continue to do so. Thanks.

Interesting, what is meant by a childcare cliff?

childcare cliff - those ones in £100k-£125k bracket not only pay 62% tax rate but can't get 30 hours free childcare, means they are actually worse off than those on less.

One of the reasons many people in this group (including GPs and consultants) reduce their hours

OP, by sending your DC to private school you won't be taking a state school place which you're entitled to and hence saving tax payer 7k pa. You will also pay about £4k pa in VAT on private school fees.

I suspect in hypothetical scenario of you needing UC the amount you'd receive won't be dramatically more than those £11k pa you'll be saving HMRC.

Good luck to you (in most sincere way)

Unfortunately, by claiming UC (£2000/month) and mortgage interest loan (£1000/month), she'd be a net cost to the taxpayer of the best part of thirty thousand pounds a year.

I never claimed UC and not familiar with the system but is this true?
Unemployed single mother with one child paying mortgage would get £36k pa? is this correct? with no disabilities involved?
It's equivalent of £45k gross.

Bloody hell! no wonder we have 23% of working age population being economically inactive.

£2000 on what planet???

I was made redundant last year (single parent) and received £1300pm TOTAL in UC and that included the housing element.

No, it's bollocks. I've been a claimant for 15 years. Never in my life received £2000 per month in benefits even was I was unemployed.

Doubt it.

I own my own home and lost all my self-employed work during Covid. I wasn't entitled to any Universal Credit at all because my boyfriend, not even husband, earned over £25k. Don't believe everything you read in the papers.

So this is £15.6k pa.

As I said in earlier post, by sending DC to private School @Jaalp will give HMRC £11k pa (£7k of state school place which she's entitled to but won't use and £4k VAT).

So her total cost to taxpayer would be £4.6k pa. This is after paying huge taxes for many years. Looks like a pretty good deal.

Yeah. We must be reading a different thread. 4 said no. One said maybe and one said she’d have to start a company and pay tax.

That’s not how our tax and welfare system works 😂 try explaining that one to DWP if you have too much money.

@Island2513

Of course it's not. I was trying to respond to those who piled on OP how immoral she is. If she puts her savings in trust for DC right now, she might well be able to exclude it from UC consideration, but I'm not an expert.

My point is that she's not more immoral than thousands of other able bodied people who leave of benefits for years and her actions/motives are direct outcome of our screwed system/ mentality when minority of high earners are expected to pay for everything (currently top 10% earners pay 60% of all taxes) but can't ask for anything back

But it makes her no better either just because she may be a high tax payer/saved a large sum. The able bodied people who live off benefit for years, unless they are committing actual fraud, are also doing so legally. It’s the moral superiority from OP and posters like yourselves that a lot of posters also take issue with when she’s literally no different to the people she’s looking down her nose at.

@nearlylovemyusername nowhere remotely near, unless she had high rent in London and a big chunk of that would be for rent as allowances much higher than rest of UK. However it's possible she could get close if was getting a large amount of child maintenance as that doesn't count towards UC - personally I think it should if it's proven to be consistent

nearlylovemyusername

... direct outcome of our screwed system/ mentality when minority of high earners are expected to pay for everything (currently top 10% earners pay 60% of all taxes) but can't ask for anything back

If they feel it's unfair they're absolutely welcome to go and get a minimum wage job so they can stop paying higher taxes.

Went on Entitled To, assumed she'd have Jobseekers, child element UC, Band E council Tax in Outer London, Mortgage interest loan of the maximum amount due to houses in outer London being expensive. Just under two grand for her and the child, just over a grand for the mortgage interest loan a month. Hence thirty six a year equivalent.

Didn't add a penny to it for maintenance, as although it might be taken into account for Council Tax, some areas don't do that and there's nothing saying she is going to receive anything at all.

I guess @NeverDropYourMooncup answered this in the post above. No need for min wage job, better to go on benefits.

Can tax payers ring fence their money. . Some can if they have clever accountants and off shore accounts. Don't blame them.

I find it offensive that you’re suggesting taking money from the taxpayer whilst hiding money for school fees for your child.

I’m a big supporter of private school, but not when you’re living off others!!

Well said. It appears that being a higher rate tax payer makes you so morally superior that if you need to claim UC, of course you should be able to put £200,000 in a trust and still claim benefits. You are certainly not like ordinary poor people on UC who are all scroungers and who are probably committing real benefit fraud.

Anyone who does this is immoral including the OP

Do people honestly imagine that you can decide tomorrow "right, I'm going to live off benefits" and they'll instantly get handed a cash sum?

You can't just give up a job and start claiming benefits - the circumstances in which you left the job will be investigated. You can't just claim to be ill or disabled - you will face a battery of investigations, often very distressing. If you're receiving unemployment benefit you'll face similar and likely face sanctions for having missed an appointment you had five minutes notice of or similar.

And at the end of all that you'll get a weekly sum which might just see you fed if you're very lucky.