Savings limits - time for it to be upped?

[Goose38]

Just wondering if anyone knows if there’s any plans for the savings limit to be upped .
I think it’s crazy it’s been capped at 16k for so many years, this needs updating.
How is anyone meant to improve their lives with such a low limit . If anyone knows of any government petitions etc would be grateful.

This.
The problem with putting a blanket 16k limit on savings is that you're then removing the option for people to ever own and get off of benefits and continuously feeding the high private rentals.

No, spend your own money instead of raiding tax payers’ pockets please!

The entitlement is off the charts these days… do people have no pride anymore?!

I doubt people claiming UC are going to be approved for a mortgage.

Surely if you're on a low enough income to receive benefits property ownership isnt achievable?

@BalletCat you don't have to be a very low earner to claim UC.

This happened to me fairly recently - I was private renting and was saving for a deposit, I did have about 45k in savings but I've literally been in work since I was 14 and I'm very frugal with money. When I got made redundant, I could only claim contribution based JSA meanwhile I have friends who don't work and get UC and housing benefit - they are still unemployed.

You had 45k in savings though, so you don't need UC, that's what savings are for. Once below 16k you can claim UC

Unbelievable that you had that money in the bank and think other hard working people should pay for your living costs!! Outrageous!!

The nation needs to get a fucking grip. This is why I resent paying taxes.

How about the people who don't have savings stop buying the latest phones and stop shopping at Waitrose? Or even stop buying unnecessary luxury food? Start cooking from scratch, look for deals?

How can some people on minimum wage have savings and others on £60k can't?

It's high rents that cause people to need to claim benefits not necessarily low wages. And in some ways yes, the lower the income the more of a deposit you need. It's a vicious circle. I absolutely don't think you should be sitting on 16k and claiming, but I do think we need to help people find a way out, otherwise the problem of high numbers of benefits claimants (working in most cases) is only going to get worse as rents continue to increase. We need people to do the low wage jobs, as covid proved. We have to make life livable for them otherwise we will end up in a situation where people just cannot afford to work them. And then who's going to clean our hospitals and care for our old people. It affects everyone in some way eventually.

@Shittyhouse what are you even on about? Who's shopping in Waitrose? How do you no people aren't looking for deals? Why did you even quote me? The person I was talking to didn't have a job at all.

Agreed!
Someone upthread said it would take them years to save anywhere near 16k and they were on 60k a year!

It's because people are utterly crap with money. Also the 'keeping up with the Jones' attitude.

Anyway, what is the point in saving money these days.
When you are in a care home they will force you to sell your hard earned family home (children's inheritance) to pay the £1,500 a week but Mrs whole life on Benefits in the room next door gets it all for free!

Who are these people you speak of? Do you know them? And the actual ins and outs of their finances? Or are you reading too much of the daily mail and making assumptions? Maybe they were given a phone? Maybe they shop at waitress because it's their local shop and they can't afford to run a car to go to the cheaper shops? What deals? Do you know how much basic food costs when you don't have a choice on where you go? How do you know they can afford the gas/electricity to cook from scratch and aren't using ready meals done in the microwave instead? What makes you think they have time and/or energy to cook from scratch every day or batch cook if they're working a low paid manual job? Ironically lots of things can be done cheaper when you have money!

Everyone should be encouraged to save if they can. What if a homeowner needs a new roof or a new boiler and they have virtually no savings because the limit is so low. What if they need to pay for a funeral or their relationship breaks down and they need a deposit on a rental?

It’s not generally that people have saved while on UC but that when they come to claim they are not entitled as they have skimped and saved. It’s probably best to just spend your money and enjoy it. A large amount of people receiving UC are working.
Savings can also be, for example, where a parent has died and left a fairly small amount of life insurance, the widow would not be eligible for UC but someone divorced receiving a large amount in child maintenance would.

It has to be a wind up.
It's definitely bringing out the mean spirited posters. Sound either jealous or they are right wing Tories of the Liz Truss or Keli Badenoch mould.
If you think people on UC shouldn't be allowed to have savings up to £16k, then why can people claim child benefit on salaries up to £80, and they could be a 2 income household?
Talk about kicking people when they are poor.

Many people on UC are working.

But how can people save for a house deposit with hardly any savings allowance? An average house is 300k ish - minimum 30k deposit. More in a lot of places.

A lot of it is people who get a small windfall of some sort - inheritance or divorce funds but if it isn’t enough for a house deposit right then. If they could add to it to build it up it would mean they’d eventually own their own home. Trapping people on low incomes helps no one.
similarly I think it’s ridiculous that we pay rent not mortgage costs - if we pay the mortgage they’ll eventually own their property and the payments by the state would stop. If we pay the rent, eventually a rich landlord’s mortgage will be paid off, the uc claimant will still own nothing and the state will be responsible for them/ their care into old age. It’s such a short sighted system

@FedupMum2024
Care home costs are not free for those who don't have savings or property to sell. They have to pay all their state pension apart from an allowance of about £25pw they keep for clothes, toiletries, newspapers etc.
I wish people would get their facts right when they are slagging off poorer people.
All this jealousy and envy makes me sick.🤢

But the if the state paid housing benefit to pay the mortgage then the government is buying property for people, that's why housing benefit isn't given to homeowners.

^^
Well said. A bit of common sense at last on this thread.
If we can support people on low incomes to be able to buy their own home it will save the state in the long run because taxpayers won't be paying housing benefit to pensioners if they have managed to buy their own home. If someone is renting until they the tax payer is paying HB until the person dies.
We should be encouraging saving.
It is recommended everyone has 3-6 months of expenditure as savings.

I think the logical answer is that you should be allowed to save in a government backed deposit scheme on the proviso that you are not entitled to withdraw the funds for anything other than a house deposit. This would enable savings for this purpose but retain the cap of 16k for people who own property already.

I mean I've paid tax other than those 6 weeks I was unemployed - how am I not hard working? My company went into administration - I don't think that was my fault? Admittedly I had saved too much but it was still a kick in the teeth when I lose over a grand in a tax a month into a system I couldn't claim from

jsa is £71 a week, £90.50. if over 25. Hardly bankrupting compared to the vast amounts we shell out on other crap. up to 6 months max of less than £100 a week to help someone to get a good job they are actively suited for and usually better paid = a lifetime's worth of higher tax and pension contributions, if graduates student loan repayments that would otherwise go unpaid = overall less dependence on the state. Apart from the moral benefit that we should be encouraging people to try and save money and support themselves long term, not punishing them for it.

Other countries don't do this one-size-fits-all punitive system. Germany, for example, pays unemployment benefit at a percentage (60% I believe) of your last job if you've been in work for a set period = actually rewarding people who work hard, save money, and are actively looking for another job, rather than playing the game with occasional short term part time work and coming on and off benefits.

I think it might depend on where you live, if you live in London, rent a property and have all bills, rent
and food etc….esp if single, 16 k is not lasting that long!

also if you have saved the 16k and above you are, most likely but not in all cases, a higher tax payer - why then shouldn’t you benefit? Isn’t that the point of a welfare state?

Fuck that! Why should I be penalised for not claiming UC?!