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.

The waiting time for appeals is now so long that a lot of my PIP clients end up with arrears payments of more than that. If they've still got more than £6k left after a year, they then have money deducted from their means tested benefits. I think that if you get, say 18 months-worth of arrears, it should all be disregarded for 18 months.

But I think the limits need changing, too. They've been the same since 1990. The BOE inflation calculator tells me that £16k in 1990 is equivalent to £38k now.

It isn't a punishment to spend your own money on your own living expenses.

No, because benefits are not charity. It's social security you pay into when in employment and should be able to take out when you need. At least contribution based benefits.

No, she's talking about benefits.

Being denied the benefits you've contributed towards is the punishment.

No it isn't.

As you can see there are plenty of people on here who earn and are not entitled to benefits who are struggling to save at all, and definitely not that much so no it would be quite unfair to increase the limit. I'm a teacher and I've worked since I was 21, a mix of ft and pt when kids were small. Now mid 40's and this is the first year my financial situation has led to me having more than £1000 in my savings. The only benefit I have ever received was cb before dh's salary rose above the threshold. 16k seems a lot to me.

It applies to almost all capital, not just savings. So an inheritance, compensation for an injury (unless you put it into a trust within a year) or wrongful dismissal, a property that you inherit and can't sell, a premium bond win, a life insurance payout, divorce settlement (although there's an exception if you're going to use it to buy a home).

And if you come into some money, and go on a mad spending spree, the DWP can treat you as though you still have it if they think you've done it to try and get/keep your benefits.

People on benefits saving might be very frugal. Even £5/£10 a month adds up eventually.

Well they'd have to be frugal and save £10 a month for 133 years for it to add up to £16k.

🙄

Yes should be updated to £0 as thats what i can save working full time and know loads of people in this position, if you have 16k in your account why the need to be supported .

As it should be.

You come into a windfall, you should use this to live off.

And you shouldn't need it when you have over £16k as you should be using your own personal means.

I'm just pointing out that this kind of saving, rightly, remains unaffected.

I think the limit is about right, but as the government have made clear their intention to slash welfare benefits, it’s not going to raised anyway. 🤷‍♀️

That's not true for families in high rent areas, especially if they're single parents.

Rent on a 2 or 3 bed home in my part of the SE is likely to be around £1400 (2 bed) or £2k (3 bed). A 3-bed house would eat up your entire net pay if you were on £38k, so someone on that salary with 2 or 3 children would easily qualify for UC. And it would only include £1500 or so for rent!

My single parent DIL works FT and gets UC, despite only having one child. She's not on NMW, either.

People on uc can put away 2660 a year into their pension with govt bonus and pension savings do not count
So if you have more than the limit put in your pension for the future
Look up stakeholder pensions
So you can have more than 16k if is locked in a pension

No it shouldn't be increased.

Benefits should be to support people in need while they need it. If you can save over 16k, you can take a few months off claiming.

Totally agree with you about building more social housing @Soukmyfalafel .

In virtually every UC claim I see (and I see a lot!), the biggest single element is the housing costs. That money mainly goes to private landlords.

If it went to social landlords instead, not only would the "benefit bill" be significantly lower, but social housing is effectively cost neutral in the medium to long term. The rental income pays back the money "borrowed" to build the property, and once that's done, that income that could be used to improve housing stock or build more. It would be an investment, not a drain.

Average rent for a 3-bed house here is £2k a month. A friend pays £155 pw for her 3-bed council house.

Well, yes it is.

Again. You have paid in to the system so that you can take out if ever necessary so yes, you should be entitled to the contribution based benefit.

Have you don’t the maths for this? Taking the higher amount of £10 a month savings, that would take 133 years to save up £16000, not taking into account interest but that won’t bring it down by much.

When necessary. It’s not necessary if you have £16k + in the bank.

It's not a punishment. It's the terms of the contract. People are free to spend all their money if it is preferable.