Housing benefit savings, Any help ? Feel sick

[Yazzy23]

I live with my son and his partner and their young daughter who is 1.

They are due to leave the UK to study abroad soon and have been saving up, He has managed to save about £10,000, I never knew it was this much and that he had to declare it to the council. I thought it was only my savings, he is a part time student and claims no benefits or student loans. He is registered as a non dependant.

They want to know more information about his savings and I was wondering what could the penalty be ?

I never knew He had to declare anything and I never knew it was this much. I cant sleep with the worrying.

thank you

Are you the tenant? Does the council already make a deduction from your housing benefit because you have a non dependent (your son) living with you?

Deductions for non dependents are usually assessed on income and not capital, although if he receives an income from capital this would count.

I am the Tennant, I dont know if they deduct anything at the moment but he is listed as a non dependant, He has not earned any interest on the savings at all.

Phone citizens advice as soon as you can. If you look at their website you will see that £10k is not enough to stop HB, only reduce it. You need £16k to stop it. I don't know how the rules work when the person with the money is not the person with the tenancy in their name.

Thank you, I plan to ring them ASAP, I am just panicking at the moment.

Hi,

So to clarify, you are the tenant and the HB claim is in your name?

Are the savings in your son or his PT's bank account? Or in yours? If yours, why is this?

If the £10k is in their accounts, then you have very little to worry about, as a PP said, there is a non dependent deduction made (reducing your HB entitlement), based on your son and his PT's income.

Hi

The claim is in my name and the savings is my sons name, I struggle every month to get through as i work part time.

I know their listed as non dependants but i dont think they get a reduction in my housing benefit.

Thank you everyone so much for helping , i truly appreciate it

Hi I'm a benefit assessor for housing benefit and council tax support, non dependent deductions are based entirely on gross income (or gross income the government says they should have). If you post the wording of the letter I could help further, they might just be wondering how the non dependant supports themselves

They just sent a letter saying that there doing a housing and council tax review.

on the back on the form it says changes you must tell us about, I never told them about my sons savings because I never knew and he though it would not effect the housing benefit because it never effected the tax credits.

I am scared to call them up and say he had savings as it will look like I was hiding it

Yazzy you don't have to be scared, as I said above all that's taken into account is your sons income. We don't need to know about non dep savings because they aren't taken into account.

If it was your savings housing benefit would be reduced by £1 for every 250 you have over 600. If it's your tenancy and they are non dependants I'm not too sure how it works. There is a percentage reduction from your hb depending on his income.

6000 not 600

I just checked there is a £0 reduction for them, I just dont want them to think I have been hiding it, Ill try to go down there tomorrow to speak to them.

He studies 40 hours a week part time and only gets 60.07 child benefit

Do you receive DLA Care or the daily living rate of PIP?

no dla care of pip

Just work 20 hours a week and housing benefit

I'm trying to work out why you have no non rep deduction (this is my job as well). Are they both students at the moment?

Yep both students

one is part time

one is full time

Hi Yazzy,

Non dep deductions are based on the circumstances of both the claimant and or non dependant.

Example: if you were over 65, or were in receipt of some disability benefits you'd be exempt. This doesn't apply to you based on what you've said.

You have two non dependants , one is a FT student- so again exempt from any non dep deduction.

However, you do have a non dep who is a part time student. There should have been the minimum non dep deduction applied to your HB (and possibly your Council Tax Reduction claim too, if applicable based on your LAs scheme).

See attached pic from my LA's website.

You've said there is no non non dep deduction being applied to your claim, so please bear in theres the possibility it may be recalculated to take a non dep deduction into account and an overpayment of Housing benefit created.

This will be recovered from your ongoing HB, so you'll not be expected to pay it back at once.

If there is, would your son and his PT, be inclined to pay it off for you, out of their £10k ?

Hi

They can pay it back, I am just worried it will leave them short for when they study abroad.

I just dont want the council to think I have been hiding information about their savings, I dont know what the penalty could be.

Would there savings impact the housing benefit if they are non dependants ?

Thank you so much

Did you tell the council that one of them is studying part time?