Universal credit eligibility

[GeneralOrgana]

Does anyone know if the rules on eligibility have been changed recently? Various websites and benefits calculators say you can claim as long as your savings are under £16000, but when I try to apply online and tick the 'savings over £6000' box I'm found uneligible. I phoned the helpline and the guy didn't have any more information than is on the website.

Does anyone know if savings between £6-16000 mean you officially can't claim, or is it worth going to Citizen's Advice or similar?

I have just had a training package from work on this and whilst I am still getting my head around it, I think the following applies.
Capital under £6k is ignored.
Capital between £6k and £16k is assumed to give the claimant a set amount of income called 'tariff income'. This is set at £4.35 per month for each £250 over £6k
So if you have £10 k in the bank, the first £6k is ignored, then the remaining £4k is divided by 250 = 16 x £4.35 = £69.06
So the £69 is classed as tariff income and presumably is taken off any award.
If you have over £16k in capital then you cannot claim any UC until your capital drops below £16k.
There are also rules on deliberately depriving yourself of capital.
Some people will be protected by transitional protection rules if they were on tax credits previously and the DWP move them onto UC, but not if they make the claim themselves.
Sorry it is so complex!! Please don't take this as gospel as I cannot be 100% sure that I have interpreted it correctly, but this is how I understand it so far.

I think the problem could be that you may be in an area that is rolling out UC and are only taking claimants who meet certain conditions, one of these being no savings over £6k. They are firstly rolling it out to the simplest of claims . This may be why you are being rejected from claiming when you tick that box. I don't really know what to suggest - who advised you to claim UC?

Could it be it was £16K with tax credits and things have changed? not sure.

Savings don't affect tax credits unless you earn over £300 a year interest which you then have to declare as income.

I don't get tax credits. It may well be that UC isn't fully rolled out in my area. I was advised to apply by the DWP person who said my ESA was being discontinued, but that may have been a 'generic' recommendation.

Looking at JSA it seems it's also available for people who can't work full time and aren't seeking more work. Does anyone know if that's true in practice?

Is it contributions based ESA ( I presume it is if you have a lot of savings)? I rang DWP yesterday to make a claim for CB ESA on behalf of a client and was told they needed to apply for Universal credit. It was completely wrong information as CB ESA isn't even part of Universal credit, it is remaining separate.
It is only Income related ESA which is becoming part of UC.