Universal credit, savings limit

[Thetvson]

I have looked at a few places on line, but can't find the answer. I know that if you have over £16000 in savings that you don't get any UC. Below that and you can get a proportion of it.
But I can't find out of children's savings are included in that? We have been saving for 15 years for our kids, and grandparents have also put money in to accounts for them. Will this be counted as our savings for U C purposes? TIA.

I think they expect you to use it instead of claiming benefits but do you have access to the money or is it unable to be touched

If they are trustfunds in the child's name that you cannot touch then that is not your capital. If they are standard savings accounts that are for the children but in your name then they will count towards your assets for assessment. If you try to change the accounts to different names/ give to grandparents to keep for the kids, then that will be counted as deliberately depriving yourself of assets, so the money will still be counted as your savings for purpose of UC calculation.

Get some advice from CAB if you can.

Some is in an account i have access to, and some in one labelled 'ttee'. I think that means i can't use it? And some more in a CT F account, the ones the government encouraged people to set up by giving us £250 voucher when they were born.

Bigmouth, thanks. I thought that would be the case. It's so unfair, cos grandparents have put money into these, for the kids, and now they will lose that money.

If you or your partner have been making NI contributions for the last few years you may be eligible for New Style (contributory) JSA which does not include assets / is not means tested but again you need advice.

I think that you will be expected to use it, unless it's a watertight trust fund. Sorry you've found yourself in the situation of needing UC, but 16,000 savings sounds like a lot to me.

The trust fund accounts won't be counted GPS can add to those as they are locked to the child to access at18. But yes it feels unfair sorry op.

We both work, but do get child tax credits now. This will change to uc very soon I think, so we will drop from having a reasonable amount of government support to zero. We get enhanced ctc as ds is disabled and gets dla. I guess we will still get dla but lose the enhancement.

Google is your friend. in Chapter H1 of the Advice for decision making: staff guide for DWP www.gov.uk/government/publications/advice-for-decision-making-staff-guide, you will find the following:

Ownership of capital of a child or young person

H1077 Capital owned either legally or beneficially by a dependent child or qualifying young person is not to be included in the capital of the claimant1. However, the DM may still need to make enquiries about such capital if it appears to be owned by the claimant but is actually beneficially owned by a child or young person for whom they are responsible.
1 WR Act 12, s 5
H1078 Children and young people may not be the legal owners of the capital of which they are the beneficial owners. This is because businesses, such as banks, will not enter into a contract with them. If they are the beneficial owners and not the legal owners their capital will be held on trust by another person.
H1079 Children and young people become the legal owners of their capital when the terms of the trust say they can have the capital. In England and Wales this may be when they are 18 years old and in Scotland when they are 16.
H1080 A child or young person cannot be the legal owner of

1. real or heritable property (see H1020 4.) or
2. shares.

Sometimes a mistake is made and a child or young person is shown as the legal owner.

I volunteer at CAB Maybe take details of the accounts to citizens advice who could give an indication of how the money will be treated. It might depend how much was you depositing and how much grandparents.

So do you think we could move the other savings into the trust fund, or would that be seen as deprivation of assets?

There's transional protection for people who are migrated over from tax credits to universal credit. You should still get the same amount that you get under tax credits.

But....it will not increase. Ever. So if your savings the you over the threshold, even for the next however many years toy will only receive that amount of UC, no matter whether the cost of living increases.

Also, if your have a change of circumstances then your current claim, along with the transitional protection, would end.

It's unclear what would trigger that but we know that ending a relationship, moving in together, losing a job, coming out of unemployment or having another child would trigger that.

It might also be triggered by a change of job, pay rise / decrease, moving house. But that's not certain.

It's so unfair, cos grandparents have put money into these, for the kids, and now they will lose that money.
I understand it might feel this way, but at the same time, you will have parents who earn just above the threshold for tax credits, who are hardly better off than families who claim and yet won't be able to put any savings aside for their kids. I was one of them when I was a single mum working FT.

From that perspective, it doesn't seem fair that you can claim tax credits which is money that comes from people's taxes for it to then go on savings. Savings are a luxury. Grand parents are free to open their own savings account and then give the money to the children directly when they become adults.

Dh is changing job soon, that's why I started looking into this.

Would you be allowed up to £1000 in savings on UC with no deductions? How do you save enough to put down a deposit and move out if you can't have any savings.

I have a junior ISA for my daughter which has around £800 in it but I can't touch it and she can only draw it out when she is older. Family put money in it for her. Then we have a basic savings account where we are trying to save enough to move out of London :( not in a UC area yet

I'm with swings

What more unfair is those receiving a 'reasonable level of government support' have been able to save beyond the £16k limit. While those of us without support can't

Saving are a luxury and most use for unexpected expenses as there's no money available elsewhere.

Money gifted to the children, birthday money can be put in ISA's

Lala you can have £6k saving without UC being effected

Why would your Dh changing jobs mean that you have to claim UC instead of TCs? Will his hours drop?

No change to hours or wages, but i thought that any change in circumstances triggered them.to change you over.

No, only certain changes. If his hours dropped below 16, that would be
a change of circumstances for Universal Credit, but no change or an increase wouldn't. Have a look at this:

www.welfare-benefits-unit.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/What-triggers-a-claim-for-Universal-Credit-in-a-full-service-area.pdf

A change in jobs will not trigger a switch to UC !! It would only be if you needed to make a new claim for a legacy benefit that you would need to switch.
I think the childrens savings depend on whether you have access to them.

Under the old legacy income support ore tax credits children savings were only counted over £3000 each.
Changing jobs won’t trigger a move to UC.

Thanks everyone. I don't want to claim what I'm not entitled to, I'm just trying to understand what my position is. I think it's a bit clearer now, thanks.