Mortgage overpayments - universal credit

[Turnaroundandigone]

Would regular mortgage overpayments be an issue if claiming universal credit? Wasn't sure of this would fall foul of deprivation of capital as it is paying a debt that isn't yet due.

I wouldn't have thought that people needing to claim UC would have much left to overpay mortgages.

Surely if you have enough money to overpay a mortgage you don't need UC?

Are you trying to overpay to reduce savings to get under the limit to claim? If so then yes it would class as deprivation of assets

Any savings over 16,000 would stop UC, if you have between £6000-16,000 your payment will be reduced.

Where is the money coming from an inheritance, savings, a gift?

But paying off a debt is not deprivation of assets so may be ok.

Regular overpayments to keep below the saving threshold will be seen as a deprivation of assets.

It's not to keep below the savings threshold, it's to pay my mortgage on a known fixed rate to reduce the impact of future rate rises on my monthly payments. If possible i would like to pay an extra £100 a month.The current situation is worrying me greatly. I can't increase my working hours due to caring responsibility. I'm not claiming anything at the moment but I would be entitled.

If you don’t have savings I can’t see how it would be deprivation of capital really

So where are the funds coming from to overpay?

If I claimed uc I would be entitled to circa £500 per month, this would allow us to live more comfortably and potentially make a small overpayment on mortgage. I just wasn't sure if I would be allowed to do this. I know little about benefits, I've never claimed any.

It’s one thing to use benefits to pay the regular mortgage payments, it’s quite a different matter to use it to overpay though. You must already live very frugally if you’d qualify for means tested benefits but could overpay something that doesn’t need to be overpaid if you received said benefits.

There's no restriction on how you spend your UC as long as you have less than the savings limit. So claim!

Paying off debt is not deprivation of capital for UC. It's in the legislation (UC regs 2013):

Notional capital
50....

(2) A person is not to be treated as depriving themselves of capital if the person disposes of it for the purposes of—

(a)reducing or paying a debt owed by the person; or
(b)purchasing goods or services if the expenditure was reasonable in the circumstances of the person’s case.

I am pretty frugal. Car is owned outright, mortgage is low. I have no other debt.