Universal credit and paying rent 6 months in advance

[Afolnerd]

We currently receive child tax credit, not a huge amount about £60pw but with the cost of everything at the moment not something we can really afford to lose.
Dh and I both work full time and we have 3 dependent children.
Obviously tax credits are going soon and I can’t work out if we are entitled to universal credit or not.
We have some savings in bank and some in premium bonds and we have to pay our rent 6 months in advance so at some points in the year that account has a large sum of money in it which will push us over the £16k (rent is 9k every 6 months)
but obviously that isn’t really savings it’s our rent.
I also can’t work out if the kids savings count towards the total household savings or not as there seems to be conflicting information online.

I can’t find any information about our exact situation.

On Facebook there is a group called 4Up that help with all benefit type of questions (hoping I’m allowed to post a different website for advice - apologies if not)

I think when you are transferred over to UC then the savings if over 16k can be disregarded for 12 months I think. DWP don't take into account what the savings are for, they won't care that you need to pay rent in advance as you would be getting the rent element from Uc each month. If savings are in children's names and not accessible by you then they won't be counted so if in a Junior ISA etc, they won't be affected.

If you have over 16k they will expect you to live on that. You wouldn't be entitled to UC. Over 6k you can but they take some money off your UC amount.

Martín lewis said kids savings in junior isas don’t affect universal credit. If your moving money into child savings in order to claim UC if get below the threshold than this could affect your eligibility. If you have savings above 16k than no you won’t be eligible but you can declare savings between 6-16k when making universal credit claim. You would be expected to live to reduce the savings to below 16k then make a claim even though tax credits don’t have the same rules around savings.

Why do you have to pay 6 months in advance? What will they do if you state you will be paying 3 months in advance?

Who is stopping you paying your landlord each month as is usual?

Thanks for the advice so far.
we pay 6 months in advance as on paper we don’t earn enough to afford the house, and we don’t have anyone who could be guarantor.
To get the house we had to pay 6 months rent up front. Which was a lot of our savings at the time. Every month I transfer the rent amount to a different account. Then when we renew we have to pay another 6 months upfront.
The house is perfect for us and my disabled teenager so I’m not going to rock the boat with the landlord.

Most of the kids money is in premium bonds bought by my mum so if I have to declare them we are over the threshold without even thinking about the rent situation so I guess we will be losing the money which is kind of what I expected.
Seems unfair counting the kids money into the household pot, but I guess some people will try to cheat the system and hide their money in the kids accounts.

Can you next pay 3 months "in hand" and then continue to pay monthly? I honestly can't see the landlord minding if you ask to do this. They will still have 3 months worth in hand.

Surely the 6 months up front only need apply to the initial rent? Then after you pay each month.

In whose name are the premium bonds? Do you have proof they were bought by your mum for the children? Could you open JISA in kids’ names and transfer the funds to ringfence them?