UC - savings and jewellery

[Adele38]

Hi please can anyone advise whether buying jewellery would be seen as Deprivation of capital?

So at the end of the year you will have some bits of jewellery and no savings! I take it you aren’t planning a career as a financial advisor in the near or indeed the far distant future.

Just remember that unless you are buying really top quality jewellery ( which you won’t be for a few thousand) then if you decide to sell it will be probably be valued at the price of the metal not the price you paid for it as jewellery.

If you're over the 16k then you can't claim at all I don't think. I guess if you bought the jewellery with cash and didn't say anything, and just said the money was spent on day to day expenses? But that could be classed as fraud.
You shouldn't really be claiming once over that amount and they do check.

What did you claim though?
Universal credit has always had a savings limit but tax credits never did

lol , you clearly didn’t read the post . I’m not going to be eligible after the 12 months as even if I bought 4 k of jewellery I’d still be over 16k .
if your going to comment actually get the facts rights

Yes I won’t be claiming after the 12 months is up as will still have more than 16k

This pisses me of as someone who has claimed UC for a couple of years and never allowed that much in savings. It is very annoying.

It's definitely a bit suspect to spend so much on jewellery if there is a chance that you will be needing benefits in the foreseeable future which there is as you plan to claim again once you spend to under 16 thousand. I am working, not on benefits and wouldn't dream of such a huge spend on non essentials.

I am gobsmacked!!!!

Is it poor morals for someone with savings to use the NHS? State schools? Social housing? Whether you or I like it, these are the rules set by the government.

We will be living off savings for at least a year

I know this isn't what you asked, but if you'll be living off savings, is spending over £2k on jewellery a wise decision?

You can’t see any moral difference between use of the NHS & schools which everybody pays for, for everybody to use, and claiming UC which is there to support those who have no way of supporting themselves?

No, they're very different and if you can't see that then I don't know what to say.

Unbelievable that people were able to own second homes and still claim tax credits. thank goodness that system is ending. They should never have agreed this transitional rule either.

It's only the taxpayer who pays for it in theory, those on benefits largely don't, but will mostly likely use the resources more. And remember that a high percentage of those on UC work, to some degree or another. UC is not only for those "who have no way to support themselves", it is intended to top up to a minimum standard as wages are often not enough.

Taxpayers still use the GP, A&E, schools for their kids etc.

The purpose of that top up, is for people to support themselves. So yes, UC is supporting those people, as it was intended to.

The difference, and I can’t believe you don’t understand this, is that the NHS for example is for everyone to use. That is it’s purpose, national healthcare. UC on the other hand is for those who cannot support themselves, whether that is because they can only work limited hours, cannot work at all, have huge childcare fees etc.

I can't see why you can't see this, that UC is for everyone to use, providing they meet the criteria! The NHS is not freely available for every taxpayer btw, those on certain visas have to pay several thousand per year in order to be allowed to access it, despite them often being high earners/high taxpayers.

I'm sure you've posted this before...I'm not sure how it works re jewellery...you could ask your UC advisor?

Your claim will end so spend your money on jewellery then. Why would UC even know about it? You will have still have over £16k savings still so they won't have anything to do with how you spend it.

Yeah I remember the post. That is why I think they are lying.

You don’t need to bother to tell them that you’ve spent anything if you don’t want to. I had less than that but over £6000. Spent about £1500 and was going to update it with UC but then it was so invasive wanting to know about all my bank accounts including my current account (which is sometimes heavily overdrawn and sometimes not) that I decided to not bother and let them carry on deducting too much money from me for savings I don’t have. A couple of thousand doesn’t make all that much difference anyway.

For you maybe.

Can you link the post so I can see what advice you gave them as I’ve definitely not posted this before . This is my first post after joining .

It was deleted. It was the exact same type of topic though.

These type of questions are asked all the time on benefits boards. I read one yesterday where someone got an inheritance, wanted to know if she bought a motorhome would it be deprivation of assets, and if she would have to declare the money she received from renting it out.

It doesn't have to be wise, just reasonable in the circumstances.