DC turning 16 - own benefits and savings?

[chowmeinz]

At the moment DC gets child disability at the high rate for care and low for mobility. She is turning 16 soon and I have a letter from social security about her claiming benefits herself. She has around £11k in savings though, is it worth applying for UC or should I just leave it? I don’t really know much about the system, other than the disability side, so don’t know how it’s works but I understand you have a reduction in benefits if you have over £6k and nothing over £16k. If she were to be awarded UC though it would only be a matter of time before her money went over the £16k and the claim would have to end anyway. I’m really wondering if I’m missing something, even non financial, that would mean a claim would be a good idea.

Start with reading Contact’s page I linked to. Contact is a charity who supports parents who have disabled DC. They also have a helpline.

@flawlessflipper(& OP, as its your thread)
Do you mind if I ask a question about my Ds please? He will be 21 in Sept. Lives at home, Scottish adult disability benefit high care, high mobility (I administer). Last 2 years he has been unwell, unable to study or work. He has not claimed any benefits (£14k savings so like OP I assumed it was pointless putting him through all that stress). Should he have been doing so to protect his NI credits? Can he 'pay up' last 2 years contributions now?

Thank you I will

Given his age and likely retirement age in 45yrs time I'm not sure NI credits are too much of a thing but the credits only ESA route might work?

@siliconcover DS/you can make a credits only New Style ESA claim. I would. The state pension probably won’t exist in the same way when DS is state pension age, but you don’t know what changes there will be, so protecting NI credits is important. I wouldn’t bother paying the gap, though. IMO that isn’t necessary.

Just so you can make an informed decision, UC is often much easier to sort than ADP. If you go down the UC route, you don’t need to make a credits only New Style ESA claim first because he isn’t in education.

The only reason I asked that, was because we squirrelled away our son’s birthday and Christmas money as he was growing up, to find that when he became an adult (and therefore responsible for his own money), it was impossible to get his money out of the bank because he lacks capacity.

I might be missing the point of the thread here but how does a 15 year old have 11k in savings?!

She inherited £10k some time ago and it has never been touched.

@flawlessflipperthank you. I am hoping he will return to education this year (uni student living at home) if he did so how would that change things (sorry for 20 Qus, our local CAB is mostly closed & not great if open)

Oh I misunderstood you, sorry!

If you didn’t want to go down the UC route and just wanted to protect DS’s NI record, being in full-time education at university wouldn’t change anything. You can still make a credits only New Style ESA claim.

If you wanted to go down the UC route, if DS is in full-time education at university, you need to establish LCW/LCWRA before the start of a course. You do this via a credits only New Style ESA claim. However, this wouldn’t be sorted by next month if DS returned to university then. And the maintenance loan would reduce (or in some cases wipe out) the UC award.

@flawlessflipperThank you! OP, thank you for starting this thread too.

Yes the problem with anything means tested is she will have to go through the work capability assessment so forms to fill in etc then when her savings go over 16k any entitlement to UC will end, then if they drop you'll need to apply again. Not sure whether the work capability element can re-start again but I imagine with a new claim it will be another whole assessment. It could be a pain. Any savings over 6k reduce the monthly UC award by about £17 for each £1k above 6k so if a child has 11k that will be around £85 reduction a month.

Plenty of kids have that kind of money. maybe their parents saved in child trust funds ( which the government gave each child an amount for in the 2000's ). many parents are lucky enough to be able to just save the child benefit for their kids. My friends kids got money from an insurance claim from a car accident etc.

If she is never going to be independent, is it wise to allow her savings to go over 16k? Is there something she needs that would improve her quality of life?

I’m not going to spend her inheritance so she can claim benefits. In terms of quality of life her father and I have done our absolute best to ensure she has exactly what she needs. We are not depriving her to keep her money in the bank, she doesn’t want for anything.

With regards to the capacity question of a pp. It is worth being wise to the fact that if your DD doesn't have capacity and reaches 18 you will need to apply for Deputyship to have access to any bank accounts in her name. It happens, like life, while you're busy making other plans.💐

Your DD would be entitled to £247 a month in universal credit, this is taking the deduction for her savings into account.

You need to submit fit notes from the start of her claim and she will be assessed for limited capability for work related activity (LCWRA). If this is awarded, then it would start 3 months after she first started to hand in fit notes. This woukd add more than £400 to her claim.

I don't know what the process is for becoming her appointee for UC but other people out there will know!

How is she going to get over the 16k savings limit in two years if she's on benefits and only has 11k?

Surely she's not going have the spare cash to save 5k in that time?

Her disability payment. When she turns 16 this will either be paid to her or to me as appointee, so it will be her money from that point onwards and given to her.

DD is 16.

The minimum age for UC is 18 albeit with a few exceptions:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/376/regulation/8

Being in education brings other complications. Also, if DD claims UC OP's Child Benefit will end.

I realise I was wrong re claiming UC just now. It’s a helpful post though for the future or anyone else who may be approaching the nightmare of migrating from child to adult benefits.

Although some disabled young people can claim UC under 18, because OP’s DD is in full-time education, she would need to establish LCW/LCWRA prior to the start of the course. She can establish that now via a credits only New Style ESA claim, so when she changes course she can apply for UC.

@Bromptotoo if DD/her appointee decide to claim UC in DD’s name, she shouldn’t worry about losing child benefit because the UC amount will be more than the lost CB.

@chowmeinz my reply re UC and under 16 was directed to @Gingerkittykat to make the point that UC under 18 and/or in education isn't an easy gig.

I get your position and your post was interesting as I hadn't realised how DLA/PIP analogues differ in Scotland to what we have in rest of GB.