UC review - over 16k childs savings

[Gabbygirl]

I need advice, i am so worried and stressed!

I have been asked to submit 4 months bank statement for a UC credit review. At first, I had absolutely no worries. I was talking to a mum at the school about it and she said to make sure that i upload my children's savings account as she had too due in her review.

I said to her that i didn't think they was included in my UC claim as they are children's savings accounts, in their own name. She said if I had access to them ( which of course i do, i set them up!) then they are included in my capital.

I rushed home and i've been doing some online research and the information is confusing but it does look like she is right.I can't believe i have let this happen.

I have gone through all my bank statements/uc payments and if my math's is correct i have been overpaid over £14,000 in the last 5 years.
( Any month over £16,000 savings i have calculated to owe back in full, any month over £6,000 but under £16,000 i have done £4.35 for every £250??)

Between nov 2025 and July 2020 - there is 11 months i was over the 16k and should of not got anything and besides 4 months, every other month the savings was inbetween £6000 and £15,999.

( I have some savings myself between £2,000 and £5,000 over the 5 years. I never included my children's savings, so depending how much i had, would take me over the 16k at times but not constant)

I feel sick with worry and i feel so guilty that such a stupid mistake can have a massive affect on my children and our home life. I am a single mum to 3 children and the thought of being taken away from breaks my heart. I know i have made a mistake and it is not fair for tax payers to have to pay for my mistake. I know i need to pay it all back and make everything, I am just so scared and i just don't know how.

I don't expect sympathy, this is my mistake and i need to handle it but any advice would be hugely appreciated.

I understand, the biggest worry is not knowing. You will be fine, don't worry, there are so many expert scammers who fleece the system, they know the difference. Xx

Gabby, you can't use the original inheritance part of their accounts. It is in trust until they are 18 (or whatever age was specified in the will). Whatever type of accounts you set up for them, their inheritances are held in trust because they are minors.

Yes, he may have been nominated in the will as the trustee for the children's legacies or someone else could have been nominated by the executors. If it were me, I would start with obtaining a copy of the will from

https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

If the will did not nominate a trustee then I would suggest that your 18 year old writes a letter to the solicitors who drafted the will and request the name of the individual who was appointed trustee.

If the will was not drafted by a solicitor then contact the executors who will have been named in the will.

See also: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/103941

Does your 18 year old have no paperwork or no name of the bank or building society that has been holding the money. I would have expected that they would have received a letter shortly before reaching the age of 18 or 21 or whatever age was stipulated in the will.

Theres CSA for that which isn’t classed as income when claiming benefits also.

A further point: if the uncle's will had been drawn up by a solicitor, the solicitor may not have been appointed as executor or have been responsible for applying for probate. For example, my late mother's will had been drawn up by a solicitor who held the original will but my brother and I were named as the executors and I was the executor who applied for probate, settled the estate and paid the beneficiaries by cheque from an account specifically set up with a bank for the purpose of managing my mother's estate.

The probate forms included a section asking whether any of the beneficiaries of my mother's estate were minors. In my mother's case, the grandchildren were all adults by the time my mother died so we weren't involved with trustees or trust accounts for minors.

So your now adult son may need to dig around a bit to find out who he needs to contact if his father has given him no information or copies of paperwork and they are not in contact and he has heard nothing from the bank or building society that has been holding his legacy since the uncle's estate was settled.

I might have misunderstood this, but I think the OP mentioned that the nan left her responsible for the money, but that there was a letter of intention saying it was to go to the children. So I am wondering if it was actually OP who is named in the will, and there is a separate letter with intentions in?

Indeed - I think that poster would probably agree with workhouses -

Everyone has to find the money for those things. Many people live hand to mouth yet don’t claim benefits.
You aren’t poor if you have thousands of pounds in the bank!
I’m not having a go at the OP, benefits are supposed to be there to help people who have fallen on bad times which is fine, but they’re hardly in bad times with thousands of pounds in savings in the bank!!
The people in government who make these rules just beggar belief.

She's not saving for expensive months such as needing school uniform. She's said she doesnt touch the savings, they are long-term and for her kids' future. Her income is enough to cover uniform etc using her wages and UC, so she can do this. Her savings are above average and she is in a privileged position to be able to have these nest eggs.

Thank you @pigmygoatsinjumpers . I am in NI so unfortunately getting a copy of the will is a bit more complicated than the English system, you have to ask the Probate Office to search and provide a copy and it costs about £50 I think (think it's £1.50 in England!) but I think that'd be the best approach. As you say, it could have been age 21 stipulated but I'm nearly sure the boys said 18. No paperwork from any bank either, unless it has gone c/o his address, which was our family home. It is concerning, but I will try to contact the solicitor - there definitely was one - and find out how what arrangements were made before I approach their father.

@YourFairCyanReader personally I think the children’s savings should count , however I do think people need to be aware of this and what’s done is done , OP clearly wasn’t aware it did count and I think having thousands stuffed away for kids is all good and admirable , but not if taking money from public funds , that money should be used to support your family if needed, if it’s not needed then all well and good and I think the cut off point for UC should be upped to £8k too - but as a final point - can’t claim at all over that , so I think you misunderstand me -I’m a centreist voter and yep I’m liberal but I do understand that we can’t keep paying out willy nilly to people who don’t fancy using what they’ve got tucked away - we have a decent business but no inheritances and not that much spare cash at various points, we had a business failure at one point - never claimed , but don’t think my son ever had more than about £1000 in his name - what I didn't like was the tone of someone saying you shouldn’t be able to claim unless you have absolutely zilch , that’s not a wise position for anyone and smacks of workhouses and Victorian morals

I believe that if the money is willed directly to the children, that is one thing, but if it is willed to the parent who then moves it to their children’s accounts, then they have deprived themselves of assets.

I still find it odd that people can apparently claim universal credit yet their children could feasibly be multi-millionaires!

I believe that if the money is willed directly to the children, that is one thing, but if it is willed to the parent who then moves it to their children’s accounts, then they have deprived themselves of assets.

I still find it odd that people can apparently claim universal credit yet their children could feasibly be multi-millionaires!

Whoops!

So what are you supposed to do if your boiler or roof or car (that you use to get to work due to poor public transport) break? Last time I looked repairmen didn't accept fresh air as payment. I get the point that huge savings is not ok but everyone needs a small emergency pot.

Which is why the govt has set the limit at £6K presumably, though all these moaners would probably claim that's too generous. They would just have to shell out on emergency welfare grants (more moaning) or loans to help people in the situations you describe, requiring increased administrative work and more staff to handle it. It makes more sense for people to be allowed to keep a buffer of savings to deal with crucial repairs or unavoidable expenses.

As I said below that posters comments smack of workhouses and real destitution before you can claim, I’m suprised she didn’t add in then - shared room for a family and a bowl
of gruel never did anyone any harm

You should probably be asking UC this. I declared all savings, including my child's saver account.

Good luck with this. Apologies for assuming you were in England. Yes, it is cheap and simple process in England to obtain a copy of a will.

In her posts, OP has said:

"I have a copy of the will."

"each child was named in the will."

"I have all the paperwork related to the will."

"I had to show them it was put into an account in their own names within 6 months. My nan wrote in her will she is happy to give me responsibility for their money as long as it’s in a named account for each child within 6 months."

Without having sight of a verbatim transcript of that section of the will, it's not possible to determine whether there was a separate letter of intention.

But on the surface, it suggests that OP had been named in the will as the Trustee for the named children's legacies.

www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/103941

"A beneficiary of an estate can be a minor; however, the minor is not entitled to receive the gift or share of the estate until they reach the age of 18 years old. This is because a minor is deemed not to have the required ‘capacity’ to accept a gift until they reach the age of majority and gain full legal capacity. Until a beneficiary is 18 years old, the funds or assets due to them will be held on trust by trustees named in the will."

"The testator (the person making the will), especially if a parent to the minor, can include a letter of wishes to sit alongside their will. This letter of wishes can express how the funds should be invested or used for the benefit of the minor whilst held in trust. It’s possible in certain circumstances for the inheritance to be paid to the parent of the minor but is dependent on the terms of the will and/or statute."

"Generally, a will includes the STEP Standard Provisions which allows for trustees to use powers of advancement and maintenance for minor beneficiaries before they are entitled to their inheritance together with powers of investment of funds.

"If the STEP Standard Provisions are not included, then the statutory powers under Section 31 and 32 of the Trustee Act 1925 will apply. This allows for the needs of the minor to be met throughout the period in which the funds are held in the trust. If the age in which the minor is entitled to the gift or share of the estate is higher than 18, the minor automatically becomes entitled to the income when they reach 18."

OP has said she opened accounts on behalf of the children with the Halifax but has not clarified whether these were ordinary children's saver accounts or specific trust accounts provided by the Halifax for beneficiaries who are minors.

It does look as though the children were named as beneficiaries in the will and that OP was nominated as Trustee of the children's legacies until they reached the age of 18.

Depending on the wording of the will, OP may be permitted to use some of the inheritances to directly meet the needs of the children before they reach the age of 18 but that would not mean she could withdraw the legacies, for example, to pay off a personal debt. These inheritances are ring fenced on behalf of the minors.

I had one of these trust accounts as a child. My grandfather left all of his grandchildren a small sum of money in his will. They were all under 18 at the time of his death. There were two babies in the womb when he died (known as "en ventre sa mère") including my brother who were included as beneficiaries by the executors following legal advice.

The money was held in trust by a building society and I was able to withdraw the full amount plus interest once I reached the age of 18. In my case, no money was added to the account and none withdrawn for my benefit in the 16 or so years it was held in trust.

You go into debt like the rest of us, it’s not the tax payers job to give people extra money each month just so those people can save money for their life emergencies.

"It’s possible in certain circumstances for the inheritance to be paid to the parent of the minor but is dependent on the terms of the will and/or statute."

OP has not clarified yet whether she was nominated in the will as the trustee for the children's inheritances with responsibility for overseeing trust accounts until the children reached the age of 18; or whether the will was worded to pay these sums of money directly to her, as the parent, for the children's benefit - nor whether the will had been drawn up professionally.

Nor has she clarified whether these sums of money are considered by the Halifax as being held in trust until the children are 18 (ie they cannot access these funds) or whether these accounts were set up as ordinary children's savings accounts into which she paid cheques. If there are no restrictions to access to these bequests then I doubt the accounts are operating as minors' trust accounts.

I'd be surprised if the executors had not given OP advice about setting up trust accounts before paying out these bequests and that the Halifax had not given advice about what type of account should be created to safeguard the children's inheritances.

Either way, she has the paperwork and can show that these sums of money were intended for the named children's benefit and sit outside any general pot of money for domestic use and as such, they should be disregarded when considering the OP's income and savings.

Sorry but I’d much rather some of my taxes went to someone who cared enough to work, raise 3 children as a single parent and manage her money efficiently so as to have a small bit of savings for her children to help with deposits, education etc
The OP works herself and pays taxes, she is entitled to claim UC as are tons of other people who are on low incomes but still work.
The main bulk of the children’s money is from an inheritance from their Nan who I’m sure, the OP and children would rather was still alive…
Im not at all biased, I don’t claim UC myself, if my husband ran off and left me and only paid bare maintenance or refused to pay I would be entitled to claim it because despite working I would be a low income family. I have worked since I was 17 I’m now in my 40’s, you can bet that if I was entitled to claim it I would.

I have just had a review pretty much the same circumstances as you. I have an account that is a similar set up as you describe, as in the account is for my child but is 'under my care' as such. I can log in, transfer money in and out etc. They specifically asked for the statements for this account, as well as a few other specific accounts (they mentioned the last 4 digits of several account numbers).

This account doesn't have much in it because I just have the child benefit paid in which I then transfer straight to my daughter for pocket money so I didn't have any suspicious activity on it, but thought I would mention it because if they're aware of the account existence they may well ask about it. Plus to be honest, even if they don't ask, you'd probably be better off being honest about it because they do ask if you have any other accounts that they haven't specifically mentioned.

They asked me for 2 years worth of statements for all bank accounts that I hold (which is from the start of my claim), because they wanted to check that the total of all accounts didn't exceed £6,000.00 - £16,000.00. The lady I spoke to was lovely, explained everything, explained the process, I uploaded the statements that I already had and she's already come back confirming all looks fine. I just have to wait for a login code for the one account, because the app statements wouldn't go back 2 years and she's extended the deadline for me, because the bank will only send me new login codes through the post.

I do have another account in my daughter's name but it is a Junior ISA, I have no access to it apart from to view statements and no money will ever be released to me directly. When my daughter is 18, she will have the money transferred directly in to her own bank account. My name is not associated with that account at all, apart from as a contact.