Savings in my name stopping Universal Credit despite low income

[slowingdown1]

can anyone more financially savvy than me help?
Recently divorced, ex DH pays minimum child maintenance. Have a low
income due to home working in low demand role so I can care
for 2 x disabled children. Yearly
salary is £31k before tax, I save £100 monthly into pension. I claim Scottish disability payments for both kids which go on private treatment / therapies. Each month I scrap by and have a constant low credit card debt despite my best efforts. I have savings that were gifted to me by my mum as long-term financial security of £80k. Although the money is legally in my name, I have made a firm promise to her that I will not use it, so morally I do not feel able to touch it until she is no longer with us.
My current income is low, but because these savings are in my name, they are preventing me from applying for Universal Credit as above
the threshold.
I understand I can’t eg transfer the savings into trusts for my kids as this would constitute deprivation of capital. I can’t ask my mum to eg take it back for the same reason.

You earn 31k, get child maintenanc, benefits for your children and have 80k in the bank . You won’t get universal credit you don’t need it.

Where do you live? If you rent you could invest it into a shared ownership property (under English rules) and claim uc for the rent element

You can't expect to get benefits (paid for by others) when you're sitting on that much money though

You have £80k in the bank you don’t need benefits.

There isn’t a way round this, unless you have debt/mortgage you would be able to pay off with the 80k, then you’d be able to claim. You aren’t entitled to UC

You don't need someone more "financially savvy" than you.

£31k for low demand home working isn't especially low, plus you get disability payments and I assume child benefit?

Whether or not you use it, you have £80k in the bank. EIGHTY THOUSAND POUNDS, yet you're asking for someone to find a way for you to claim more money from tax payers, many of whom have nowhere near your financial safety.

Sorry, but really?!

Your mum probably swerved you paying inheritance tax by giving you the money early - this is the outcome of that little manoeuvre. You tried to play the system and got burned.

Absolutely- the thing is I don’t want to sit on it. It was gifted by my mum who is now very poorly and she asked me at the time of gifting it to save it until she was not longer here, as she knew my kids will need life long care. I didn’t at the time expect to get divorced, drop to one low salary and have a lot of medical costs for both kids. So I’m in really odd position of not wanting it while also being very grateful for it, but I promised her I wouldn’t use it to “fritter away”. I could break that and use to it pay mortgage and health bills and a new car and run it down but morally it feels wrong and legally I’m fairly sure it’s asset distribution. So its an odd position as am very cash poor month to month and build up debt but have savings there that if I use (against my wish to keep my promise) will still be considered as my asset so I won’t be able to claim UC still. Am I missing something?

depends on your location, some areas thats a drop in a bucket

Using the money to pay off your mortgage, is that not deprivation of (cash) assets?

basically damned if you do and damned if you dont, personally it seems youll need to break into it and use some to survive

With all due respect it doesn’t matter why you don’t want to spend it.
you have money, you don’t need universal credit whilst you have access to 80k. Come on.

"Am I missing something?"
Common sense, OP, common sense 🙄

Use the money as a deposit for a house or large house repairs if you already own.
Pay into pension.

Other than that, you have to get poorer before you can claim.

To add, I was just fined £500 for going over 6k savings. I work, majority of my income is my wages and I saved hard to do emergency repairs on my house (I have no ceilings upstairs, no insulation and dodgy wiring).I was still fined. If it was a loan or a gift, I'd have been able to use even 100k to fix my house but not savings...😵‍💫
Do I think the rules are fair and make sense? NO! But I'll have to pay the fine anyway.

My understanding from CAB is I’m in a catch 22 -
if I use it to increase mortgage payments or use it to purchase anything before applying for UC will be considered asset distribution and it will still be counted as my asset.
The disability payments go entirely towards both kids therapies and care. My take home pay is 2k monthly and after all bills I’m not breaking even.

This. Sorry @slowingdown1 but you earn £31k, and get disability support and child maintenance for your children, and you’ve got £80k in the bank. You won’t get UC.

Do you own your home or rent? When did your mum give you this money? And why did she give it to you if you’re not allowed to use it? £80k won’t buy a house, but could be invested so you could use the interest to boost your income maybe?

No, OP, you aren't missing anything. You hav £80K. It doesn't matter why your mum gave it to you, you absolutely cannot get UC when you own that much money.

It's not merely "in your name", I'm afraid. It's actually yours.

So you’d rather get benefits than use the money you have in the bank because in your eyes it would be ‘frittering it away’ to use it on bills?! I don’t really understand. UC is there to support you when you need it; you don’t need it? You have eighty thousand pounds. Child maintenance plus two lots of disability payments plus a salary should be a pretty decent amount?

What are you asking for with this post? The bottom line is isn’t the most moral thing to do is to spend it - or invest it .. you have savings in your name for your kids that is dwindling away due to inflation… invest it - speak to a financial advisor - get that money doing something. If not - spend it. No other choice really.

I’m actually quite speechless. Wish I was as skint as you and expecting the tax payer to pay for me 😂

Why do you think you should use tax payers money to fund your lifestyle when you have a job a home and 80k.
your children have two parents support them.
I can’t understand how you think that you should try play the system to get universal credit?
im not trying to be insulting I genuinely can’t understand?

This
the threshold is £16k
don’t be so greedy

Well she can use that "drop" until she's under the threshold and THEN claim. 🙄

I’m just asking if there is anything I can do as CAB have advised if I spend it, UC will still consider it as asset and they’d view
it as me deliberately spending it so I can hit the threshold for claiming. They described it as catch -22 and said it happens a lot to lower earners who have savings gifted to them.

Why would you consider using it to increase mortgage payments? Surely you’d just pay off your existing mortgage to reduce your costs. That’s what most sensible people would do.