Universal Credit Savings Limit

[DavidB6721]

Nobody with more than £16,000 in capital is allowed to claim any means tested benefits in the UK. Do you think this limit seems a bit low? The reason for that is because it has not been increased for 33 years!

If you think that is not fair, you might be interested in one of the petitions on the UK parliament website at the moment, which is calling for a substantial increase in the benefits capital limit (petition number 590695).

If the moderators will allow me to include a link, you can find it at:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/590695

If you agree, you might wish to consider consider signing this petition and sharing it on social media, etc.

I think the savings threshold should be higher, at least for a certain amount of time, like six months or a year. Then if you still need to claim after that time, you’d be expected to use savings.

People shouldn’t be prevented from accessing the state support they need and have already contributed to because they’ve done the right thing in the past and tried to build up savings so that they can provide for themselves.

If people with more savings were allowed to claim when they need to, the benefits safety net would be something that more people would be invested in and willing to contribute to. We currently have a government that was voted in partly because so many people wanted benefit reform. Maybe if benefits genuinely benefitted everyone, people wouldn’t have voted to make it less generous.

@hkk24871

My husband earns £28000. We have one child and I currently don't work because of the high childcare costs. So we are down a full salary now. After tax my husbands wage covers all bills but we have nothing left over for food and other things. According to the benefits calculator we would be entitled to £700 a month if we had £6000 savings or less. But we have worked and saved our whole lives and have savings of £27000 which means we are not entitled to anything. We will have to dig into our savings to pay for Food and expenses. This will dwindle our savings away quite rapidly. It does feel like we are being punished for being good with our money while someone else in the same situation and spends their money frivolously is entitled to the benefits.

Why wouldn't you use your savings though, why the entitlement to benefits when you are choosing not to work?

There are many areas of reform in benefits to ensure that those who need them, but this isn't one. £16k is a sizable amount of savings, of course people should use it towards the cost of living. I expect most people have had to dip into savings at some point or another, I could understand if it was capped at a low amount like £1k, but 16?

@hkk24871

My husband earns £28000. We have one child and I currently don't work because of the high childcare costs. So we are down a full salary now. After tax my husbands wage covers all bills but we have nothing left over for food and other things. According to the benefits calculator we would be entitled to £700 a month if we had £6000 savings or less. But we have worked and saved our whole lives and have savings of £27000 which means we are not entitled to anything. We will have to dig into our savings to pay for Food and expenses. This will dwindle our savings away quite rapidly. It does feel like we are being punished for being good with our money while someone else in the same situation and spends their money frivolously is entitled to the benefits.

Presumably you saved this money to enable you to be a SAHM? why should the state support your lifestyle choice? The benefits system is there to support people who are in situations they haven’t planned for such as ill health or loss of job through no fault of their own. Your situation is different as you have chosen to stop working. Yes, childcare is expensive. Did you not think about this whilst deciding to have a child? Many families work very hard on low wages and their wages barely cover their childcare costs, but they do it because they have little choice. You do have a choice - you have savings to support you.