Universal credit and pip

lucinina

  Backdated pip has taken my savings to £13789,   universal credit has said the back payment is disregarded for 12 months.  I'm totally confused about what happens  .  Does universal credit remove that back payment from my balance?    To make it disregarded?   And will my universal credit stop  when my bank balance reaches £16000    with the pip payments going into my back along with lwcra payments  it won't take long to reach that amount especially with the backpayment   that has been declared. Thank you .

AtlasShoulders

My understanding is that, since the PIP back-payment is a sudden windfall, Universal Credit will ignore that back-payment amount as being part of your savings for a period of 12 months. Their expectation is that you will likely be using this money towards ongoing care or settling any debts or loans incurred while you were waiting for the decision to be made. Only if you were to exceed the £16,000 limit WITHOUT counting this sum, then your claim would be closed. At the end of 12 months, your savings would be reassessed based on the amount you own at that time. If any of the PIP back-payment remains at that time, it will then be counted towards your savings.

lucinina

AtlasShoulders said:

My understanding is that, since the PIP back-payment is a sudden windfall, Universal Credit will ignore that back-payment amount as being part of your savings for a period of 12 months. Their expectation is that you will likely be using this money towards ongoing care or settling any debts or loans incurred while you were waiting for the decision to be made. Only if you were to exceed the £16,000 limit WITHOUT counting this sum, then your claim would be closed. At the end of 12 months, your savings would be reassessed based on the amount you own at that time. If any of the PIP back-payment remains at that time, it will then be counted towards your savings.

 Thank you for your help.  So they don't actually remove that amount  from my  balance. It just stays on there and my savings will eventually go over £16000  but that will be disregarded .   Sorry I'm new to all this  

AtlasShoulders

lucinina said:

AtlasShoulders said:

My understanding is that, since the PIP back-payment is a sudden windfall, Universal Credit will ignore that back-payment amount as being part of your savings for a period of 12 months. Their expectation is that you will likely be using this money towards ongoing care or settling any debts or loans incurred while you were waiting for the decision to be made. Only if you were to exceed the £16,000 limit WITHOUT counting this sum, then your claim would be closed. At the end of 12 months, your savings would be reassessed based on the amount you own at that time. If any of the PIP back-payment remains at that time, it will then be counted towards your savings.

 Thank you for your help.  So they don't actually remove that amount  from my  balance. It just stays on there and my savings will eventually go over £16000  but that will be disregarded .   Sorry I'm new to all this  

No they don't touch your money, nor do they deduct it from your Universal Credit payment. They just make a note that this amount should be ignored in any savings calculations for the next 12 months. After that date, if any of it remains, they will count it then. It's worth saying, however, that UC sometimes asks questions if you suddenly try to get rid of large sums of money (e.g. giving large gifts to friends and family, going on a massive holiday, buying a 2nd car, etc.) If you are planning on doing this, it is worth speaking to Universal Credit first to see whether they would class it as a "Deprivation of Capital" - which is essentially trying to get rid of money on unnecessary or extravagant things for the purpose of hiding or lowering savings. But if you are just making slightly larger than normal purchases here and there, it's unlikely to cause any concern.

lucinina

AtlasShoulders said:

lucinina said:

AtlasShoulders said:

My understanding is that, since the PIP back-payment is a sudden windfall, Universal Credit will ignore that back-payment amount as being part of your savings for a period of 12 months. Their expectation is that you will likely be using this money towards ongoing care or settling any debts or loans incurred while you were waiting for the decision to be made. Only if you were to exceed the £16,000 limit WITHOUT counting this sum, then your claim would be closed. At the end of 12 months, your savings would be reassessed based on the amount you own at that time. If any of the PIP back-payment remains at that time, it will then be counted towards your savings.

 Thank you for your help.  So they don't actually remove that amount  from my  balance. It just stays on there and my savings will eventually go over £16000  but that will be disregarded .   Sorry I'm new to all this  

No they don't touch your money, nor do they deduct it from your Universal Credit payment. They just make a note that this amount should be ignored in any savings calculations for the next 12 months. After that date, if any of it remains, they will count it then. It's worth saying, however, that UC sometimes asks questions if you suddenly try to get rid of large sums of money (e.g. giving large gifts to friends and family, going on a massive holiday, buying a 2nd car, etc.) If you are planning on doing this, it is worth speaking to Universal Credit first to see whether they would class it as a "Deprivation of Capital" - which is essentially trying to get rid of money on unnecessary or extravagant things for the purpose of hiding or lowering savings. But if you are just making slightly larger than normal purchases here and there, it's unlikely to cause any concern.

Thank you once again for your help.  Definitely won't be doing anything like that .  I really appreciate your reply