cost of living disregard

easytiger

I am in the process of UC claim review I sent 4 month bank statements and did an id check UC agent told me I had to update capital which I did without disregarding cost of living payment. I was wondering do I have take of the amount every month or will it automatically happen as I am in the process of review should I wait they have already done this month and there was nothing disregarded they have used the full balance from my bank statement to work out payment my head is spinning will this hope someone can enlighten me

Emilee

It is the claimant's responsibility to demonstrate that any of their savings or capital should be disregarded. When declaring savings and capital to Universal Credit (UC), there is no option to specify a disregarded amount; you are required to report the full figure. You must then explain in your journal how much should be disregarded and the reasons for this.

Given that some journal entries may not be consistently read, many people choose to declare the amount minus any disregarded capital. They then add a note in the journal stating that the actual balance is £XXX higher, but they believe that £XXX should be disregarded because [provide reason].

OverlyAnxious

What matters for UC is the amount you have on the final day of the payment period. So I would update it on that day this month even if you haven't had the review completed by then. Otherwise you may end up with another overpayment that needs to be paid back.

Please do keep us updated with this though. I updated my savings weeks ago and asked them to deduct cost of living through the journal but they didn't even acknowledge the message. I may try doing it the other way next month, as suggested above, to submit the amount after deductions and then put the full amount in the journal instead. Seems daft they don't have a box for disregards when updating savings, that would be so much easier on both sides.

easytiger

Thanks for your answers. The cost of living disregard I got totalled £1550 so do I subtract this amount from my saving balance every time I update each month, plus as these cost of living payment came from UC they would have evidence that I was paid this so surly I will not have to prove this.

OverlyAnxious

You will have to deduct it each time. The system isn't smart enough to do it automatically.

Jimm_Scope

Welcome to the community @easytiger 😊

As other members have said you will need to account for that every single time, there is unfortunately no way to have the system "remember" it or have an end date set for it.

Just let us know if you do have any other questions okay 🙂

easytiger

Do I have to provide bank statements to prove I got the payments of cost of living or will they check their system.

OverlyAnxious

I don't know the answer to that one. If they weren't paid with UC and listed on the UC statements at the time then they may ask for bank statements now.

I was still on ESA when I got mine so we might get different experiences for that part.

(PS - If you also got PIP during those years you may have had an extra COL payment of £150.)

easytiger

Didn't think of the statements on UC thanks I will check now

easytiger

No statements don't have it on them ☹️

poppy123456

Yes the CoL payments were not included on your UC statements because they were all paid separately. Please also note that the disregard will only apply if your capital didn't drop below the total level of CoL payments you received. If it drops below that then the disregard ends.

easytiger

Thanks for responding my capital is over 10000 does it apply to this

poppy123456

It applies if your capital didn't drop below the total level of CoL payments that you received. For example if your total CoL payments were £2,000 and your capital dropped to below that amount at anytime then the disregard will no longer apply.

easytiger

Thanks poppy123456 that helpful just need to find exact bank statement now ready to upload if they want proof.

poppy123456

You're welcome.

Kimmy87

This page has all the dates on, if you need help tracking down which statements you need.

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/cost-of-living

OverlyAnxious

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/927647#Comment_927647

I'm not sure that's the right link? There aren't any dates on that one.

Kimmy87

Thank you, they've taken the information off since I bookmarked it.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment

easytiger

Good morning everyone

Great news I have just received message in my UC journal review claim complete no change to your universal credit.

easytiger

After asking on my UC journal about cost of living disregards the agent who did my review rang me to discuss this. He asked me when did my bank account go over the £6000 figure as he was told by his team leader he should have asked for all my statements from bank for my claim review so I now have to upload 14 months of statements

this his what is in my todo list

As we discussed to calculate your capital figure after disregards.I need to-do Full Capital evaluation. To do this i am requesting you to Please upload your Bank Statement from July 2023 to September 2024Please Upload Before 20/11/2024.thanksAdeelUCR Agent

he also said they might ask for more statements maybe another year .This is getting very stressful not eating properly or sleeping very well

OverlyAnxious

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/937249#Comment_937249

Sorry to hear you're finding it stressful but this is what I'd expected from their side. I also expect them to ask for another years worth of statements because the first cost of living payment was in July 2022.

I still haven't heard anything back on my journal since mentioning the COL disregard. I suspect I will have to upload bank statements the same as yourself though.