Uc - council tax refund

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sim123

Hi, I recieve universal credit and have savings over £6000. I got a council tax refund and presumed it was classed as a backpayment and reported it as such. Now I am being made aware this is not the case and I now have to go into the job centre and provide evidence. It says on my journal that wrong or incorrect information can be a prosecution or fine. I'm worried they're going to close my claim or prosecute me. It was unintentional. I'm so scared. With the payment it takes me to 7000£ and without still over 6000£ they have pit a payment blocker on my account and won't get paid on Friday and that is when I need to go job centre to show evidence. It was a genuine mistake

wobblyone

Hi @sim123 I’m not an expert at UC rules but I think they just want evidence of the payment because it would be disregarded as income but would count towards your savings.

You are allowed a maximum of £16,000 of savings and can still have UC. The £6000 rule is that they will deduct £4.35 for every £250 you have between £6,000 and £16,000. So if you have £7000 savings they will deduct £17.40 from your UC.

if the back payment is a refund then it would be disregarded as income but counted as savings or capital.

I don’t think you need to worry about it as there is no reason to close your claim.