Universal Credit Application Advice / My Savings

6337sean

Hello,

I recently sold and bought a house on the same date which was 21st Feb 2025. My partner and I have 3 young children and moved from Yorkshire to Scotland for a new adventure and fresh start.

My partner and I have no current income coming in at all. We are just setting up our new lives now. I do have savings however.

I withdrew in cash £5500.00 on 18th March for new home repairs - and there are many repairs to be done. Some already completed but I stupidly haven't kept receipts for materials and tools bought as I am doing alot of work myself. I have £2800.00 left of the £5500.00 I withdrew on 18th March.

I also have £13,000 in savings in my isa and current account. Total I currently have is £15,800 which falls below the 16k threshold to claim

My partner has £0.

We recently put a universal credit claim in but now I am worried that me withdrawing £5500.00 may look like I am hiding money?

I also bought a holiday (£1000.00) for my daughters birthday a couple of weeks ago for her in May so again does this look like I am spending wrongly to UC?

How can I explain to uc the £5500.00 I withdrew cash was me budgeting for home repairs and not me hiding away cash ? How do I prove I only have £2800.00 left of it and have below the 16k threshold to claim uc ?

I don't want to be investigated or suspected of deliberately hiding money.

Thanks

Slonvinton

Would you qualify for contribution based ESA?

6337sean

Hi, I don't know. I am very new to the UC process. My partner and I have made a joint claim for UC.

Albus_Scope

Hi @6337sean and welcome to the community. 😊

When putting in a claim for universal credit, they'll often ask you to attend the job centre to show proof of identity and bring in some bank statements. So they'll be able to see how much is there, but you'll just have to be honest with them regarding the money taken out for repairs, though it would've looked better if you'd paid by card for repair materials of course.

6337sean

Hi yes I understand that and I have paid by card for repairs to. The cash was taken out just for repairs if that makes sense so it wouldn't be spent elsewhere.

I am really put of claiming now as I know how it may look.

OverlyAnxious

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1010582#Comment_1010582

As long as you tell them the truth, your own conscience is clear. If they decide that any of it was deprivation of capital then you can either accept their decision and wait until your capital is lower, or appeal the decision via mandatory reconsideration. It's not a major issue in all honesty.

Realistically there's no way you can prove how much of the cash you've got left. Even if you take a roll into the job centre and count it out, they could argue that some could still be left at home.

It's your decision of course, the alternative would be to wait a few months until your savings drop, but if you'll still be over £6k then they are likely to ask for bank statements anyway, so you wouldn't necessarily be in any better position mentally for avoid the stress/guilt of any accusations.