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Hi, my name is Pinkqueen123! I'm new here and I'm hoping someone can help me please as I'm worried..

Pinkqueen123

Hi, I'm new here and I'm hoping someone can help me please as I'm worried sick and the pressure is building up.

I have been awarded a lump sum from ESA due to an error which is over £16,000.

I am about to apply for universal credit, do I need to declare this error as a savings or is it safeguarded for savings?

I hope that makes sense?

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Comments

durhamjaide2001

Hi and welcome to the forum my name is Jaide and I'm an assembly member of Scope I just wanted to take this opportunity to welcome to you to the forum.

Unfortantly I can't recommend anything about the benefits system but what I can recommend to you is to visit the coffee lounge for a general chat or the games den for some fun.

OverlyAnxious

Hi,

You do need to declare the full amount of savings that you have. Then the next section asks about disregarded savings, that's where you add the exact amount of backpay to be disregarded.

Pinkqueen123

I have managed to pay various loans with this back payment which means I am left with £7,000 do I entre this amount somewhere on the forms?

I hope to hear back.

Many thanks.

OverlyAnxious

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1017355#Comment_1017355

Ok, that makes it a little more complicated.

If you have £7000 of the backpay left, that is what you should declare in the disregards section. You should still put the total amount of all savings in the previous section.

You will most likely then be asked to provide bank statements from the date that you received this back payment.

Pinkqueen123

Can you tell me what the disregards section is please?

Is it not true that my back payment is safeguarded?

OverlyAnxious

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1017828#Comment_1017828

Some capital can be disregarded for the purposes of UC & IR ESA.

As you've already said, arrears of benefit (back payments) are part of that.

They aren't safeguarded as such. They still need to be declared as part of your total savings. But they should then be deducted afterwards.

You can see the legal wording here:

ADM Chapter H2: Capital Disregards

The online form should ask you initially for your total capital. And then there should be another section asking about disregarded capital after that.

So for example, if you've got £12k now. You would put £12k in the capital section. Then £7k in the benefit backpayments disregard section. The forms have changed slightly since I migrated myself, so I'm not sure of the exact wording on that section now, but it should be easy enough to understand when you see it.

Pinkqueen123

You've really helped thank you.

Pinkqueen123

One last thing.... I never had any savings before my back payment. Do I state that?

OverlyAnxious

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1017836#Comment_1017836

No, that's not necessary. They only need to know the overall total right now. And how much of that should be disregarded.

As you have more than £6000 in total, they will usually ask for bank statements to confirm anyway.