Saving in the Bank

Penni

Hello, me and my wife are both Pensioners and we claim Pension Credit ! But we are trying to save up for our Funeral costs because we don't want to burden our children with this and we don't have any life Insurance cover can anybody tell me how much you are aloud in the bank before it starts affecting our Pention Credit or Housing Benefit ? Please Thanks.

Thanks Alan Penni

Albus_Scope

Heya @Penni 😁

For Pension Credit, savings and investments over £10,000 will affect the amount you receive. Every £500 above £10,000 is treated as £1 of weekly income. There's no upper limit to savings for Pension Credit itself, but higher savings will reduce the amount you receive. For Housing Benefit, having savings over £16,000 typically makes you ineligible for the benefit. Hope that helps.😊

westpest

Hi, this is something that also concerns me. I am on new style esa which allows you to have savings without it affecting your benefit. This was a good idea originally when I needed to make a benefits claim. When I was working on of the perks was life insurance for both my husband and me. However when you finish working this is automatically cancelled on your last day. This has caused issues for us both as we are both disabled. So we cannot get life assurance anywhere else due to our conditions. So I have savings accounts with my bank and thought if I save enough enough for funerals for both the of us then this would take away and concerns. However a friend has told me I’m stupid to have savings as now the government are going to tax this. Also with DWP etc having access to bank accounts that they could start asking difficult questions and penalising us for having this? I don’t want to hide anything but I have already been taxed on the money. What should I do as I’m quite worried about it? TIA

Albus_Scope

Hey again @westpest 😊 The government will not be taxing any savings you have a second time, but the DWP will reduce your benefits (if they're means tested) or even stop the benefits if you have too much in savings. So it's always best to be transparent with them, as withholding information about savings over £6k can be seen as benefit fraud.

westpest

hey Albus, it’s good to talk…lol

I am extremely transparent which is why I claim New Style esa as you are allowed savings over £16000.00. As per below

Your situation	New Style ESA	Universal Credit
You’ve lost your job and you’re too sick to work. You need help with living costs e.g. rent. You’ve paid and/or been credited with NIcontributions in the last 2 to 3 years (employed or self–employed).	You can claim New Style ESA– even if your partner works or you and your partner have savings over £16,000	You can also claim UC if you (and your partner) have £16,000 or less in savings between you.

there are a couple of differences between New style esa and esa. One of them is you are not entitled to pass ported benefits ie dental care. You also have to have been paid full Ni for the previous two years prior to claiming New Style ESA.

MyHappy256

When I was terminally ill with no family to speak of I considered getting a funeral plan, but then discovered that the UK govt. cover funeral costs if you are on benefits and pay an additional £1000 for attending funerals etc.

I do get where you are coming from, because saving up for a car or paying an advance for a car (Motability) would push you over the limit which starts at £6000 now diminishing benefits as you approach £16k, thank you, Tories, for introducing that nonsensical bit of legislation to penalise people who save their benefits for a rainy day.

Personally I decided to be cremated, because I heard that if you are long than a certain length they break your legs to fit you in the coffin, and because it's cheaper and there are already so many scandals about them using the same plot for multiple people or re-using the coffin, or organ harvesting (Life of Brian) and becoming a medical experiment etc., I just hope I am truly dead and not buried alive, or burned alive like that James Bond movie I think "Diamonds are forever".

But now that I am no longer technically terminally ill since I have had a life saving transplant, I won't think about those morbid thought 😀

westpest

Hi Myhappy256
Thank you for your comments. I must admit I had a laugh at thinking about poor people getting their legs broken to fit in a coffin and re-using coffins etc. Sorry I do have a weird sense of humour. My husband and me are total opposites when it comes to being buried or cremated. I want to be cremated as I don’t want worms or other creepy things crawling around me. Not only that but with a grave yard if the wait for 99 years after the last person was buried then they can dig up the graves? Goodness knows what happens the the remains then. My husband is determined to be buried. I asked him who will visit the grave or tend to the grave. Other than me there is no one. He want me to be buried with him but I said no chance! Oh I heard that they’re now thinking of putting coffins standing up so to speak, as it is believed less room would be required!

well done on getting your transplant and wishing you many long happy years

Ranald