UC Review and Capital
Hi Everyone,
I have my review coming up and wanted to know What was you experience like with UCR team calculating your capital?
In one of the months I submitted the amount across mine and my partners bank accounts was £6500 but that was before rent was paid and all other bills. (I had just been paid the week before and had a small bonus from work)
Does the UCR team acknowledge the formula of
amount in acc - income made in the assessment period = capital
Thank you!
Comments
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Hi …
We had our review a couple of months back … it all went well … asked a couple of questions about 2 amounts going out of each bank account etc … just be honest on one of mine i couldnt rem and she ember what it was for … and that was ok … this is the bit you will need … i was asked to update of savings hadnt been done for 4 years !!! i updated everything and we should have been under the £6K but because of when we are paid from UC (middle of the month) and my wages being paid at odd times … and almost every bill going out of the bank at the end of the month … the first month i updated our savings we went over £6K even though we didnt have that much … i explained via my journal that the monies cross over every month … and she understood what i was saying and she told me to put down what we had left in the bank accounts at the end of the month (on the last day) and that was ok … hope that helps
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That’s really helpful! Thank you so much! We’ve got everything submitted now so just waiting for the phone call to be scheduled in.
I don’t know why I feel so anxious, it all seems routine.
There’s just the one month it looks like we’re over £6k but we’d both been paid within the last 10 days and our big bills not leaving until a few days after! Hopefully if that comes up I’ll be able to explain it!0 -
where you said one month you went above £6k did you have to provide more bank statements or was your explanation enough?
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Thats what happened to us … all the big bills for example rent … council tax … etc all come out last week of the month … so when we get our UC on the 16th it looks like we are loaded lol but none of the bills have gone out … thats when she said just put done whats in each bank account on the last day of the month … so i went by the previous month and everything was fine and she updated our savings accordingly
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The month "when we went over" was the same month as our review … she asked for us to update savings and bank details … right in the middle of the month !!! so no bills had gone out !! i put down what we had … as no point in lying … and within a week i got a message to say we had gone over … so i put a message in our journal explaining how and when we pay our bills and at the end of the month we have like £60 left between both bank accounts not the £1500 thats sitting there in the middle of the month ! and thats when she said just put down what you have left in the bank accounts on the last day of the month … and that was all they needed
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oh okay! Ours is back in July so they’ve got the following 3 months statements to see we haven’t stashed money and it’s left our accounts!
Seeing as wages capital isn’t included until the following assessment period our capital was way below the 6k limit!
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Just to clarify, you should be declaring savings on the last day of your Assessment Period. Not the last day of the calendar month.
If your APs are roughly similar to the calendar month then that works fine, but as everyone has different AP's it's worth noting that some people will still have a lot of income showing on the last day of the calendar month.
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I’ve just seen this and I haven’t been doing this but the amount I’ve got on my UC as savings is actually more than what I do have but under 6k.
I’ll see what the review team says but I think I’ll have to start reporting my capital on the last day of my AP going forward!1 -
As long as it's under £6k on the last day of the AP then you don't need to report it each time.
Some of the UC review staff are now recommending the people do it each month regardless, but there is no legal requirement to do so.
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one month it was over £6k but that is before taking off income which doesn’t count as capital until the following AP
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This is where it gets more complicated unfortunately. Calculating income to deduct from capital is difficult. The problem is you need to add up any outgoings since receiving the income and deduct those from the payments first. That leaves just the Unspent Income which is the amount to be disregarded, leaving just the capital to declare. When you have multiple payment dates during the month it becomes virtually impossible. It's not as simple as just taking away the full income payment (unless you literally haven't spent anything since the incoming payment). I've been trying to find out whether the review staff have a quick work around for this, as the actual calculation takes so much time and is so easy to get wrong, I simply don't believe they are doing this calculation for every AP for every person that they're reviewing.
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Okay, hopefully just waiting to see what happens.
On Reddit there is a post that shows the UCR agents work stream and they will have my current balance minus any income to show my overall capital.
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That is interesting. It sounds like they're deducting full income instead of unspent income in that case. Not sure if Reddit links are allowed on here so I will search for that myself.
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Yes. Have a look on the site. As you said calculating unspent income would be an impossible task. On the UC site it explains how capital is calculated
The deduct full income made during the AP, then whatever is left over in bank accounts will count towards capital in the following AP
EXAMPLE
AP - 23-22nd
Left in account on 22/06 - £6000
Total amount made in wages during AP - £3000
Total capital in AP - £3000
This then carries over to the next month
left in acc 22/07 - £7000Total amount made in AP - £2500
Total capital - £4500
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Thank you. That's not the correct way to do it but it is much quicker.
The automated system doesn't do this. It specifically asks for the bank account total when you declare the amount. And it uses that exact amount to make any savings deductions from the next payment. It doesn't deduct the UC payment (which it has direct access to) and it doesn't ask for any other payments such as PIP.
For people who work, they have to declare earnings separately (or the company does it for them) so earnings income might be disregarded from savings for them. I don't have any experience with that.
(PS - I can't find the page on Reddit showing the work stream unfortunately.)
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People have said UC payments should be deducted however UCR teams don’t do this!
For me, my income is from work which is reported to UC every month and they are aware of the amount so they should factor this in.
I can’t link the page but the title is “Capital Questions” and someone has commented with a snapshot of the agents work stream which says to enter earnings and other income, not UC payment
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Thank you, I've found it now. Very useful to see proof of the way they're working this out.
Only unspent UC income should be deducted. As the final day of the AP will be around 3 weeks after the UC payment, most of the UC should be spent by that point in theory. That's why deducting full income doesn't work for UC payments. But to see they're not deducting any UC income is very interesting.
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