can i give money to charity

messyblonde

Hello

I think i made a mistake with benefits and i dont know what to do because everyone is given diff advice to me

TLDR:: I got 12,000 back pay, paid 2 k off debts and gave 10k to charity

Long version

I been massivly underpaid by uc for years and struggling so bad they wouldnt listen any time i said to them about it and i had to rely on foodbanks and charity to help survive, they kept sanctioning me but i was trying to do everything i could but they wouldnt listen that i was meant to be on lcwra in october i finally had a review and they realised error and gave me a bit over 12,000 back pay with my income now correct i dont really need the money and after paying my credit card debt i got in because of no money i wanted to help the food bank that kept me alive for the last 3 years so i asked uc if the savings would mean i dont get uc and they said no because it was an error i can use it how i like and it doesnt change my uc so i gave 10,000 to the charity so they can help other people who get in same situation because of uc errors but in december they asked for a review and me to send my bank statements which i did and they suspended my uc and say ive probably been overpaid and am not allowed to give money away i asked citizen adivce and they said i was wrong to give it away but uc said i could spend how i like and now i have nothing and uc arent paying me during review how long will the review take

Rachel_Scope

Hi @messyblonde and welcome to the community. What an amazing and generous donation you made! I'm sorry it's complicated matters with UC. I just want to preface this by saying I'm not a benefits expert but I have found some information which may be helpful.

• Backdated benefits do not count as savings for the one year. Your amount was over £5,000 which means you could have longer if it was for compensation, an error, or point of law. So if you donated the money within a year of receiving it, UC should not count it as savings.
• If it was after a year, they could consider it Deprivation of Capital.
• If they believe you've been overpaid and you disagree, you can apply for a Mandatory Reconsideration within one month of receiving the decision letter.

I'm not sure how long reviews take but hopefully one of our members will.

How are you coping without the UC payments?

OverlyAnxious

Hi,

You definitely can give some money to charity when on UC. However £10,000 is a very large amount which will trigger system flags.

I believe that legally UC should allow it in this case because it was still disregarded at the time when it was spent/donated. However, I would expect a bit of hassle trying to get them to accept that. It would not normally be allowed.

Unfortunately there are no set timescales for reviews. Just depends on the workload in your area at the time. I would like to hope it won't take more than a couple of weeks, but obviously there were a lot of holidays over the Xmas period which will affect that.