How to calculate Universal Credit Capital and COL payments?

MrBojangles

Hi everyone,

I'm just looking for some clarification on exactly how the capital calculation at the end of an assessment period works. Am I right in saying that you would get the total from all accounts and then subtract any work earnings, the Universal Credit payment itself, any PIP payment and any Child Benefit from the total? Whatever is left then equals your capital? Anything that you haven't spent then becomes relevant as savings at the end of the next assessment period?

I'm also looking for clarification on historic Cost of Living Payments. Am I right in saying that if you received them, as long as your total capital never falls below the amount of COL payments received, they are totally disregarded? So let's say you had £8000 and over the years received £1500 COL payments. So long as your capital doesn't go below £1500, the £1500 COL disregard still applies? And if your capital goes down to say £500, then £500 COL disregard still applies?

I'm sorry if these questions have been asked a million times before, many thanks in advance!

OverlyAnxious

Hi,

This is a complicated area and you may even get varying opinions.

Firstly you shouldn't deduct the full Universal Credit payment. Only unspent UC still counts as income. You will have already spent a lot of that by the time you have to declare savings 3 weeks after the payment.

The UC review team don't deduct any UC. Technically that's not correct either, but it's the best compromise they've got. And that is what will matter if you ever get reviewed.

Yes, deduct one full PIP payment and one Child Benefit payment, and your earnings from work.

Regarding the COL payments, you are generally correct. However I'm not convinced that dropping to £500 means you can still deduct £500 of COL's. I think all COL's become void after you drop below the total amount even by a small number. I haven't seen any proper legislation covering that specific scenario though. I'm still deducting mine in full.

Rachel_Scope

Thanks for explaining @OverlyAnxious. As they have said, unfortunately it is quite complicated @MrBojangles. Someone asked a similar question recently here

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1149624#Comment_1149624

You will see that myself, @OverlyAnxious and @Kimi87 all tried to explain it in different ways. I have no personal experience in this but I believe they do.

MrBojangles

Thanks very much for your swift and thorough replies. With regards to PIP and Child Benefit, I'm struggling slightly to get my head around their status for UC purposes. Are they classed as income in the assessment period they're received and then as capital if there's anything left from them at the end of the next assessment period, or does it work differently? If you know of any legislations or anything in writing that officially confirms their status, I'd be thrilled to know of it.

Kimi87

Yes PIP & Child Benefit are classed as income in the AP they are received. Anything unspent is counted as capital in the following AP.