Universal credit review savings enquiry

Ive also felt very unclear about this with UC. UC does not count income as capital immediately that much is clear.
For working out declarable capital it all hinges on when unspent benefit income becomes capital… is the date we have to declare savings exactly the same date as when the previous UC payment becomes capital? If that was true it would mean we only had the payment for 3 weeks before it became capital- some people argue that it doesnt become capital until the next month. I tend to think they are right but really wish it was spelt out better somewhere official- if anyone has any links I would also be very interested in this.

Its embarrassing how confusing Im finding this.

"your income is counted as savings if it has not been spent by the end of the assessment period after the one in which it was recieved."

So say my assessment period runs from 4th to 3rd and Im paid on the 10th.
That would mean I recieve the 4th Dec- 3rd Jan assessment period payment on the 10th Jan -thats when I "recieve it", that date falls into the (4th Jan - 3rd Feb assessment period).

So I declare anything thats left from the 10th Jan payment on the 3rd March (4th Feb -3rd March assessment period)?

Is that correct?

Yes, that's right. 🙂

In your case, because you are well below £6000, it does not matter which figure you put down.

It is not worth the time and stress of trying to do the full calculation.

Just put down everything in your accounts on the final day of the assessment period. That way it's all over and done within 30 seconds and you haven't got to calculate anything. It will not make any difference to your payments unless you go over £6000.

They won't automatically deduct the COL payments, but again, that does not matter in your case, because you are well below £6000. There is no need to even mention the COL payments to them. Doing that will most likely mean they will then ask for bank statements going all the back to 2022 when the COLs were first paid.

I know you're struggling with this but honestly it doesn't need to be this complicated in your case because you are so far below £6000. Just put the exact figure from each account down and that will be perfectly acceptable in your case.

Not quite. It gets more complicated for those of us on PIP due to the 4 weekly payments.

The same rule applies. So any unspent PIP income becomes capital at the end of the UC assessment period following the UC AP in which it was paid.

So with PIP it could actually be around 4-8 weeks depending on how close to the end of the UC assessment period the PIP payment was received.

Sorry, but that isn't a particularly helpful post at all.

It absolutely does matter whether the money is capital, income or disregarded capital for many claimants.

If someone has £8000 in the bank, £1800 of that could be disregarded COL payment, £1500 of that could be UC/Housing element income waiting to be spent on rent & bills.

That means they only have £4,700 in capital. So there are no deductions for this person if declared correctly. However, if they declare the full amount of £8000, they will be deducted £35 for that month. May not sound like much, but over a year that works out as more than £400 lost through over-declaring capital. So it definitely does matter for people who are close to, or over £6000.

It's also even more critical at the top end. If that same person has £18,000 in the bank, declaring that would immediately end their UC claim, with no possibility of re-opening when savings drop, meaning they have to go through a full new claim with ID verification and another WCA all over again. If they declared it correctly, as £14,700 after disregards, they keep the claim open, and receive all of the money they're entitled to at that point.

For people well under £6000, it does not matter at all, just put down the full amount across the accounts. But for people who's total is over £6000 then that's when income and disregards really make a difference.