Savings over £6000 awaiting outcome

Is the £87 a separate debt recovery? Or is it a capital deduction on your statement?

£87 would be the deduction for having around £11,000 in savings.

That will be deducted every month if so. If you've had £11,000 for 5 years then the repayment would be over £5000. But as the money has been building up over the years, it is impossible for us to calculate it accurately without more information.

Also as above, if you had the Cost Of Living payments, they should be disregarded. And if you had any benefit backpayments or insurance payouts then those can be disregarded for 12 months in most cases, or indefinitely if the payments were over £5000.

I am sorry to hear about your situation.

Sadly, if you went over £16,000 at any point, then all of the UC you have been paid since then will have been overpaid. All entitlement to UC stops at £16,000.

If UC have made a deduction of £87 on your most recent statement, then that suggests you don't have as much in savings as you think.

Has any of that come from benefits back-payments? Have you removed the cost of living payments? Have you removed your income (current months benefit payments) from that?

I've done a rough calculation, just based on those totals minus the cost of living payments, which comes to around £6000 in overpayments. However, as above, if you did go over the £16,000 at any point then it could be a lot higher. If you haven't removed any income or backpayments then it could be lower.

It is quite a common mistake so you shouldn't feel a fool. Just be open & honest with the UC staff and they should get the overpayments calculated exactly from bank statements, and then you can either pay it back in one lump or as smaller monthly repayments.

Sorry, I missed that part. As you have only just migrated to UC, it is ESA who will need to recover any overpayments from before you migrated. The savings deduction is roughly the same on ESA & UC, so the figures are still the same.

Yes, you will continue to receive New Style ESA, regardless of what happens with UC.

No problem.

Your New Style ESA should continue as it is.

Your UC should continue as it is - with a deduction every month for your savings. (£4.35 per month for every £250 over £6,000).

If your savings change each month, you must report those to UC on the final day of the assessment period. (The assessment period dates are shown on your statement.).

And because of the historic overpayment, ESA will now send you a form requesting bank statements going back over many years. It will take them months to go through it all, so don't expect a quick reply from them.

Once they calculate the exact amount, then they will send you a debt recovery letter, which you can either pay off in full, or pay back slowly in monthly payments.

Ah ok, did you send all of the bank statements since you were below £6000? I had to send over 7 years worth of statements myself.

Sadly this does take a long time. I've been waiting around 9 months now. And there are another 2 people on here that have been waiting even longer. I know it's easier said than done but try to take your mind off of it until you get a response from them. There's nothing more you can do in the meantime.

Yes that's right, the 6th is the final day of your assessment period so that is the day to put your savings in. That will be the same date every month.

You will then get paid on the 13th of every month, unless that falls on a weekend or bank holiday. Then you'll be paid on the last working day before the 13th. (But the assessment period dates do not change).

Technically you only have to put your savings in if they've gone up or down through another £250 barrier. (So £11,000, £11,250, £11,500, £11,750, etc). Though if you do put them in every month, then you can be totally sure of not getting anything wrong.

Yes, there is at least one other member on here in a very similar situation, who had savings over £6000 for several years.

That letter is just a P45. The income-related ESA to UC migration is treated like leaving a job to move to a new one by the tax office (HMRC). You should keep the letter somewhere safe, but you don't need to do anything else with it.

The Job Centre aren't the most reliable with call-backs. Hopefully they will call you by the end of the day.

Hi @aylasnan The call is nothing to worry about.

Please click on the purple text View Post and read through this thread:

They will contact you with an appointment (via UC Journal which I know is confusing) and this appointment is usually done by telephone anyway.

Yes. As explained in the thread all you'll have to do during the call is agree to keep them informed of any changes, same as with UC.