Declaring Savings/U.C Reviews

Im getting really confused by it all , I’m going to go over 6k in next few months and have to report it , I’m just going to put all my bank details on my UC journal and let them sort it out because I can’t deal with any of it.

Hi @charlie72 - ours was probably a slightly unique situation.

What happened was that my son's support worker decided to initiate the application for UC (i was informed but it was one of these things where the support group like to ensure everyone's claiming all their entitlements)

So it was the support worker that went with my son to the gp for fit notes and to the JC. I was not involved at all.

My son is verbal but lacks capacity and would not have been aware that his Grandma had gifted him money which i had locked away in a secure trust for him.

In addition, he had savings in an instant access account at the building soc.

In fact, the support worker hit a wall when it was found my son had an appointee for his dla (as he was on then) in order to proceed i had to give up appointeeship.

Dwp visited my son and me at home and decided me giving up appointeeship was a bad idea.

So i then had to take over the UC claim. By that time, i think all i had to do was the work capacity questionnaire and my son went into LCWRA group.

So, checking the journal was not something i was doing at all really. I think his first payment was Nov 2019.

By sheer chance, march 2020, i was applying for his pip and only then discovered UC was means tested and anything over 6k had to be declared!

I knew he had 6k exactly in the trust account. I did not know what was in the instant access as it had just lain untouched for years.

I put a note in the journal right away. Within an hour or two, someone from our local job centre phoned me, very reassuringly and said he'd set up an appt for me to go in.

I then had to go and get an updated statement for the instant access account and found there was almost 7k in there!!

I must admit that interview at the JC was awful. But i think i just got a horrid staff member. She was monosyllabic. And intimidating. She kept looking at the statements, then at me. She took copies, went to talk to someone else in hushed tones and then came back to tell me the 6k in the trust could be disregarded until it matured. So only the instant access to declare.

That was fine. £17.40 deduction each month

As soon as the trust matured in November 2021, i updated right away. I was not called in at that time. So now there was just shy of 13k altogether and the correct deduction was paid.

Where i have run into trouble is this:

The swindon review team contacted me for the 4 months uploaded statements.

I got updated values for the savings ones - mistake number one the value had now risen over the past 3 years to £13600 because of the interest.

Mistake two - my son's current account balance was sitting at 3k on two of the submitted bank statements.

I put a note on the journal to say i thought capital had exceeded 16k.

An agent from swindon advised me to update capital through the savings section of the journal (she should not have done that, i later find)

I did that. She phoned me, apologising and laughing that she would have to close the claim.

She did not close the claim.

A few days later, i was called to my local JC with statements. This time the guy was friendly. The next day my local JC closed the claim and journal.

It was after this, i found out COL payments are on a permanent disregard and my son's capital never exceeded 16k at all!!!

So now i have an MR in but there will be big overpayment for the many months where capital was between the declared 13k and the £14.5 k it rose to sometimes.

At the moment, they have not requested extra statements but with the journal now closed, it has made everything much harder. I think the entire claim right back to 2019 needs reviewed as i have never declared capital in the current account.

I'm thinking the amount we owe back is around £2800 ish from my rough working which my son has in savings so if i am right that is ok. Obvs if they want more than 13k back, we have a problem!!

The civic penalty for error is only 50 quid.

I don't think you have anything to worry about if you have been telling the truth and making honest mistakes. I'm not worried about prosecution as it's not in their interests, even if they don't believe me. I have told them i will be re paying as soon as they calculate what we owe.

It is so easy too to declare in your account. I am kicking myself! I think they have added current account as a new thing. Im sure that wasn't there in 2021!

You now literally input the balances of all your accounts in the boxes on AP date. So simple. I never looked at it since 2021 til last month!

I would expect them to ask for bank statements as proof of when your capital went above £6,000.

I think poppy said UC have got it wrong and they are making up the rules , I think if it’s in your savers account in your name just keep it there , should be ok I think 🤷‍♂️

ok thanks . It’s a terrible minefield that stresses all of us out . I still have a lot of my pip backpay that’ll take me over the 6k soon when the 12 months disregard ends and I wish I’d just have blew it all last year so I don’t have to deal with this.

No proof, no statements, no journal messages, nothing at all.

They don't even look at it as far as I know. I asked them to deduct the cost of living payments from the overall total, but they didn't do that. So I've been deducting those myself before declaring the figure ever since. And again, never been asked for proof or had any acknowledgement of declaring savings changes. The only thing that happens is the deductions figure on the statement changes when the next one gets generated.

I'm sure they can ask for statements in some cases, but never have in mine. All you can really do is wait and see whether they ask.

Statements can be easily uploaded into the journal as PDF if you are asked to provide them.

Yes, I'm having to update mine every month now, on the final day of each assessment period.