buy a new bed and a washing machine things you can,t live with out .

christine

Hiya Kim,

For them to have come to that decision, they must have decided that you have £17,500 in Savings/ Capital , since the upper limit is £16,000.

Is their calculation of your savings correct ?, you do have the right of appeal of the decision within one month of that decision.Or for a written statement of reasons. And have you been on IS a while or is this a new claim.(ie how come your capital has gone up ) What is the make up of their figure , is it all cash in the bank ,etc.
Income support is a means tested benefit , and therefore means that you have to use your savings to live on.

Even if you spend the £1500 excess , it could be regarded as "disposing of income in order to gain benefits". So you would need to be careful about this as if you spend it , they could then regard you as still having the income , and hence still not entitled to benefits.(Notional Income)

Income Support rules are that you will receive full benefit (minus non dependant deductions) IF YOU HAVE UNDER £6000.
Between £6000 and £16,000 , you will lose £1 of benefit for every £250 of capital. (Tariff Income)

So if they regard you as having £17500 savings and you dispose of £2,000 =£15,500 you would lose £38 of benefit a week due to "Tariff Income ". That's if they accept that you spent the money correctly.

You really need face to face advice , to see if the decision is challenge able , and to find the best direction for you to go in since you cannot just spend money without advice . I hate to say this but if you are on Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit , they will use the same rules of Capital and Savings as the DWP , so you need to tell them of your change of Circumstances in order to avoid overpayments.
Get an appointment with an advice agency as soon as you can as this is a very complex and specialist subject normally relying on Tribunal decisions.


Rich :)

Thanks for the info Rich, we have made a list of things we want to buy, so we are going to do some spending soon, it just all wrong to me we got an inheritance but can't enjoy all of it, this system is all wrong, we were going to keep some for later love Kimxx

Hi, thought I would give you an update, by the time we repaid over paid council tax, housing benefit and income support we are down to £7.000, would be long before I can apply again, but unsure whether too or not, the only things we have bought for ourselves is our funeral plans and wills, I am only 53 but you never know love Kimxx