It must be bad - Income Support / Housing Benefit

[RichardCranium]

Having been through the process, I can assure you it is quite straightforward. Scroll down to post number 12.

[Gary_Jones]

Thanks Richard and everyone else for your contributions.

[Worzel]

In hindsight I should have started the ball rolling with this a while ago but you know how it is...."something will turn up next week"...that was 8 weeks ago!

Some good information here, thanks. Got a couple of questions.

1. Are savings held in an ISA exempt from the £16k threshold? (this was supposed to be my pension but I've already raided it!)

2. To get all the "extra" benefits on top of JSA it looks like you have to use the DWP website. Is that right?

[lje]

No - ISA savings are not except from the £16K limit. If you and your wife have over £16k savings (in ISAs or elsewhere) then you can't get income based JSA. Also, if you haven't been paying NI in the UK over the last 2 years you won't be able to get contribution based JSA either.

[HairyArsedBloke]

It doesn't apply to me as I couldn't get any benefits in the UK if I tried, but what is the definition of 'savings'? Does this mean just cash on deposit, savings plans such as ISA, or other things such as stock and bonds. What about other things such as physical assets such as, dare I say, gold.

What about the margin held by your broker - I can just imagine the fun of explaining that one down the job centre.

[northernladuk]

Savings is anything that can be converted back to cash else everyone would just by tons of bonds and start claiming allowances.

I also didn't think the term was savings. I thought it was 'assets' so this included buy to lets and the like. Last time I filled one of these forms in I was annoyed to see them asking about my house and the value in it and asking if minded independant surveyor coming round. Does this mean they also include the equity in your home in the 16k???

I also believe gold is treated as a currency and not a commodity so I would say falls firmly in to the saving bracket.

[George Parr]

Savings is anything that can be converted back to cash else everyone would just by tons of bonds and start claiming allowances.

I also didn't think the term was savings. I thought it was 'assets' so this included buy to lets and the like. Last time I filled one of these forms in I was annoyed to see them asking about my house and the value in it and asking if minded independant surveyor coming round. Does this mean they also include the equity in your home in the 16k???

I also believe gold is treated as a currency and not a commodity so I would say falls firmly in to the saving bracket.

I'm pretty sure that gold, shares, holdings of a foreign currency or a BTL property would count as 'savings' but a house you are living in doesn't count, even if you have a large amounty of equity.

It is worth mentioning that you have to delcare your partner's savings, even if held in her sole name; if these plus yours add up to over £16k than you cannot claim. I thought the days when a wife's chattels were automatically owned by her husband were long gone but the Government knows best.

Also, if she works more that 24 hrs a week, regardless of hourly rate, she will be expected to support you and you cannot claim.

[northernrampage]

you probably know this....

but mentioning if not. Unemployment offices will also pay your travel to different cities for job interviews. I'm up north and regularly go to London for interviews, so if I've a last min interview it can save me the 130 it costs me to go at the last min in rush hour.

This also applies to contract work, but you need to call the benefit office in advance to make an appt to get the travel warrant as you can't claim the train fare afterwards. With petrol money, I think you can claim afterwards, worth seeing.

They will pay for overnight stays but it's only about £30 a night they will supply, not the full thing.

I think you can also get money for interview clothes, but not done that myself .

[AlfredJPruffock]

I recall back in 1981 - at the time I was claiming benefits in Portsmouth - got offered work in the Shetland Islands - the dole office arranged for a train from Portsmouth - London - then London to Glasgow - then a flight from Glasgow Airport to Shetland.

Free travel - and a flight from one end of the UK o the other - not bad - eh ?

[DimPrawn]

Would a yacht moored off Monaco with a helicopter on the deck count as savings?