You can have up to £10,000 in savings before it affects your claim. Every £500 above that amount counts as £1 in weekly earnings. If you get a pension credit guarantee credit, you can have more than £16,000 in savings without affecting your claim. There is no upper capital limit for the pension credit.
However, you can get a reduced amount if you have more than £10,000 of capital. There is no maximum capital limit for the pension credit, but you can receive a reduced amount if you have more than £10,000 of capital. For every £500 or part of £500 of capital over £10,000, you will be considered to have an “estimated income” of £1 per week. This is in addition to any other income you have, such as a pension.
You can use a benefit calculator to check what benefits you can get. Check the national minimum wage calculator on GOV, UK to see if you are being paid the right amount. You can also check if your employer owes you money. The calculator calculates the weekly income, or tariff revenues, that the government assumes you get from these savings by assessing your entitlement to benefits (this is shown in the “Weekly Income Assumed from Savings” box).
The cut in your benefits depends on the number of free rooms you have, it is reduced by 14% of the “eligible rent” for a spare bedroom and by 25% of the “eligible rent” for two or more bedrooms. You can apply for Universal Credit if you are studying full-time and have been assessed to have limited work capacity before starting the course. Consult the government benefit calculator to understand how your savings could affect your application for universal credit. If you are eligible and claim certain benefits, the government steps in and makes interest payments on the first £200,000 of your outstanding mortgage for as long as you are unable to pay them.
The rules for savings and benefits may seem complicated at first, but once you know how the system works, it's easy to calculate how much UC you'll receive. Since this pays only interest, you'll have to cover the rest of the money yourself or temporarily check if you can switch to an interest-only mortgage. If you're considering applying for benefits, it's important to understand how your savings affect the amount of money you receive.
