Recently I heard about the Help to Save account for people on Universal Credit and because you can save and over 4 years the GOV will double your money it sounded very good! For every £1 saved you get the £1 added on as a bonus .There are some t&cs though. I opened an account but during the process they need forms of identification which I could not provide. My son does not drive and never will and his passport has expired which did not work. Other id is a P60, working tax credit and credit card stuff.
I have not got a P60 for him because he does not work. He gets UC but he has never had a credit card.
I am his appointee for benefits so I have access to all his money. He has no concept of money.
Do you think that I should apply for a credit card so that he has a credit history for id purpose?
Is that fraudulent ,unethical or naughty or what?
When I phoned HMRC (because that is what it says to do if you don't have id) the lady said he cannot have a Help to Save account because he does not work!!
Another example of discrimination?
Written by
Charlie2750
Community friend
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Hi. As blue4rose said, the scheme is only for those in low paid employment (so low that they can claim UC). A lot of times we do feel we're discriminated against but this isn't really one of those occasions - it's not open to anyone who does not work e.g. pensioners or children.
Thank you for your replies I can understand that. A friend who I met through our local Mencap Society meeting had suggested it because her daughter , who has MPLD and does not work managed to claim. Her dad or mum had claimed on her behalf .I believe they managed simply because they were able to get through the identification process!They may have used a current passport(my sons passport has expired ) and the other means of ID would be a P60 and a credit card statement, which of course my son does not have yet! Proving Identity appears sometimes a stumbling block and therefore my question. The eligibility criteria do not sometimes make it clear. Thank you for your replies.
Just so you know, with savings over £6000, for each £250 over £6000 UC is reduced by £4.35 per month, when savings reach £16000, they are no longer entitled to UC. When they are living at home it is easy for surplus UC and PIP to accumulate, as parents are not supposed to charge rent as then it would be classed as a business and we would have to pay tax on it. We just take a quarter towards food and utilities, his share in the household, and he pays for his clothes and trips out etc. He also receives PIP which isn't means tested.So really there is no incentive to save for our loved ones who have lifelong learning disabilities, as it will effect their benefits, which seems so wrong, I've heard that in some cases they even take trust funds into account, bit of a catch 22 situation to be in.
Sorry Bluey203 I understand what you are saying but I don't understand where the idea of not charging rent because it would be classed as a business comes from?Thomas at 35 lives with myself and my wife and no other adult in the house. I charge him for everything I can think of because he lives here. If we had another son living with us I would expect them to contribute when they are earning.I think rent is a probably not the right term but Thomas' benefits add up to a considerable amount so he pays for the Motability car and outings with our local mencap society .He has daycare 5 days a week and he pays £86 each month to LA for his part of care(contribution) and the Day care centre charge for transport £5 each day and drinks and other things like cooking and more recently they have taken to charging for entry fees to outings etc .I have not quite kept a record but it all adds up.
I note you take a quarter ?Is that him paying a quarter of all the household bills and food?
Hi. Yes we take a monthly amount to cover food and household bills, which is a quarter of the total amount as there are 4 adults in our house. I totally agree that we pay everything that he uses/ needs from his benefits too. The reason I don't feel we can include 'rent' was from posts that I read a couple years ago, even though I feel we should be allowed to, just as when me and my husband and most people would have paid to our parents when working and living at home, and just as any adult has to pay when living independently. I've included the link to the discussion here - healthunlocked.com/mencap/p...
I’ve no idea on the help to save thing but when my son was at home I registered him to vote so he had some ID with his own name and address on. He now lives in residential and really needs his own bank account as at present I can only give them cash for him or they phone me to book tickets etc for him. I need to get him a passport which I know is going to be difficult 🙄. As for savings my son spends all his money as he is out and about all the time at his house but any savings over £4,000 will start to affect benefits anyway.
My sons passport recently needed renewing, he was a child the last time he had it, now 20. He is unable to sign his name on the passport, so they ask for a professional or doctor who knows him to write a letter confirming why he is unable to sign. Then they need to forward his photo with some questions to someone who knows him for identification, we forwarded the email of the psychiatric nurse who also wrote the letter to say why he couldnt sign, but she wasn't accepted to confirm his ID, her letter was accepted though. Apparently for the ID you have to forward the email of someone who knows him as a friend, or a neighbour who has an accepted professional job, luckily our neighbour was an occupational therapist which was accepted for ID, the other professionals in our sons life wouldn't be accepted as they only know him in a professional capacity not as a 'friend'. The powers that be do like to make things difficult🙄
oh god that sounds like a nightmare. My son has a care manager at CHC who fund him. She’s a registered nurse so hopefully that’ll suffice. Plus he lives in residential care so hopefully they’ll be able to vouch for him. What a palaver!
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