Reply To: Can this capital be disregarded?
Mike HughesThanks for everyone’s input. I don’t know enough about how things work while a COP is being set up. In my case it appears someone has been able to arrange for the claimant to access a set amount of their savings every week. I am guessing that the amount was what they judged would be enough to cover their weekly living costs.
I understand that in this circumstance the capital cannot be “disregarded” as schedule 6 doesn’t apply.
Therefore, they either have savings to the value of £30,000 or they don’t. My thought is that if the claimant needed access to £16,000 of their savings could it be arranged that they got it? If the answer is yes then surely we have to treat them as having too much savings? Mike, do you know more about this? The fact that currently the arrangement is £150 a week, is that a set figure in these circumstances that can’t be changed? Does that mean that say they owed £16,000 in unpaid bills that they were being chased for that nothing could be done until the COP is finalised?
My point was really that you need more detail on this. There’s a difference between taking £150 and actually being able to take what you want, whether less or more, and taking £150 because you’re explicitly prevented from taking anything else. In the former, it’s all in scope. In the latter I’d say it’s income not capital.