As part of your Universal Credit claim, you (and your partner) must report the amount of savings and capital that you have. More information is available on what counts as savings in Universal Credit.

If you jointly own capital with another person, only the amount that you and/or your partner own is taken into account.

How your savings and other capital affects Universal Credit

Unless your savings and other capital can be disregarded or treated as non-work income, the full amount you have reported will be taken into account as follows:

Capital of £6,000 or less

This will not affect how much Universal Credit you can get, but you must still declare it.

Capital over £6,000 but less than £16,000

This will affect how much Universal Credit you can get. For each £250 (or any part of £250) you have over £6,000, your Universal Credit will reduce by £4.35 in each assessment period.

For example, if you have savings of £6,200 your Universal Credit will reduce by £4.35.

Capital over £16,000

You will not be eligible for any Universal Credit.

The one exception to this is if you move over to UC from tax credits by managed migration, in which case your capital won't affect your eligibility for UC for 12 assessments periods.

Evidence of your savings

You may need to provide evidence of your savings and other capital.

You must report information about all savings and other capital that you and/or your partner have. This information may be found on documents like:

• bank, building society or Post Office books or statements
• investment and share certificates
• a professional property valuation (other than the property you live in)
• National Savings Certificates
• annuity or trust fund documents
• Premium Bonds

If you can't find these you will need to contact the person or company that can provide this information.

Please note: if you have deliberately deprived yourself of capital in order to claim Universal Credit, you may be treated as still having that capital.