Means test child savings accounts

vix8 · 03-11-2011 4:42pm #1

Hi there,
My husband was made redundant and is on JB, but this will expire soon and he'll have to be means tested for JA.
My question is: does welfare trawl through all relevant PPS numbers in household when doing a bank search? ie, will the means test cover the money we've been saving as college funds from Child Benefit in our children's bank accounts? Do we need to be locking this away better in a trust fund so that it's not counted as our own means/savings?
Thanks for you advice in advance
Vix

Eoin · 03-11-2011 5:05pm

moved to State Benefits

jaffaD · 03-11-2011 5:19pm

I had a means test recently and they asked if I had any investments so i'd imagine if you put money in a trust fund they would still need to know about it, so I think they would need you to declare the savings that you have.
It's unfortunate that it is savings for your child but in fairness the welfare officer should no if you have money and calculate welfare payments based on that.

ssbob · 03-11-2011 5:24pm

Technically the money is in your childrens bank accounts in their name so assuming that they are the only ones that can withdraw from their accounts then i would assume that this would not be considered your husbands means, however it should be declared to the social welfare officer.

Citizens advice were very informative when I rang them recently about a JSA query.

Means test child savings accounts

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