Hi all.

I have a question to put to you all if I may.

I am on ESA and receive PIP as well plus housing benefit. My disabled daughter gets DLA which we put in her bank account as it's her money. I think you can only have £6000 savings and a child £3000, she nearly has that now so I do not know what I can do with her money we do not want to spend it willy nilly on rubbish so what can we do legally? Any help will be gratefully received.

It seems pretty simple to me. Your daughter gets ESA quite rightly so it is her money and not savings as it is her benefit and when you claimed you had under the threshold of money. The DWP has no need to know this money is not being used on a weekly/monthly basis - it is NOT savings, it is benefit payments with no additional income stream. I certainly wouldn't be letting on you have the money saved - it is hers (the familys) right to have the money. If I was in your situation I would be withdrawing a small amount each month to keep it under the threashold and treating her/the family then topping it up again the following month - not illegal and and certainly no ones business what you/your daughter does with the money - DWP have no need to know about what you do with it. Honesty sometimes is the best policy but in this case, and it is what I would do, is keep shctum about it

Thanks for the reply essexmat. Our problem is that my daughter who is nearly four will not be able to lead a normal life so the DLA we save for her is for her future. So we want to save it all and not spend it, we have no need to spend any of it, we do not smoke or drink or have big telly's and things like that so we would spend it for spendings sake and that's something we do not want to do if you see what I mean.

capital of a dependent child is not taken into account as far as I am aware.

:starman59:

Income and savings are completely disregarded for claims to disability living allowance. So for the moment your daughter's benefit can accumulate in her bank account without it affecting your family's current entitlement to benefits. Under current regulations it won't be an issue until circa 2026. If she makes a claim for employment n support (if it still exists) when she turns sixteen.

Obviously we can't predict that far ahead, but cos it may affect her future entitlement to benefits you may wish to spend some of it before then on things that will improve her day to day life. So long as the spend is reasonable, which includes leisure and recreational activities but not designer clothes or a sports car, she shouldn't have any problems with deprivation of capital.

The £3,000 limit on a child's savings only applies to some pre April 04 claims for income support and jobseekers.

Best wishes, Margaret.