Endowment policy maturing

The family I am helping have an interest only mortgage and the endowment policy is maturing soon, which will have enough to pay off the mortgage and a bit more, but not enough to put them over £6k once the mortgage is paid off.

The endowment has to be paid into their account, so for 1 day, they will have over £16k of assets.

Paying off their mortgage debt should be acceptable under UC deprivation of capital regulations, so going forward, should not be seen as notional capital.

However, the change of circumstances ie assets over £16k would affect the whole month’s assessment period, so I am concerned they would lose out on a month’s UC.

Any thoughts anyone? I was thinking, if they cant get the payment to go directly to the mortgage provider or solicitor, then have the payment come in on the first day of the assessment period and cancel the UC the day before, then start a new claim the day after.

Thank you

Tim

This shouldn’t be an issue. Whilst the change (money into account) is backdated to the start of the AP in which it occurs, the equal and opposite change (money out of account) works in the same way so it is a non-event for UC purposes. Unless they are unfortunate enough to have the money paid to them on 11.30pm on the final day of the AP, they should be fine - just don’t dawdle.

Thank you Elliot for that, I was concerned that going over £16k might immediately stop a UC claim the moment the money hits the bank and is reported.