New claim and capital 7 months ago

Does anyone know the exact question on a new claim for UC regarding capital over £16,000 that someone had 7 months ago? Does it ask if you have had more than £16,000 in the last 6 months or a year ago? I haven’t done a new claim for a little while and can’t remember the wording.

I have someone potentially making a single new claim for UC and Council Tax Support but they had over £16,000 7 months ago from a lump sum pension payment when they took medical retirement. The money, I believe, was used to repay debts and their capital is now under the threshold. Is this going to be a problem?

Many thanks.

Surely it doesn’t matter exactly what form the question takes? If I deliberately disposed of £2 million in capital 2 years ago, it would be only right that a notional capital decision was made now - even if the online claim asks only about capital I had within the previous 6 months.

In this case, you believe the capital was disposed of to repay debts - I would concentrate on that. There are no questions in UC about whether a debt was immediately repayable as there were/are with legacy benefits - if you owe the money and have repaid it, that cannot count as deliberate deprivation.