Hi there,
I am on ESA and having been diligently saving I am very fortunate to have almost £5500 in capital. I understand that once I do have £5500 in capital I must inform the DWP.
I know this is stating the obvious but I presume that any income I receive I am free to spend however I like and there's nothing the DWP can do about this.
The key point being that income only becomes capital following the period within which it is paid. So for example, my ESA payments are made on a fortnightly basis, therefore they only become capital after two weeks have passed from payment. This situation is complicated by the fact that I also receive DLA which is paid every four weeks, so I would presume it's possible for me to have this DLA payment in my account for four weeks before it's deemed part of my capital.
I'm just concerned because I know how useless the DWP is generally, especially the advisors on the telephone and I expect they won't understand how this works. I just don't want to end up having to take the DWP to court as I continue to save up.