A petition has been launched urging the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to revise the capital limits for Universal Credit claimants. The campaign, featured on the Labour Party government petition website, calls for an increase in the existing thresholds to reflect inflation since they were originally set in 2006.
Currently, Universal Credit reduces support for claimants with savings exceeding £6,000 and stops payments altogether for those with savings above £16,000. These thresholds apply to both single and joint claims and have not been adjusted for inflation since their introduction.
The petition demands that the government increase the lower capital limit from £6,000 to approximately £10,700, and the upper limit from £16,000 to about £28,500, which would restore their real-term values. It also advocates for automatic annual uprating to maintain the thresholds' value over time and calls for higher limits for joint claimants to account for situations where partners may not have access to each other’s savings, as well as to reduce barriers faced by those experiencing financial abuse.
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If the petition reaches 10,000 signatures, the government is obliged to respond, and with 100,000 signatures, the issue could be debated in Parliament. The petition will remain open until 17 February 2027.
For the purposes of the means test in Universal Credit, savings include readily accessible money and financial products such as cash, funds in bank or building society accounts (including non-interest bearing current accounts), Tax-Free Childcare accounts (calculated at 80% of their value), National Savings accounts and certificates, income bonds, stocks and shares, and properties other than a claimant’s primary residence.
Additionally, savings encompass Premium Bonds, lump sum pension fund withdrawals, and payments received upon ending employment, such as redundancy pay or employment tribunal awards. Income held temporarily in accounts is only counted as savings if it is not spent by the end of the relevant assessment period.
The petition highlights that adjusting these limits would allow claimants to build financial resilience and better reflect the economic realities faced by single and joint claimants alike.