Mods feel free to move OT after a while.

I was wondering where you could put savings (kept in cash - not gold etc) that you can't get access to for a set number of years, even if you found yourself flat broke and was desperate for your cash back? Any ideas?

Buy a house - should be about 9-10 years before prices are back to where they are now.

You know, if Crash Gordon goes for the hyperinflation option, which rumours seem to be suggesting, this may not be such a bad idea after all......

Is this by psychokinesis?

Too freakin' paranormal for me ...

You mean savings that no-one else knows about either?

How well off-shore do u want to go?

Or, assuming you no longer rate any bank as safe, what about a conservative oldfashioned BS?


( u may as well earn some interest as the paper stuff becomes ever more nearly worthless).... Dontcha love that grammar

I think the OP means "so you can't be forced to spend your saving before claiming benefits"

Ah, now it makes sense ...

<flippant>Give it all to me</flippant>

Does holding gold or other assets result in decreased benefits?

AFAIK it's the earnings from interest on your savings that reduce your benefits - not the fact that you have savings.

Gold doesn't make any interest and you only realise your profit when you sell.

Correct, though I wasn't trying to be candid about it.

Are offshore accounts easy to arrange?

Pension

Property fund

Get Married

Have kids

(Although with the last two the chances are high you won't see the money again ever)

Give it to me

If on benefits you will now be checked out without your permission or knowing.

The feeder account to your PM purchases will show if it's in the EZ

You will be nailed for non-declaration on your benefit claim forms.

no, savings from most sources (including having a rolls for example) are included. Of course any system can be gamed, but dont cry if one is done for fraud.

Pourquoi the name Bomber? I met the Bomberbrown himself many years ago, one of the Midlands great footballers.

Ah, right.

Psychokinesis could still be useful, no?

Gamble it at sufficient odds whereby a win would guarantee financial security. If you lose, claim your free money from the government and repeat. There's no point in hanging round in the middle supporting the freeloaders on either side.

If you have a lot of money, you could talk to a lawyer about setting up an inter vivos trust of some sort. But if you're rich enough to do that, the chances are you wouldn't be worried about having to pay benefits.

If you only have a smaller amount to protect, you might be able to quietly loan it to a trustworthy friend of family member on some mutually agreed terms - treated as a gift from you to them, followed by a gift from them to you at such time as you want it back. This has tax implications, though. Come to think of it, just about everything has tax implications.

In general, though, you should always work on the assumption that what you're doing has been noticed, monitored and recorded by somebody, and you might have to stand up and explain/defend your actions.

The only thing I can think of is to put the money into some kind of company shareplan scheme. A lot of places do these now. You get the option to buy the shares at the price named on the day you set the plan up, at some point in the future (usually three or five years). If you don't want them or if you leave the company you just get the money back.

If you want to claim benefits, then if you have one of these, the amount saved up cannot be taken into account as it is not accesible. When I was on incapacity benefit on long-term sick leave, I had about £18K in shareplans, but they couldn't be classed as capital as I could not get the money for a couple of years.

Some plans also pay monthly benefits.

I would say though that doing this should be a last resort as you don't get interest on them.

What about NSI inflationary-RPI certificates - you can probably get away with these not being taken into account as you're tied into them too?

A long term reverse repo with some illiquid / hard to sell securities?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repurchase_agreement

Some fixed rate bonds are not accessible either (according to the terms and conditions). Are the rules listed anywhere? I suppose it comes down to when you invested it. If it was after you knew you were unemployed it would look dodgy.

By a load of martgage backed securities of Northern Rock and then tell the benifits peopleyou have marked them to market and they are ............



Worthless.

Withdraw the money and spend it on essential day to day living expenses until you are able to claim benefits.


You could always hide it under the bed, pounds coins would be my choice as if you were to be robbed they are quite heavy. This however would be dishonest and
therefore I cannot recommend it as it would leave you open to being done for benefit fraud.

They also won't go mouldy or deteriorate, fire could be a problem.

If having the money means you can't claim UK benefits then go somewhere nice, sunny and cheap and live off it until you've spent it. Then come back and claim benefits.

Aren't the first 6 months not means tested? It used to be that you got X months of proper unemployment benefit for as many NI stamps (paid monthly) as you had accrued. Then they changed the rule to a year and then again to just six months. Still, those six months are statutory benefits AFAIK.

I'd guess you could go abroad to a cheap country, live like a king through the recession then come back and at least have a six month buffer while you look for new work. Or am I wrong?

Art, classic cars, gold brough abroad... and spend the savings down....

Buy some sovereigns and bury them in the middle of some woods, preferably ones which are not earmarked for a bypass or housing estate. Also, pick somewhere where there's no CCTV if you want to hide your savings from the government.

Or buy some woods. Land prices are still doing nicely. You never know someone might bury gold as well.

BrownBomber is going to hide his assets

Brownbomber is going to overload himself on available credit

Brownbomber is going to go bankrupt

Brownbomer is going to live off benefits