How notional capital affects Universal Credit 

Deprivation of capital is when you knowingly reduce or transfer elsewhere your savings or other capital to get, or increase your award of Universal Credit. This may be before making a claim or during an existing claim.

If your capital has reduced significantly you may be asked for evidence that you no longer have it. This may include:

• documents to show that ownership of property has been transferred to another person
• deeds to show that money has been given to another person in trust, settlement or as a gift
• receipts to show what your cash or savings has been spent on

An Advisor will contact you if you need to send more evidence.

The DWP will look at the evidence to decide if you have reduced your savings or other capital, by how much and why you did this. You will be treated as still having the capital if it is decided that you did this to get, or increase your award of Universal Credit. This is called notional capital.

When working out the Universal Credit you may get, notional capital is added to any actual capital that you may have.

Because savings and other capital don't stay the same, your notional capital will reduce by an assumed amount in each assessment period until it is exhausted.