Inheritance affecting benefits

SuziQ wrote: »

I think it's bizzare not to allow people to get rid of debt with inheritance-it's debt that keeps most people in poverty I feel and getting rid frees up more money to live on. I think if it is debt that has been there for -say-more than 5 years then you should be allowed to pay it off with an inheritance (to avoid people running up debt in anticipation of a payout!) Still,rules are rules.

Rules might be rules but there are no absolute rules on paying off debts. i think it's a case by case decision and whilst there is probably (I'm guessing here) some degree of consistency, there's probably some degree of variance too.

Bet thing to do if you want to read up on it is to google "commissioner's decisions uk deprivation" which will throw up some stuff, including this:
http://www.disabilityalliance.org/comm3.htm

Then search the page (edit>find) for "deprivation" - nice case on that page.