Help For Widow

shining4

Hi im writing on behalf of my mother as she has ran into a lot of difficulty. My father passed away in 2002 he was a young man 53 and she was 52. She didnt get much money from his passing but the house was paid off. He had a lot debts, stress probably caused his heart problem. Anyway that aside the facts.

Apparently the law changed with regards to widows pension so my mother was only allowed widows parent allowance while my sister was living with her. My sister was 13 when he passed and recently left home this year. She had to get a loan out of £4000 a while back, she did overspend and got lost in the pattern of spending money, maybe it was grief, possibly. So now shes left with a conundrum. She is 58 next year isnt eligible to widows pension because of changes in the law and wont get state pension until shes 61.

She has the following outgoings:

£30 GAS
£35 ELECTRIC
£24 BOILER SERVICE (she sometimes has problems with piping in the house)
£34.15 water rates
£9 TV LICENSE
£20.50 telephone and broadband.
£91.69 BANK LOAN

This is per month.

She will be receiving including the income support the government have so generously offered her :-( £217 a month.

Of course the outgoings are more, and she has to eat.

So I have advised her to go to citizens advice but was wondering if you have any expert advise or any questions she needs to ask when she goes.

She owns her home, it is worth £180 but maybe less in the current financial crisis. She doesnt want to lose it. I have advised she gets a job she is finding that emotionally tough as she is on anti depressants but can only get income support not incapicity benefit for depression. She hasnt worked since she was 16. My dad basically supported her and loved her and she was happy be a housewife.

So thats the state of affairs, please advise.

Thankyou

Kelly

Numpty_Monkey

I think that she could get the boiler cover for cheaper, check the compare sites

If she got a water meter fitted that should save a few £s
I don't know about the benifits side
check on
www.entitledto.co.uk

HTH

firesidemaid

why can she not get incapacity benefit for depression? it sounds like she really wouldn't be able to work after all her life not working.

is her gp supportive?

tallyhoh

I had roughly the same problem when my FIL had to go into a nursing home & that took all his pension except £19.15 a week pocket money.
He had a loan for £5000 which was about £300 a month.

I sent them a financial statement & as I had power of attorney my details, believe it or not they have never bothered to chase the debt. That was 3 years ago.

Your mom has nothing to lose but to write to them with an SOA. There is no way she can pay the debt so if she offers them £5 a month, they can take it or leave it. Looking at it from their point of view £5 is probably better than nowt.

EDIT: Incapacity benefit rates are roughly the same as income support until (if) she gets the higher rate of £84.50 which still wont cover the loan.

Neillgb

Why not release some/all of the equity in her house, pay off the debt and use the money to enjoy herself. holidays etc.

ajaney

Equity release might be appropriate here as suggested by Neillgb. It needs to be looked into very carefully & she would need to be sure she could budget the money carefully as any lump sums may affect her benefits.

Another suggestion would be taking in a lodger? You can earn up to £4250 per year but again, please check whether this would affect benefits.

tallyhoh

Equity release is all very well but any sums taken over £8000 will in affect cancel her income support & reclaiming once the figure drops below that will be a pain because they will probably want to see where the money has gone.

It is not something to be done without very good financial advice & the thought that the money she takes out will probably have to last until she is able to draw a pension.

ajaney

tallyhoh wrote: »

Equity release is all very well but any sums taken over £8000 will in affect cancel her income support & reclaiming once the figure drops below that will be a pain because they will probably want to see where the money has gone.

It is not something to be done without very good financial advice & the thought that the money she takes out will probably have to last until she is able to draw a pension.

Bearing in mind what tallyhoh has said, Equity release should be thought of as a last resort.

Neillgb

Yes professional advice needed, she is quite young as well so perhaps that would effect the deals she might be offered. Not sure on that though.

Judging by the post though it does seem that she is unhappy, to say the least, in her present financial circumstances which are unlikely to change.

Therefore, and I accept this ain't the time to be selling property, lets say she ends up with £135K pays the loan off leaving her with £130K. £130 @ 5% pa = £6500pa income as opposed to about £2600pa now.

Add a part time job and she could be quite comfortably off, perhaps £1000pm with just utilities/ct to pay, Say £750 left over.

Losing her benefits might not be the end of the world, she might even be pleased to be able to pay her own way.

Ames

Who's told her she can't claim incapacity and why? Is it because she hasn't paid enough contributions? Is her Income Support for reasons of incapacity?

She could also look at Disability Living Allowance.

tallyhoh

As stated previously, incapacity wont really help in this case as its approx the same level as income support.
Having said that.......is it income support or job seekers allowance she is getting?