Will our benefits be affected?

cherrykerry

I would appreciate any help anyone can give me on this. I am currently in the process of trying to get compensation for my dentist taking out the wrong tooth. My solicitor is trying to claim up to £10,000 for me to cover the cost of a dental implant and replacements in future aswell as a small percentage for pain and suffering (I almost got admitted to hospital). We currently get housing benefit and council tax benefit (not full amounts as I work part time) and hubby gets SDA and DLA. Does anyone know if any of our benefits are likely to be affected by this if I do end up receiving the full amount? I know savings usually affect benefit but if I do get it this money will be for dental work rather than for me to go out on a spending spree .

Thanks in advance for any help :A

Indie_Kid

DLA is non-means tested; so isn't affected.

bestpud

It won't affect your the DLA (I have no idea about SDA), as said, but I think it will affect your HB and CTB.

I think the limit is £6k and after that savings begin to reduce your award.

sunnyone

cherrykerry wrote: »

I would appreciate any help anyone can give me on this. I am currently in the process of trying to get compensation for my dentist taking out the wrong tooth. My solicitor is trying to claim up to £10,000 for me to cover the cost of a dental implant and replacements in future aswell as a small percentage for pain and suffering (I almost got admitted to hospital). We currently get housing benefit and council tax benefit (not full amounts as I work part time) and hubby gets SDA and DLA. Does anyone know if any of our benefits are likely to be affected by this if I do end up receiving the full amount? I know savings usually affect benefit but if I do get it this money will be for dental work rather than for me to go out on a spending spree .

Thanks in advance for any help :A

Is it a personel injury claim?

There are special rules if it is.

sunnyone

[Deleted User]

£10k for taking out the wrong tooth,you`ll be lucky my DD got far less than that for a broken bones following a hit n run driver,who eventually owned up and that took almost 3 years

cherrykerry

sunnyone wrote: »

Is it a personel injury claim?

There are special rules if it is.

sunnyone

Yes it is a personal injury claim.

Woodbine - I am not expecting to get the full £10,000. That is what my solicitor quoted but he did say it is likely to be less than that

uganda

I'm guessing you're both under 60.

If so, the basic rule is that the money will be disregarded for 52 weeks from the date the compensation is paid. After 52 weeks, you can still avoid it being taken into account by forming a trust to hold the money.

If one of you IS over 60, the disregard is indefinite.

There are other rules too, but that is the one most likely to apply.

[Deleted User]

uganda wrote: »

I'm guessing you're both under 60.

If so, the basic rule is that the money will be disregarded for 52 weeks from the date the compensation is paid. After 52 weeks, you can still avoid it being taken into account by forming a trust to hold the money.

If one of you IS over 60, the disregard is indefinite.

There are other rules too, but that is the one most likely to apply.

the 52 week rule is quite correct,however as for the trust rule after that i`m afraid not so,if it were then everybody would place all their savings into a trust in order to get more benefits/avoid losing benefits

uganda

Sorry Woodbine but I think you're mixing up a couple of different things here. There are specific rules about personal injury payments that are held in a trust (basically they are disregarded). I did not say that the same dodge could be done with one's savings.

Housing Benefit Regulations schedule 6 ("Capital to be disregarded") applies, in particular paragraph 14:

14. Where the funds of a trust are derived from a payment made in consequence of any personal injury to the claimant, the value of the trust fund and the value of the right to receive any payment under that trust.

cherrykerry

uganda wrote: »

I'm guessing you're both under 60.

If so, the basic rule is that the money will be disregarded for 52 weeks from the date the compensation is paid. After 52 weeks, you can still avoid it being taken into account by forming a trust to hold the money.

If one of you IS over 60, the disregard is indefinite.

There are other rules too, but that is the one most likely to apply.

So does this mean that after 52 weeks we need to have either spent the money or form a trust with it?
I know I am looking ahead here and there is always a chance I wont win my claim (although I have a very strong case against the dentist) but I just want to know what will happen if and when I do win.
Thank you for your comments

uganda

Yes it means exactly that, unless one of you is over 60.

Any money you receive, or at least most of it, is to cover costs already incurred by you and likely to be incurred by you, which is why the 52-week grace period exists.

It is not expected you go and blow your money on luxuries, you may fall foul of the rules on deprivation of capital, though in practice that is often difficult to prove.