savings whilst claiming

taxi97w

Sorry to interupt the flow of the thread, but I have been trying to understand through reading back-but can't. The daughter owns her own home that the friend was going to buy and she is/was also getting housing benefit for rent?

seven-day-weekend

taxi97w wrote:

Sorry to interupt the flow of the thread, but I have been trying to understand through reading back-but can't. The daughter owns her own home that the friend was going to buy and she is/was also getting housing benefit for rent?

This thread is very hard to understand and I for one couldn't offer any useful advice.

As far as I understand, the daughter (sister?) has a council house which a friend was saving up to buy, but was putting all his money for some unknown reason into the daughter's account. AFAIK he does not have a power of attorney. He has since withdrawn this money(How??). Her benefits have stopped because at one time this money amounted to more than the amount she is allowed.

AFAIK the problem is that the daughter has mental health problems which render her unable to understand or manage her finances and that is why chel1234 is saying they should not have stopped her benefit.

Please chel 1234 correct me if I am wrong, that is how I understand the situation, but it is very muddled.

chel1234_2

yes it is quite a messy situation. The dwp have records of all the accounts but they are only presuming that 11.000 of it was from another account, i say presume becasue this is what they have put in black and white. There isnt another account where this 11.000 of my daughters, it was the friend who stated to the dwp that this was his money. Surely they cannot close a claim, stop all payments just becuase they presume something.
My daughter has mental health problems and it is not clear why this guy invested in her name, maybe to avoid tax or to avoid his partner knowing about the money. I need to find a solicitor that maybe will take the case on but it could be expensive if she cannot claim legal aid as she has only dla now. It cannot be shown that my daughter knew clearly what was going on and there was no intent to debiltatly defraud them on her part

Fran

Again, you need to talk to Citizens Advice about all of these issues, not one at a time. They will tell you suitable solicitors in the area. If you have no intention of going with her (or someone else going with her) to CAB then I'm surprised you haven't already contacted a solicitor.

chel1234_2

you would be quite suprised at how many solicitors dont do cases like this. I have contacted several advised by the cab and they arent willing to take this case as they dont specialize in these cases

alba37

I hope I have read the thread correctly.... why would someone get income support for a child? The benefit for a child is child tax credit?

Make sure your daughter has claimed child tax credit. I am a single parent on IB which takes me over the threshold for IS. Which would lead me to believe your daughter must be over too. (regardless of savings or not)

IS for a child, is an old benefit and Child Tax credit replaced it, quite a few years ago. Atleast it did in my case anyway.

I do hope things work out well for your daughter.

Bossyboots

chel1234 wrote:

yes it is quite a messy situation. The dwp have records of all the accounts but they are only presuming that 11.000 of it was from another account, i say presume becasue this is what they have put in black and white. There isnt another account where this 11.000 of my daughters, it was the friend who stated to the dwp that this was his money. Surely they cannot close a claim, stop all payments just becuase they presume something.
My daughter has mental health problems and it is not clear why this guy invested in her name, maybe to avoid tax or to avoid his partner knowing about the money. I need to find a solicitor that maybe will take the case on but it could be expensive if she cannot claim legal aid as she has only dla now. It cannot be shown that my daughter knew clearly what was going on and there was no intent to debiltatly defraud them on her part

If the £11,000 was in your daughter's name then they are entitled to make the presumption of it being hers even if someone else claims it is theirs. Legally she would be free to do what she wants with the money and thus it is included in her assets. If you are basing her appeal on this, then I think it is doomed to failure.

As for legal aid, DLA is disregarded as income. Therefore if this is her sole income, and she has no savings or is below the threshold £8,000) she is entitled to legal aid as far as means testing is concerned. Whether she would pass the merits test is difficult and I would suspect not as the LSC are likely to take the view that as the money was in her name while she was claiming,the assessment is correct. If you contact Community Legal Service Direct on 0845 345 4 345 they should be able to tell you where your nearest solicitor is with a contract to give welfare benefits advice under the legal aid scheme. Your daughter will at least be able to get initial advice and an assessment of her case on legal aid under the legal help scheme.

alba37

Can I also add, they take childrens savings in to account also.

skintas_2

i know someone who was investigated for benefit fraud and all her benefits where stopped while she was investigated. nealry lost her house as the rent wasnt being paid, she had 3 kids and was pregnant

lil_me

alba37 wrote:

I hope I have read the thread correctly.... why would someone get income support for a child? The benefit for a child is child tax credit?

Some people are still on the old system and not yet getting child tax credits so the income support is still paid for the children.