House handed back - Deprivation of Capital!!!

PasturesNew

If it'd been me I'd have paid off the mortgage (£103k) with my savings (£135k) asap. If I were getting no benefits because of my savings - and paying the mortgage off would mean I'd disposed of my assets, so no benefits .... I'd have still paid the mortgage off because then the house would be mine and nobody could touch me. I could sit it out, with the lights out.....

That'd leave £32k in the bank. Enough to live off for at least 2-3 years, giving me 2-3 years to come up with a Plan B. Plan B, bearing in mind the house is paid for, would be to find a way to get an income equal to what JSA/CT brought in per month, which is probably about £400-500 for a couple (£350/month for a single).

GlasweJen

Considering the OP was in work before falling sick and never scrounged a day in his life *rolls eyes* he would have been entitled to contributions based ESA (or incapacity depending on the dates it switched over) which isn't means tested so he wouldn't have had to worry about deprivation of assets if he had used his savings to pay off the mortgage!

viktory

If I had a mortgage of £103K, savings of £135K and no income I would have used the savings to pay off the mortgage. Then I would have used the remaining £32k (no small beer, by anyone's book) to live frugally on. In the meantime I would have put the house on the market, sold it for circa £185k (as you showed us a similar house not as nice as your house apparently that was up for that amount) and then moved to a smaller, cheaper property in a half way decent area. For example, looking in the same area as your old house I saw a couple of two bed flats for £70 & £90k. This would leave you with a hefty £70k (odd) after allowing for solicitors fees, moving costs etc. No need for benefits and no stress.

You really are a fool.

TOBRUK

How much do you spend a month as an alcoholic? You have said that you have a problem with alcohol (you specified it as an illness in a list of illnesses you have in one thread) aswell as taking morphine along with it - perhaps you aren't able to think clearly because of it!

You can't tell anyone you don't understand the figures if you are/were an accountant surely. I know you are trying to say that you don't have the property anymore, however what people here have been trying to make you understand is that the DWP won't see it like that!

Oldernotwiser

andyandflo wrote: »

The mortgage was for £103K

I had considerable investments put aside in 2003 (£135,000). Enough to repay the mortgage on demand (£103,000) if need be. In 2004, I became seriously ill. From 2004 until 2009 when I had to give up work altogether, I was off sick more than I was working.
I couldn't claim any means tested benefits because of the capital I had. I couldn't repay the mortgage as I was told that it would be seen as deprivation of capital and be treated as though I still had it. In fact I didn't claim any benefits at all.
So the mortgage payments came out of it each month, our living expenses came out of it and by October 2009 it had all almost gone except for £4000 in a bond. I claimed benefit then for sickness and Pension Credit.

If you weren't going to claim any benefits anyway, it wouldn't matter whether or not it was considered as deprivation of capital.

If you'd repaid your mortgage (and yes, I confused the amount of equity with the amount of the mortgage) that would still have left you with £32,000, which would have provided you with a benefit level income for over 6 years, or longer if you had some other income during that period.

SuziQ

Can't get benefits that others would with the same circumstances get.

Your circumstances weren't the same though, were they?

andyandflo

SuziQ wrote: »

Your circumstances weren't the same though, were they?

No probably not.
Have a think that if you had what is wrong with me would you say that I was fit for work? How would you feel if they said you were?

Severe Chronic Pancreatitis
Severe Acute Pancreatitis
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Varicose veins in the stomach wall that bleed into my stomach regularly
Permanent Thrombosis of the Splenic Vein.
Calcification & Necrosis of the Pancreas
Pancreatic Insufficiency
Altered Personality Disorder.
Chronic Alcoholism
Anorexia
Type 1 Insulin Dependent Diabetes - uncontrolled
Regular weekly/monthly loss of conciousness due to Diabetes and lack of blood supply to the heart.
Loss of feeling to the feet due to Diabetes

GlasweJen

It wasn't about you being fit for work though, if you'd qualified for ESA it would have been contributions based which would have stayed in place until you retired or were found to work again. I'm quite sure you never finished your ESA appeal so what are you complaining about? There is so much help for people who want it with regard to applying for sickness/disability benefit - believe me i used to be one of the people who helped with the applications!

DebtWriteOffMaster

You haven't explained what exactly you mean by ''you handed away the keys to your house''...
But so il assume that it means you bought a property that you couldn't afford, thus couldn't afford the mortage repayments, and so the bank have now repossed the property and will sell it to recover all the current outstanding mortage money owed.


So what you now need to do is-

1st start renting a new house, which whilst you may not get HB for you can still get income-based JSA as you're unemployed.

2ndly once your previous house has been told by the bank (and you get to keep the amount of money difference between the sale price and the amount owed to the bank),
use that money to pay for your rent till its under £6,000.

3rdly once you have under £6,000 savings you can claim full housing benefit.

andyandflo

GlasweJen wrote: »

It wasn't about you being fit for work though, if you'd qualified for ESA it would have been contributions based which would have stayed in place until you retired or were found to work again. I'm quite sure you never finished your ESA appeal so what are you complaining about? There is so much help for people who want it with regard to applying for sickness/disability benefit - believe me i used to be one of the people who helped with the applications!

I don't understand some of that.

If I was on contribution based ESA - I would get that until I retired?
How does that work? I thought that there were NI contribution conditions applied to the claim?
I don't know what the assessment years are for ESA but I have been told that if I claim after 1/1/11 I wouldn't get it but if I claim on the 31/12/10 I would.
And if I did does it just carry on?

I thought it was the same as JSA (Contribution Based) which is what I am on - that lasts for a max of 6 months. So when my JSA claim finishes at end of Feb next year I can't get Contribution Based ESA.

It has me lost completely

No I didn't. I had the medical in Jan 10 and waited until Aug 10 for the Tribunal. But nothing was going to happen until at least Mar next year. So I cancelled it and claimed JSA instead as the letter said in Jan to do.

Where do you get this help that you say is avaliable to claim these benefits?

The council Welfare closed a couple of years ago. There is a DIAL but that is over 50 miles away.
The only one that I know of is CAB. They only take the first 10 or so every day. I went down there twice and was turned away on both times so I gave up with that idea.

If you know of any others I would appreciate the info please.

Sorry not feeling too good tonight, in a lot of pain and stressed to hell. Sorry if the writing is not up to scartch.