Please help......pension credit and savings

amodi

Hi
I am after some advice, so any help received will be greatly appreciated.
I have been looking afer my recently retired fathers savings for the past couple of years which are in the region of 20k, i would like for him to take these back but he is worried it will affect his pension credit and disabled benefit that he receives. First of all is this true... will it?
Can anyone suggest any ideas that will help me in giving his savings back to him (could he put them in a ISA or something) without affecting his life savings?
P.S this is the first time i have visited this site and i think its fanastic keep up the good work everyone...
Thanks

amodi

Sorry just to add i have searched around the forum for any similar post,
but havent found anything

anmarj

it will depend on a few things, is this money that has built up or has he had this money from the start of his claim? what age is he?

bunny999

If he has put money in your name to enable him to claim benefits that is fraud.

Oldernotwiser

Do you claim (or are you planning on claiming) any means tested benefits?

amodi

Hi

I dont claim as i am in full time employment and he is 76 years old, retired.

nannytone_2

why does he need you to 'look after' his savings?
sounds dodgy to me, seeing as he is claiming means tested benefits!

RAS

amodi

It looks like your father is hiding his savings to obtain means-tested benefits. If this is the case, it is known as deprivation of capital and is fraud.

bengal-stripe

Being seventy six, your father should be on an “Assessed Income Period” (probably indefinite), then any monies coming in after the AIP was granted, would not be taken into account.

That AIP would have been renewed last year, and had your father provided correct information, would not have been granted. He must have declared his savings were below the allowed level of £10,000.

Indie_Kid

What disabled benefits does he get? Attendance allowance and DLA aren't income based.

anmarj

amodi wrote: »

Hi

I dont claim as i am in full time employment and he is 76 years old, retired.

can you answer my question, is this money that has built up or money he had from the start of his Pension Credit?

If he had the money from the start of the Pension Credit claim and did not delcare then he is being overpaid, that needs to be declared, and sorted now, to stop anyfurther overpayment, putting the money in an ISA does not exempt it from being declared. If the money was built up over time then in effect he should be covered by his assessed income period were capital increasing over this time does not need to be delcared until the end of that AIP, when it would be taken into account.

If he does not take steps now, and found at a later date then a)he has a bigger overpayment to pay back and b) has the potential to be referred to the fraud department and a possible conviction.

I don't mean to scare but you have to explain it to him.