Deprivation of capital

**Amanda**_3

Im a single parent and up til 30th september when I recieved £30,000 inheritence, I was on single parent benefits. These have since stopped.
I have transfered 5000 to my sons trust find, bought a 6000 car, updated my sofas, cooker, bed and carpets etc. I have also repaid a family loan, and some other debts that were court impending (roughly 8000 in total). I withdraw 3000 cash for a rainy day and now have 4500 left in bank.
I have recently made a claim for Income support to which i recieved a letter today saying they wanted bank statements from back when i recieved the money up to today. This is fine but when i went into the bank to print off statements they only went back to mid november. These dont show the clearing of debts or buying the car although they do show withdrawing 3000 cash!!
Will they see the above as deprivation of capital and reject my claim?
I am worried they will reject a claim for housing benefit too, I can only afford to pay my £500pm rent for another 6 months or so along with all my other bills and I cant work unitl my son starts full time school in september of this year

Thanks

DX2

**Amanda** wrote: »

Im a single parent and up til 30th september when I recieved £30,000 inheritence, I was on single parent benefits. These have since stopped.
I have transfered 5000 to my sons trust find, bought a 6000 car, updated my sofas, cooker, bed and carpets etc. I have also repaid a family loan, and some other debts that were court impending (roughly 8000 in total). I withdraw 3000 cash for a rainy day and now have 4500 left in bank.
I have recently made a claim for Income support to which i recieved a letter today saying they wanted bank statements from back when i recieved the money up to today. This is fine but when i went into the bank to print off statements they only went back to mid november. These dont show the clearing of debts or buying the car although they do show withdrawing 3000 cash!!
Will they see the above as deprivation of capital and reject my claim?
I am worried they will reject a claim for housing benefit too, I can only afford to pay my £500pm rent for another 6 months or so along with all my other bills and I cant work unitl my son starts full time school in september of this year

Thanks

:shocked: You spent how much. Holy mother of pearl!
Expect the worse.

**Amanda**_3

No I wasnt aware about the rules until recently, I thought it was mine to do what I liked with. Apart from the car, my other purchases have been small (im not talking about repaying of debt or loans)
I have reciepts for the car but all the other things just show up on my bank statements, well as far back as I can get hold of anyway

HappyMJ

**Amanda** wrote: »

Im a single parent and up til 30th september when I recieved £30,000 inheritence, I was on single parent benefits. These have since stopped.
I have transfered 5000 to my sons trust find, bought a 6000 car, updated my sofas, cooker, bed and carpets etc. I have also repaid a family loan, and some other debts that were court impending (roughly 8000 in total). I withdraw 3000 cash for a rainy day and now have 4500 left in bank.
I have recently made a claim for Income support to which i recieved a letter today saying they wanted bank statements from back when i recieved the money up to today. This is fine but when i went into the bank to print off statements they only went back to mid november. These dont show the clearing of debts or buying the car although they do show withdrawing 3000 cash!!
Will they see the above as deprivation of capital and reject my claim?
I am worried they will reject a claim for housing benefit too, I can only afford to pay my £500pm rent for another 6 months or so along with all my other bills and I cant work unitl my son starts full time school in september of this year

Thanks

£500 * 6 is £3,000 but you have £7,500 left. The £5,000 transfer to your son will probably be deprivation as there was no "need" to pay off a debt you just gave it to him. You can get further statements from the bank by ringing the bank and they will send them to you. It should have taken you about 14 months at a spend rate of £1,000 per month to get to £16,000 to enable you to claim. Expect the worst and expect to wait until that time expires. I'd guess at Nov 2011 which is 4 months after the date you expect to run out of cash altogether. Good luck...

edit: I'm guessing at £1,000. You need to add your rent and your living expenses together. I'd say £500 per month on bills is fair plus the £500 on the rent.

stu12345_2

I wrote a post about this and got diff answers, the main question ai asked was are you required to show 6 months or 3 months staements, hence if you had dosh 6 months, 2 yrs or 3 yrs ago and spent it , withdrew, thus it dont effect ur claim.some folk had money a year before loosing jobs and when they make claim the dss dont say did you have money a couple of yrs ago, they ask for 3 or 6 months statements.
what i would have done if i was you would be stop my claim and live of my money, spent it, withdrew it, gave it to kids, till i had an acceptable amout of savings within the rules wait till ur past the 6 months bank statements rule kicks in then claim,cos if you spend it , withdraw it and claim the next week there is no chance of benefit, wait for 6 months thenclaim

**Amanda**_3

Ok.....I have been totally honest with them about the money and I will accept the consequences of my spending. I wanted to give some money to my son so he can have a nice start to adult life. Paying off my debts so Im debt free was also a must. A new car could have waited but I was tired of driving a clapped out old banger! New furniture could have also waited but being from a broken home, I wanted nice things for a change. If I have to wait a year to be able to claim then so be it, I was just looking for some advice and thanks for the replies.

Jowo_2

This area is very complex.

Google 'deprivation of capital' and 'notional capital' and you should be able to unearth a handful of recent very relevant threads that include links to the DWP decision makers guide, the manuals the staff use to determine if a claimant has deliberately deprived themselves of their money to make themselves eligible for means tested benefits. It has lots of examples of what spending is deemed acceptable and the type of evidence they will look for. It will also demonstrate how they will calculate notional capital to determine how much they estimate you should have, regardless of how much you have got rid of from your savings.

It is up to the DWP to demonstrate that you've done this intentionally. Again, these guides will show you what they will look for as evidence that a claimant has deliberately spent or transferred their capital.

HappyMJ

**Amanda** wrote: »

Ok.....I have been totally honest with them about the money and I will accept the consequences of my spending. I wanted to give some money to my son so he can have a nice start to adult life. Paying off my debts so Im debt free was also a must. A new car could have waited but I was tired of driving a clapped out old banger! New furniture could have also waited but being from a broken home, I wanted nice things for a change. If I have to wait a year to be able to claim then so be it, I was just looking for some advice and thanks for the replies.

Your welcome...It's just the giving money away bit that I would be worried about. You said the debt was at collections level so it was due in full so if you have as many letters as possible then get them all together. A copy of your credit report should show the defaults as proof that they were due in full so I'd get a copy of that as well. The more proof you have the less likely that you'll need to wait. I still guess at Nov 2011 though so cut down your spending now and you should be OK.

stu12345_2

does this mean that if they say she deprived herself, she has a 6 months ban max, they cant say u had enuff to live on for 3 yrs, hence a 3 yr ban for benefits, im stating about the max 3 or 6 months bank statements proof of what went on 3 or 6 months ago.

**Amanda**_3

Yes my spending has decreased now that I have done what I wanted to do with the money. What I spend from now on will just be rent and household bills etc, no more new cars for me
I will send off what they have asked for and expect a rejection letter, wait until Nov and think about claiming again. Hopefully provided I am able to get back into full time work, I wont need to claim!

stu12345_2

you could have invested in a franchaise with £30000 so u never need to claim ever again, perhaps, sell some stuff,ur car, cancel trust fund, raise dosh and consider a business, be it a small shop and make more dosh to get better car, furniture in long run