On benefits and big inheritance - advice agencies?

SailorSam

This maybe a load of rubbish, i'm sure someone will clarify it, but i thought that came to me when it was said you may not end up with decent house with less than £60k to spend. After all if you have bipolar you may be seen as an easy target for the scallies if you move to a rough area. But couldn't you buy a shared ownership property in a better area, perhaps your £60k would get you 75% share while you had to pay rent on the other 25%, now while the Dhss may not pay towards mortgage repayments, they may pay towards your rent.
Does that make sense ?

Ames

33degrees wrote: »

Apologies for the wrong assumption on the gender front.I don't wish to worry you but it must be said you are about to traverse a minefield and must tiptoe through it very carefully or suffer much angst. As I said, you must get the okay in writing as evidence before embarking because if you don't get that green light on the principle, as you termed it, then trying to tiptoe around it will land you with many problems should you gift your wealth away and/or employ other dodges that so many have been punished for previously I don't know where you get that I'd do this - I have no intention of 'dodging' anything. I want to buy a house so that my housing needs are met and I feel more secure.If no thumbs-up is forthcoming then you'd be wise to suck it up, as Americans are fond of saying, however painful and maddening that would be as it would still be better than the alternative because the DWP investigators are quite ruthless once they are on the scent.Should you get permission that it's alright to proceed then the very instant that the money appears in your bank account you'd have to withdraw your claims for Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and any other means tested immediately and not make new claims for any means tested benefit until you can demonstrate you have less than the thresholds I was previously told on here that I could ringfence the money for six months, as someone who sold a house to buy another could? Again, this is why I wanted to be ablet to speak to someone face to face who knows all the rules. I used those numbers previously to take you below 6K and with property prices and the associated costs you would incur wouldn't be unreasonable given the median house prices in Leeds I realise that but I worry that if they were out - say, I spent 50k on the house, nothing on carpets, and 10k on adaptations (just plucking random numbers) then I'd be in trouble because it wasn't what I said previously. That's possibly (probably?!) me being paranoid though..Regarding repaying money loaned by your father, that's another possible pitfall because if he loaned it with cash there's no electronic record He wouldn't be loaning cash, he'd be paying the funeral director's bill so there'd be a receipt and a record..In future, make absolutely sure that you pay for practically everything you can with a cheque or plastic card so that transactions can be proved rather than only your say so. That's not meant to be mean it's just life will be so much easier that way.So, in conclusion, make sure you attain the correct name, title and business address of a DWP person who has the authority to give you a yay or nay How would I find out this person's namee?, give a brief outline of how much you anticipate receiving and what you envisage the approximate costs of buying a home and adapting it for suitabilty (plus the extra costs already mentioned) and ensure you pay for the letter to be tracked so that you know it's arrived.Whether the proceeds are received before getting a reply or not then you'd still have to withdraw claims for means tested claims.PS Have no clue why I'm unable to make paragraphs here.

Mojisola wrote: »

I wouldn't put this in. If Ames is able to get a two bed house for the money, she may want to rent out a room or have a relative come to live with her.

No chance of that, I can't live with other people due to my mental health, whenever I've tried it's been catastrophic. I need space for a carer to stay for a few nights at a time when I'm particularly bad but actually living there would be awful.

SailorSam wrote: »

This maybe a load of rubbish, i'm sure someone will clarify it, but i thought that came to me when it was said you may not end up with decent house with less than £60k to spend. After all if you have bipolar you may be seen as an easy target for the scallies if you move to a rough area. But couldn't you buy a shared ownership property in a better area, perhaps your £60k would get you 75% share while you had to pay rent on the other 25%, now while the Dhss may not pay towards mortgage repayments, they may pay towards your rent.
Does that make sense ?

I live in a rough area now and don't have a problem, in fact the neighbours and everyone are brilliant. Shared ownership wouldn't be suitable, I've looked into it and asked on the house buying board. Even if I only bought part of a house and rented the rest, I'd be liable for all the repairs etc. So I'd get all the negatives of ownership and all the negatives of renting. SO seems to be aimed at people who want a foot on the ladder to move onwards and upwards fairly quickly, not for people who have one shot at buying and that will be it. Plus it seems immoral to me to use the inheritance in that way - Buying a house leads to a lower overall benefits bill for me, shared ownership seems more like a 'dodge'.

Ames

Don't know why but this didn't come up in multiquote for my last post.

RAS wrote: »

Ahh Ames, so sorry for you all.

And yes, the costs of the funeral and any other debts have to be paid from the estate before you report probate. Really? The probate forms have a section for how much the deceased owed, I thought I just had to put it in that part, not that they had to be settled before probate? The forms say that once it's granted you have to advertise it to give creditors a chance to come out of the woodwork, not before? As there's no way to pay them before the probate is granted and her accounts are unfrozen.

Basically, what mum left minus (the costs of the funeral + any other debts)= the estate fro probate purposes.

Have you been advised to advertise for creditors? That prevents you getting some DCA crawling out of the woodwork after probate has been granted demand you pay for a long lost credit card that is not yet statute barred. based od a few post of DFW, DCAs routinely trawl probate registers for any estates that might owe them money. We're contacting all the creditors ourselves, based on what direct debits she had and what paperwork's coming through. Again, I knew that it had to be advertised but thought that it was after probate being granted but before the estate being wound up.

Once the advertised date for claims is up, you are protected from late notiofication of debt.

Have you read all the utility meters, by the way? I think so, dad and sister are dealing with that, although we're still using utilities - dad's going round and mowing the gardens to stop it becoming a jungle, and running a hoover round. He used to work for a big utility company and knows what needs doing with that so he's dealign with it.

Mojisola

33degrees wrote: »

I would dearly like to purchase outright another property for I and I alone to live in

Ames wrote: »

No chance of that, I can't live with other people due to my mental health, whenever I've tried it's been catastrophic. I need space for a carer to stay for a few nights at a time when I'm particularly bad but actually living there would be awful.

I still think that it's unwise to emphasise that no-one else would live there. It's unnecessarily restrictive on you.

33degrees

As for who you should speak to to discover who you should write to then if staff at your nearest DWP cannot provide rock solid info then ask to speak to the manager. You need approval in black and white not on the back of anyone there saying "it should be okay." If you get no joy there, see your MP at his weekly surgery, explain the situation and ask him to contact the relevant minister for who to contact.The ringfence info you received would certainly apply if you were selling a home and intended to buy another to live in with the proceeds. This is the heart of the matter; does it also apply in your circumstances? If you do indeed get a yes on purchasing a property I'd be amazed if you were also given six months grace to spend it while still in receipt of means tested benefit at your current abode because you are not under threat of homelessness.Concentrate on getting a yes to a property and concern yourself with any legitimate expenses you'd incur and what to allocate on those after approval's gained.

Ames

Thanks, I've got a lot to do this week, and I've realised I need more info before I can get the probate forms in, so I've got a bit more breathing space than I thought.

So I'll try and get into the JC some time as soon as I can (it's currently taking me four hours to build up to leaving the house or a couple of days for a known apointment and I've got other stuff that's more time sensitive).

If the six months thing can't be applied then that causes even more problems, because as every week went by I'd have less to put towards a property, but can't just take anything because it needs to be suited to my needs - it can't be an upstairs flat, for instance, or have steps leading up to it.

Thanks to everyone for all the replies, it's giving me lots to think about and making me see potential problems so I can prepare myself.

Ames

Wow, that one looks amazing! But I want/need to stay in Leeds because of my doctors and regular hospital visits - I have to have blood transfusions every four weeks and immunology centres are pretty rare, so I'd have to travel back to Leeds, and I wouldn't be able to get back to somewhere further away easily because of how ill I can feel afterwards.

Gleeful

tartane wrote: »

I have friends up there.

as an example:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-18122028.html

Guys! Don't get excited, read the blurb, its 50% shared ownership!

clemmatis

Ames, you don't have to pay the debts before obtaining probate. They have to be paid before any part of the estate can be distributed to/used by legatees. Also -- a different point -- a bank/building society may release funds from a frozen account to pay for a funeral. As I recall it, my mother's bank did. (I had power of attorney and I had banked with the same bank for years, that may have helped.)

I know what it's like trying to deal with probate matters when utterly miserable and depressed and so on. I kept thinking I'd missed something important and would be accused of lying (my mother's estate was well under the Inheritance Tax threshold, I thought they wouldn't believe that... ). I got less and less able to cope. But, importantly, the Probate people were wonderful. They were so kind and understanding. You should be able to get advice from them.
I hope you can also get advice from the DWP.

And I am sorry about your loss.

flashnazia

Ames wrote: »

I did ask mum to leave everything to my sister so that I wouldn't have these problems, and she found out she could put it in trust for me but didn't get round to making a will.

Really! You would rather live off the taxpayer than have your own?

I shouldn't judge you from that sentence but it's hard not to.