Will my non dependant son's savings affect me

spikeripley

I am on income support and get housing and council tax benefit. My son has finished college so is now classed as a non dependant and my benefits have been reduced accordingly. He is soon to receive a £18,000 payment for a medical negligence claim.
He has been told he wont be able to claim JSA as he will have over the £16,000 allowed, which is fair enough. What I would like to know is, does this mean I will lose all my housing and tax benefits completely because he still lives with me and he will have over £16,000 in savings, even though its me claiming for myself and my two other children and not him. Thanks for any help.

paddedjohn

i think i read on here somewhere that compo money doesnt affect benefits for a certain amount of time, i could be wrong and someone will correct me

rogerblack

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/dmgch29.pdf 29509 - any personal injury payments made are disregarded for 12 months.

If the payment is properly structured into a trust, then the payments out of that trust, and the capital in the trust do not affect the JSA, forever.

spikeripley

Hi thanks for the replies I found the link really useful reading. Could you tell me what the name of the document is so my son can quote it to the job centre when he applies for JSA so they dont just dismiss his claim.

rogerblack

spikeripley wrote: »

Hi thanks for the replies I found the link really useful reading. Could you tell me what the name of the document is so my son can quote it to the job centre when he applies for JSA so they dont just dismiss his claim.

It's part of the decision makers guide - http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/specialist-guides/decision-makers-guide/ - chapter 29, in that case, JSA/income support - capital.