Pensioner council tax benefit

Oldernotwiser

creditcardhelp11 wrote: »

How is their health? If it is poor apply for Attendance Allowance and if awarded that would increase their income and also possibly give them PC (Guaranteed) entitlement.

You don't get Attendance Allowance just for having poor health!

[Deleted User]

they should review the situation once their savings fall below £16k,but they cant just blow the money that would be deprivation of capital

mdavids

woodbine wrote: »

they should review the situation once their savings fall below £16k,but they cant just blow the money that would be deprivation of capital

How and who defines deprivation of capital though? Like I said in an earlier post, if my dad was to go out and buy a car or a new kitchen for example, is this deprivation of capital or legitimately spending their savings?

Edited to add:
Just looking into deprivaton of capital and it seems theres a lot of grey areas. Thanks for pointing this out woodbine.

Itismehonest

The DWP will want bank statements & can tell what the average spend is & what money is spent on. It will be obvious if there's a significant & unusual outlay just prior to the claim, I think.

uganda

mdavids wrote: »

How and who defines deprivation of capital though? Like I said in an earlier post, if my dad was to go out and buy a car or a new kitchen for example, is this deprivation of capital or legitimately spending their savings?

Edited to add:
Just looking into deprivaton of capital and it seems theres a lot of grey areas. Thanks for pointing this out woodbine.

Actually I pointed this out very early in the thread.

Deprivation of capital can of course be very difficult to prove, and you could easily get away with it if you were savvy. But I believe it is an unwritten rule on these boards not to encourage fraud, and I think that is a good rule.

I have never assessed a pension credit claim - if they qualify for Guarantee Credit (I doubt it) then they would also qualify for CTB, regardless of the capital situation. It sounds more likely that there might be a small amount of Savings Credit but no CTB entitlement on account of capital.

There is no reason why someone can't buy a new car or kitchen, or blow their money on 20,000 losing scratchcards for that matter, the point is any large spending that fetches capital below £16,000 prior to a claim will draw questions about why that money was spent then. And they will have to have convincing answers.

mdavids

uganda wrote: »

Actually I pointed this out very early in the thread.

Deprivation of capital can of course be very difficult to prove, and you could easily get away with it if you were savvy. But I believe it is an unwritten rule on these boards not to encourage fraud, and I think that is a good rule.

I have never assessed a pension credit claim - if they qualify for Guarantee Credit (I doubt it) then they would also qualify for CTB, regardless of the capital situation. It sounds more likely that there might be a small amount of Savings Credit but no CTB entitlement on account of capital.

There is no reason why someone can't buy a new car or kitchen, or blow their money on 20,000 losing scratchcards for that matter, the point is any large spending that fetches capital below £16,000 prior to a claim will draw questions about why that money was spent then. And they will have to have convincing answers.

You're right of course you did point it out but I didn't realise there was an actual term for it. Doing a bit more googling and it seems although deprivation of capital is difficult to prove, its also difficult to disprove and you're going against the state which is never going to end well.

I'd never encourage my parents to commit fraud and dont think thats what I'm doing in this case although some may disagree.

What got me looking into it was the fact that there's only 3 houses in their street and the other 2 are in a CT band below my parents and paying significantly less. One of the neighbours is on benefits so not paying anything whilst the other is on a very good wage. Theres no point re-banding as it seems my parents are paying the correct amount whilst the neighbours are under-paying. Seems very unfair and this would have been one way to redress the balance I suppose.

Fact is my day is reluctant to spend his savings "just in case" even though they'd love a new car or kitchen. Becoming eligible for a bit help with the CT would have been an incentive to spend but it seems this would leave them on dodgy ground.

Thanks for all the replies, you have been extremely helpful.

iris

What about a Funeral Plan. I believe the cost is about £3,000 per person, but it is something that will be needed in the future:( This would then take your parents below the £16,000 for council tax benefit.

I don't think councils see this type of insurance as deprivation of capital.

Something to think about perhaps.HTH

creditcardhelp11

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You don't get Attendance Allowance just for having poor health!

I did not say you did. However, poor health is generally an indicator of increased care needs i.e. more difficult getting showered, dressed etc.. which is what you can get AA for.