Capital over £10,000 but can it be treated as exempt?

rotoguys

Hi,

In the middle of being made to submit a form for CTB even though I'm on GPC.

Council are adamant that being on GPC does NOT entitle CTB to be given, but I am say it does and I'm refusing to co-operate with the council.

That is by the by. We will see who wins!

I recently took up a Motability car. I had my own car - free of any finance. The Vauxhall garage arranged for someone to buy my own car when I was given the Motability one, an Astra 2.0CDTI VX modified SRI.

I received £11,250, whilst £250 was retained as the advance payment.

This now takes me over the £10,000 limit in capital - now have just under £17,000.

Before the car was sold my savings were just under £6000.

I have no idea how long the DLA HRM award will last, it is indef, but when PIP comes along I know I will lose it completely.

So the Motability car is not a certainty, it might go in 3 months it might go in 2 years - I don't know.

When the car is taken from me I will have to buy another.
I cannot get credit due to age and lack of earnings + I wouldn't even be able to afford any credit when the DLA goes.

What I would like to know is can I keep the £11250 to one side ready to buy a car when the sh*t hits the fan?

If not and I am expected to spend it to live off instead of a means tested benefit, how would I be able to buy another car without the cash being there?

FBaby

puzzled!!! How can you be so certain that you will loose all entitlement to disability benefits? How can you convince authorities that it is so obvious it will happen, you should be entitled to be an exception to the rules? If your circumstances have changed so drastically, shouldn't you be reported changes. I thought you were supposed to even with DLA...

skintandscared_2

Why would you sell your own car and get a motability car when your benefits are then subsequently reduced (to allow for the car) and you end up with too much capital? Why didn't you just keep your own car and save yourself this uncertainty?

rotoguys

FBaby wrote: »

puzzled!!! How can you be so certain that you will loose all entitlement to disability benefits? How can you convince authorities that it is so obvious it will happen, you should be entitled to be an exception to the rules? If your circumstances have changed so drastically, shouldn't you be reported changes. I thought you were supposed to even with DLA...

When PIP comes in, the definition of 'being unable to walk' has been changed to include using a wheelchair. As an example, if you had no legs and your false ones where causing pain everytime you used them to walk, currently you would get DLA HRM.

Under PIP, if that same person did away with his false legs and used a wheelchair, then you WOULD become mobile!!
As such he would lose the HRM for PIP!

Being unable to walk has been changed to being unable to MOBILISE

Now I can't walk - medical fact, but I CAN use a wheelchair, so I will be able to mobilise and as such not be entitled to have a Motability car.

So the odds on me having the car taken away are:
Being subject to an early review of my current DLA entitlement
Being subject to a review when PIP comes along next year.

Knowing that I will not be awarded the 'new' mobility component for PIP, I will need that money to buy my own car.

From next year only those people currently on DLA HRM that CANNOT walk and CANNOT use a wheelchair would be entitled to a Motability car.
So at best I may have 12/15 months of use of the motability car I now have. It could be a lot less.

If I have to use the capital that came from the sale of my car to live off then I wouldn't be able to afford a car when all of this happens.

I think the answer may be that I shouldn't have sold the car, but kept it in the garage for a year or so!

HappyMJ

It won't take long for you to spend £1,000 to be under the £16,000 limit. Just pay the council tax bill in full when you get the bill in the post this month and you will be under the limit. You can pay it full in March you don't have to pay it monthly. Monthly payments are just an option for payment. Then apply for council tax benefit and you will get it most of it back straight away. Strange way of doing it but it'll work.

rotoguys

skintandscared wrote: »

Why would you sell your own car and get a motability car when your benefits are then subsequently reduced (to allow for the car) and you end up with too much capital? Why didn't you just keep your own car and save yourself this uncertainty?

Quite a simple answer to that one. I really never wanted to sell my own car. Yes DLA has gone down by just over £50 a week AND it looks like that not only will my benefits go down (because of the capital) but as well, I will be expected to use the car proceeds to live off.

The car I had was everything most guys would dream of owning except for the fact that it was 5 years old, with 40,000 on the clock, the cost of keeping it on the road - servicing, tyres, parts, insurance etc was just getting too expensive - approx £3500 a year. Also the price of petrol was crippling with the car only doing just over 20 to the gallon on a long run!
Petrol alone was costing us £80 a week!!

I did look at doing a straight swap with a new car costing £11,000, but to be honest there was nothing that suited me. Unfortunately I like power and performance as well as road holding capabilities. I looked into buying a car similar to my Motability one, but it would have meant taking out £12000 on finance + £11000 deposit which I couldn't have got due to having no income.

So with the Motability car I lose about £2600 a year in benefits, but I save the £3500 a year my old car was costing + I spend about £30 a week on fuel whereas before it was £80.
All in all the Motability scheme is saving me £3500 a year!!

However the government have changed the rules to get a Motability car which will mean when I am re-assessed next year I will lose the award altogether. Hence why I want to keep the car proceeds to one side to replace my car.

rotoguys

HappyMJ wrote: »

It won't take long for you to spend £1,000 to be under the £16,000 limit. Just pay the council tax bill in full when you get the bill in the post this month and you will be under the limit. You can pay it full in March you don't have to pay it monthly. Monthly payments are just an option for payment. Then apply for council tax benefit and you will get it most of it back straight away. Strange way of doing it but it'll work.

errr that sounds a bit dodgy!! Anyhow the limit for savings is £10,000, not £16,000

HappyMJ

rotoguys wrote: »

errr that sounds a bit dodgy!! Anyhow the limit for savings is £10,000, not £16,000

Since when? It's been £16,000 for quite a while. You have £17,000 so all you need to do is spend £1,000. That is not hard. All you need to do is pay bills that are due. Council Tax, gas, electric? Anything else? Are some credit cards due but not too much....

Whiteknight

rotoguys wrote: »

Hi,

In the middle of being made to submit a form for CTB even though I'm on GPC.

Council are adamant that being on GPC does NOT entitle CTB to be given, but I am say it does and I'm refusing to co-operate with the council.

That is by the by. We will see who wins!

I recently took up a Motability car. I had my own car - free of any finance. The Vauxhall garage arranged for someone to buy my own car when I was given the Motability one, an Astra 2.0CDTI VX modified SRI.

I received £11,250, whilst £250 was retained as the advance payment.

This now takes me over the £10,000 limit in capital - now have just under £17,000.

Before the car was sold my savings were just under £6000.

I have no idea how long the DLA HRM award will last, it is indef, but when PIP comes along I know I will lose it completely.

So the Motability car is not a certainty, it might go in 3 months it might go in 2 years - I don't know.

When the car is taken from me I will have to buy another.
I cannot get credit due to age and lack of earnings + I wouldn't even be able to afford any credit when the DLA goes.

What I would like to know is can I keep the £11250 to one side ready to buy a car when the sh*t hits the fan?

If not and I am expected to spend it to live off instead of a means tested benefit, how would I be able to buy another car without the cash being there?

I find this post rather odd, you seem enjoy telling everyone how much money you are getting from the various benefits you are entitled to.

You get Pension Credit so I am sure you are aware of the rules regarding capital, and am sure that you would have notified them of your increase in savings.

To answer your question you are able to keep the money you got from selling your car - it will be counted as savings and will reduce the amount of Pension Credit you get but seeing as your getting so much money that you don't know what you will do with it losing a couple of pounds a week will not be a problem!

rotoguys wrote:

I still cannot believe that we are entitled to £550 in social benefits a week AND we should not be paying any council tax AND have a new Motability car all paid for (didn't realise we could have one until last Nov - have had my High Mobility for years - my GP told me about it).
It hasn't sunk in yet what we are going to do with all this extra £400 a week. I know we aren't allowed to save it.
It's like winning the lottery!

rotoguys

HappyMJ wrote: »

Since when? It's been £16,000 for quite a while. You have £17,000 so all you need to do is spend £1,000. That is not hard. All you need to do is pay bills that are due. Council Tax, gas, electric? Anything else? Are some credit cards due but not too much....

But with anything over £10,000 my benefit would be reduced until it gets to below £10,000. Deemed income or something like that.

rotoguys

Whiteknight wrote: »

I find this post rather odd, you seem enjoy telling everyone how much money you are getting from the various benefits you are entitled to.

You get Pension Credit so I am sure you are aware of the rules regarding capital, and am sure that you would have notified them of your increase in savings.

To answer your question you are able to keep the money you got from selling your car - it will be counted as savings and will reduce the amount of Pension Credit you get but seeing as your getting so much money that you don't know what you will do with it losing a couple of pounds a week will not be a problem!

I was hoping that the capital from the car sale would be treated as the same as a proceeds from a house sale - they are exempt for I think 52 weeks.
If that is not the case, I really should buy the car now, put it in the garage and argue that I was swapping one car for another.

As for my income, that has nothing to do with this question. I just want to know if and why and what I can do to stop the government making me live on the money that was from a car sale and fully intended to be used to buy another.

If I am wrong about that, then how the hell do people say sell a car on Autotrader then go and buy another one from a garage whilst claiming Means tested benefits. Does everybody tell the DWP that they have this cash but it is clearly put aside for a replacement car?