how to get rid of your savings so you can get council tax benifits

WestonDave

If you lose the money, its gone - that is different to simply stashing it with family members because in effect you are having your cake and eating it - you get the benefits but you also get to get the benefit of the savings albeit at a distance within the family.

olbas_oil

margaretclare wrote: »

I think that's a bit different. Going to Vegas, betting on a three-legged horse, those kind of things, are not deliberately getting rid of your savings in order to claim a benefit. Losing money in a casino or on the race-track are not the same as giving money to relatives - you place bets hoping to win, don't you, you don't deliberately chuck your money away.
.

Supposing your son were the bookie... Couldn't you gamble your money and transfer it to relatives at the same time?

dunstonh

Just seems pointless working all your life to have savings and then having to spend it on your household bills and food because her pention only covers the rent.

What is the point of a rainy day savings if you dont spend them when you have a rainy day.

No-one should be planning to live on benefits. You are effectively planning to be poor to breadline level if you do. Is that really what you are suggesting?

bobthedambuilder

WestonDave wrote: »

If you lose the money, its gone - that is different to simply stashing it with family members because in effect you are having your cake and eating it - you get the benefits but you also get to get the benefit of the savings albeit at a distance within the family.

1. As already indicated by several posters, it's against the law to "stash it" with your relatives with the intention of claiming benefits (deprivation of assets - benefit fraud).

2. If you give it to your relatives, you have no right to ask for it back, and they are under no obligation to return it. See my earlier post (#6).

noh

margaretclare wrote: »

I think that's a bit different. Going to Vegas, betting on a three-legged horse, those kind of things, are not deliberately getting rid of your savings in order to claim a benefit. Losing money in a casino or on the race-track are not the same as giving money to relatives - you place bets hoping to win, don't you, you don't deliberately chuck your money away.

I'm this sort of age-group and I'm still building up my savings/investments. Am fascinated and amazed by the process and wonder where my savings will go to in 10 years' time? I'd like to be around a lot longer just to see it.

Gambling away the money certainly may be considered deliberate deprivation of capital if the intention was to reduce assets to a level where the claimant became eligible for benefit.

See DWP guidance on assesment of capital.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/hbgm-bw1-assessment-of-capital.pdf


"W1.714 The following are further examples of when a person may have deprived themselves of
capital
• a lump sum payment has been made to someone else, for example as a gift, or to repay a
debt, but see Reason for disposing of capital asset later in this chapter
• substantial expenditure has been incurred on a non-essential item, for example on an
expensive holiday
• title deeds of a property, which is not the claimant’s home or will soon cease to be so
because, for example, they will be moving elsewhere, have been transferred to someone
else
• money has been put into a trust which cannot be revoked
• money has been converted into another form which would fall to be disregarded, for
example personal possessions
• capital has been reduced by extravagant living, for example gambling, or used to provide
a much higher standard of living than the claimant usually maintained"

margaretclare

dunstonh wrote: »

What is the point of a rainy day savings if you don't spend them when you have a rainy day.

No-one should be planning to live on benefits. You are effectively planning to be poor to breadline level if you do. Is that really what you are suggesting?

I completely agree. OH and I have been poor at certain times in our lives, we don't want to go there again, it's not a nice place to be.

BTW my eldest GD lives in a council flat, and I'm certain that there are people around her who live on benefits. I've not heard any suggestion that she shouldn't be paying her own rent and council tax, though. Having been homeless, I think she's happy to do just that.

tescobabe69

I regularly take my mother to the casino, she almost always "loses" I almost always "win", she buys her chips with a cheque, I bring home my winnings in cash.





I dont, but I know someone who did.

fieldofdreams

Probably the wrong question to ask, but how could this be traced? eg if you had £17000 in savings and withdrew £1500 in cash and "gave" it to a family member would anyone be able to prove wrongdoing?

inflationiscoming

atush wrote: »

No, but it would be she, not the OP who would have to travel and gamble. She can spend her money, but not give it away. She may well live and long life and need that savings to live one- better she has it than not.

There is a 10.7 mil lottery winner on benefits as we speak, and he gets them as he spent the lot (and is a convicted criminal to boot). Love to see a law that said any person convicted of a crime who wins the lottery should have to pay a windfall to victims/the state.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/04/lotto-rapist-shirley-woodman-iorworth-hoare

sorcerer

fieldofdreams wrote: »

Probably the wrong question to ask, but how could this be traced? eg if you had £17000 in savings and withdrew £1500 in cash and "gave" it to a family member would anyone be able to prove wrongdoing?

You would have to prove what you have done with the money.