Downsizing with £60k surplus advice please

ange1962

hi my parents are both in their early 70s they are moving house due to health reasons and currently receive a number of benefits, council tax benefit, disability living allowance, incapacity benefit, carers allowance plus their state pensions. they will spend some of the £60k surplus from moving to improve the property, will this amount affect any of their benefits? and once improvements completed expect to have around £30 to £40k in savings, where should they put it. any advice ideas welcomed.:)

ognum

My friends father paid for a funeral plan in order to keep his savings low enough, just a thought.

pmlindyloo

ange1962 wrote: »

hi my parents are both in their early 70s they are moving house due to health reasons and currently receive a number of benefits, council tax benefit, disability living allowance, incapacity benefit, carers allowance plus their state pensions. they will spend some of the £60k surplus from moving to improve the property, will this amount affect any of their benefits? and once improvements completed expect to have around £30 to £40k in savings, where should they put it. any advice ideas welcomed.:)

Means tested benefit (affected by savings)

Council Tax Benefit

Non means tested benefits

Disability Living Allowance
Carer's allowance

As far as I know your parents are not entitled to Incapacity Benefit as they are over retirement age. Are you sure about this?

Your parents probably need to do a benefits check (CAB or ring the Pension Credit helpline). You could use www.turn2us.org.uk.

For helpful advice about savings ask on the Banking and Savings forum.

ange1962

hi Disability living allowance isnt paid past retirement age unless you received it before that age, my mother has been disabled for around 15 years so still receives this past retirement, Incapacity benefit is payabale to any age if you are entitled ( at least that is my understanding) dad receives this and it didnt start until he was over 70. thanks for you reply

geoffky

INCAP is being phased out then it is 12mths contributions ESA and then its means tested.

pmlindyloo

geoffky wrote: »

INCAP is being phased out then it is 12mths contributions ESA and then its means tested.

No, that can't be right - OP's dad is over state pension age so can't get ESA!

That's why I thought the OP was muddled when he said his dad was getting Incapacity Benefit! Really thought you couldn't get that over state pension age.

Bit of a strange one, though I do know that long term Incapacity Benefit has its own strange rules.

Hope the OP or someone else can tell us about this - always ready to learn

dinkytoy

It is impossible to get IB after retirement age when your dad would have been forced to claim his pension (and pos. PC alongside his pension) so you are wrong about that ange, your right about DLA but definatly not about IB.

bmar71n

if they have over a certain amount in savings it will make them unable to receive some of those benefits mentioned. It could be an option to spend some capital on energy saving technology on the property as this will generate an income in energy savings and they will still be able to receive the mentioned benefits due to having a smaller amount in savings

motherofstudents

Does your dad get attendance allowance ? If so, that will be ignored and can also mean a higher entitlement to some benefits. As above, no entitlement to IB after retirement.