Housing Benefit issues

pmlindyloo

Poppie68 wrote: »

It is all legal and above board. Your mother is being paid HB because she cannot afford to pay her rent. The rules do allow for capital but there is a limit, if your mothers savings breach that limit they are well within their rights to question were the money has gone as she has had more than the £16,000 allowed to qualify her for HB..

There are people who deliberately spend money to be able to claim benefits. eg Someone gets some redundancy money and then has a holiday of a lifetime, buys a flashy car etc etc because they think they will be able to claim benefits once they have got rid of most of the money.

To avoid this happening if you claim benefits and they see from your bank accounts that you had lots of money and then a lot of it 'disappeared', they have the right to check what it was spent on.

If they think you spent it in order to get benefits then they can still treat you as if you still had it.

All perfectly legal and done to protect the tax payer from unscrupulous benefit claimants.

Now, it is possible that your Mum's spending will be seen as perfectly reasonable. On the other hand it may not be seen as reasonable.

You will have to wait and see.

Mara69

Sweetlilac73 wrote: »

she hasnt spent money in order to get benefits. wow.

That might not have been the plan, but she had sufficient money to support herself and would not have been entitled to some benefits. Now she has spent a significant sum and wants to continue claiming benefits. The DWP has a responsibility to ensure that she has not deliberately deprvied herself of capital in order to claim benefits.

Sweetlilac73 wrote: »

she was married to an abusive man for 20 years and was on and is still on dla and hb and support related esa and before that was on incapacity benefit because she has almost no vertebrae in her back.

I am very glad she is no longer in a abusive relationship, but this is irrelevant.

Sweetlilac73 wrote: »

she used money to have a once in a lifetime holiday with her sister because she deserved it.

I am sure she did - but not while expecting the tax payer to continue paying her benefits for her.

Sweetlilac73 wrote: »

I cant believe that they have the right to do this..

They do. You depend on benefits you have to submit to the rules of claiming those benefits. Chances are the money she gave you will be considered deprivation and so might the holiday.

Someone I knew spent a load of money on holidays and financial gifts to his kids - his IS was halved as he was considered to still have the money. It's called notional capital.

Torry_Quine

Sweetlilac73 wrote: »

she hasnt spent money in order to get benefits. wow.

she was married to an abusive man for 20 years and was on and is still on dla and hb and support related esa and before that was on incapacity benefit because she has almost no vertebrae in her back.

she used money to have a once in a lifetime holiday with her sister because she deserved it.

I cant believe that they have the right to do this..

I didn't say she has spent the money to get benefits but that you can't spend the money to get benefits and I'm not about to make the decision about her motivation.

[

Sweetlilac73

wow

i am actually quite disgusted.

Considering they give away thousands of pounds in working tax credits and never ask for proof on spend, and child tax credits to people who have never worked and never asked for what they spend it on , i believe that what they are doing is in fact discrimination.

How can it not be ?

I have never been on benefits myself, but i just cant grasp how it is any of their business.

Torry_Quine

Sweetlilac73 wrote: »

wow

i am actually quite disgusted.

Considering they give away thousands of pounds in working tax credits and never ask for proof on spend, and child tax credits to people who have never worked and never asked for what they spend it on , i believe that what they are doing is in fact discrimination.

How can it not be ?

I have never been on benefits myself, but i just cant grasp how it is any of their business.

If someone wants income related benefits then it really is sensible for the authorities to make basic checks otherwise people could get rid of money for all kinds of reasons. Not saying your mother did, but they don't know that.

missapril75

Sweetlilac73 wrote: »

The dwp dont ask for reeipts of what people spend their jsa, working tax credits etc on so how is this any different ??

Neither the local authorities nor the dwp ask people to show how they are spending money in the normal course of events.

Both organisations do ask how people spent their money if there has been a reduction in capital that gives an entitlement to benefit (or a higher level of it) as people have said.

There are plenty of threads about it here. How strict/thorough they are will depend on how much has gone, over what period. And sometimes the individual member of staff.

Mara69

Sweetlilac73 wrote: »

I have never been on benefits myself, but i just cant grasp how it is any of their business.

I can't understand why you don't get it.

Benefits are a lifeline. They are supposed to be given to people with no money at all to prevent starvation and/or homelessness. When a person suddenly comes into money they no longer NEED that lifeline. They have enough to pay their own rent and buy their own food. The DWP allow each claimant to have £6k before their benefits are reduced. £16k removes the entitlement entirely.

Now, if a person works and is not reliant on benefits they can spend their money on what they like. Anything at all. However, if you are dependent on benefits because you are in danger of starving then having £20k means you have to accept that you are no longer in NEED of means tested benefits. You are not permitted to have a holiday, buy £10k worth of scratch cards, give money to family and still claim benefits. Why should the tax payer pay your bills when you can afford to pay them yourself? In other words, you cannot have jollies and still expect the tax payer to pay your bills.

It really is that simple.

princessdon

Sweetlilac73 wrote: »

no hun she is 59.

She lost all the vertebrae in her back when she was in her 20's and uses sticks and a wheelchair.

Ok - just savings are different for pensioners, otherwise as above they do look at what you spent money on. To give another example if I was on benefits won £100k on the lottery and gave it to my child they'd question it. You are lucky that they didn't question the Mexico trip, one poster said they had their grocery bill questioned. It's likely money she gave you will be added to her savings.

Sweetlilac73

Mara69 wrote: »

I can't understand why you don't get it.

Benefits are a lifeline. They are supposed to be given to people with no money at all to prevent starvation and/or homelessness. When a person suddenly comes into money they no longer NEED that lifeline. They have enough to pay their own rent and buy their own food. The DWP allow each claimant to have £6k before their benefits are reduced. £16k removes the entitlement entirely.

Now, if a person works and is not reliant on benefits they can spend their money on what they like. Anything at all. However, if you are dependent on benefits because you are in danger of starving then having £20k means you have to accept that you are no longer in NEED of means tested benefits. You are not permitted to have a holiday, buy £10k worth of scratch cards, give money to family and still claim benefits. Why should the tax payer pay your bills when you can afford to pay them yourself? In other words, you cannot have jollies and still expect the tax payer to pay your bills.

It really is that simple.

ok thanks for your candour.

princessdon

Sweetlilac73 wrote: »

wow

i am actually quite disgusted.

Considering they give away thousands of pounds in working tax credits and never ask for proof on spend, and child tax credits to people who have never worked and never asked for what they spend it on , i believe that what they are doing is in fact discrimination.

How can it not be ?

I have never been on benefits myself, but i just cant grasp how it is any of their business.[/QUOTE



They will next year - at the moment savings are not counted as bizarre as that seems - next year they are and would ask the same questions if came into a windfall.