on benefits and been left some money.

maxx22

Hi
we have been left some money from my aunties estate which will be between £10,000 and £13.000. we have been on benefits for over 6 years as i suffered a stroke in 2007 we receive DLA, incapacity, carers and my wife gets £45 a fortnight income support.
Would we be allowed to spend money on things such as a new bed, washing machine, cooker and to get our car serviced, would we be allowed to give our three children £500 each so one son can have driving lessons the other son t put towards a car and our daughter who is a single parent could do with help as her ex partner is not contributing towards our granddaughter would we also be allowed a break as my wife is just recovering from breast cancer and we have not had a holiday for over six years.
when i had my stroke we lost our house and my business and do have debt's of over £40,000 which when they took us to court the judge made a decision that we would pay our nine debtors £1 a month which we haven't broke the agreement how will this affect these.:o

ineed

Hi, I'm no expert but I think the minimum amount you legally have to declare is £16.000 for benefits like HB, although I'm not sure if its the same for all benefits so it would depend on what you receive. I don't think you have to declare for DLA but you might loose your income support. Regards declaring for the debts, I've no experience or legal knowledge of that situation, but someone else will I'm sure.

Paully232000

I would imagine that you have to declare any lump sum payments you receive, and I think that anything above £6000 is taken into consideration in reducing your benefit payments up to £16000 or so when you do not receive any means tested benefits.

I think that for every 250 over about 6000 your means tested benefits are reduced by £1 up to about 16,000. So based on that you would have to declare the 10,000-13000 money that you are to receive.

My figures of not precise but i am sure someone will come along and give exact figures.

McKneff

For the moment, don't 'give' any money away. Till things are sorted
keep it in your bank

Anything you buy, keep your receipts.

Caz3121

maxx22 wrote: »

Hi
we have been left some money from my aunties estate which will be between £10,000 and £13.000. we have been on benefits for over 6 years as i suffered a stroke in 2007 we receive DLA, incapacity, carers and my wife gets £45 a fortnight income support.
Would we be allowed to spend money on things such as a new bed, washing machine, cooker and to get our car serviced, would we be allowed to give our three children £500 each so one son can have driving lessons the other son t put towards a car and our daughter who is a single parent could do with help as her ex partner is not contributing towards our granddaughter would we also be allowed a break as my wife is just recovering from breast cancer and we have not had a holiday for over six years.
when i had my stroke we lost our house and my business and do have debt's of over £40,000 which when they took us to court the judge made a decision that we would pay our nine debtors £1 a month which we haven't broke the agreement how will this affect these.:o

Means tested benefits will be affected with the amount over £6k as has been stated. Non-means tested benefits such as DLA will not be affected
As for spending the money, the decision maker will decide what is appropriate spending and what is disposing of capital to gain benefits - eg it will look very suspect if you want to reduce the amount very quickly to under £6k, things like bed, cooker, car service etc should be fine. Giving money away to relatives will likely not be and you may find yourself in a situation where you don't have the money and are still treated as if you still have it.
Hopefully someone else will know the situation with the debts - good luck

rogerblack

Caz3121 wrote: »

Hopefully someone else will know the situation with the debts - good luck

Repaying debts that are not immediately required to be repaid - if they have come to the end of their term - or you have had a demand for full payment - may be regarded as deprivation of capital.

In addition - read the agreements you made with the court with regards your debts carefully.
You may be required to repay some or all of the amount of money you have 'come into' into that debt.

Jobseeeker

Be very careful about deprivation of capital. The car service thing, I assume you do that every year anyway, everything else you mention would be considered deprivation of capital.

Mojisola

maxx22 wrote: »

Would we be allowed to spend money on things such as a new bed, washing machine, cooker and to get our car serviced, would we be allowed to give our three children £500 each

Jobseeeker wrote: »

Be very careful about deprivation of capital. The car service thing, I assume you do that every year anyway, everything else you mention would be considered deprivation of capital.

No, it wouldn't. Using money to replace old furniture or white goods is acceptable spending. It would be sensible to buy mid-priced goods rather than top of the range stuff.

If there are any alterations to the house that would make life easier (such as installing a ramp or walk-in shower, replacing worn carpets, fitting a stairlift), those would also be acceptable.

Car servicing or even buying a newer car is fine.

A holiday is fine, too, although a first class round-the-world trip might cause problems!

Giving money away is not acceptable.

If you're anxious about it, you can ask advice but people in the past have found the DWP very reluctant to give permission in advance. Keep all receipts to show your spending.

rogerblack

Mojisola wrote: »

No, it wouldn't. Using money to replace old furniture or white goods is acceptable spending. It would be sensible to buy mid-priced goods rather than top of the range stuff.

The fundamental problem is that the advice you go on to give is problematic.
Simply as the law can be read - by someone who is feeling really strict - to mean that Tesco Finest meals are a deprivation of capital - compared to a value meal.

This example is probably extreme - but people have come on here occasionally saying they have in fact been asked (after the fact) for grocery reciepts.

maxx22

Jobseeeker wrote: »

Be very careful about deprivation of capital. The car service thing, I assume you do that every year anyway, everything else you mention would be considered deprivation of capital.

I haven't had the car serviced for four years. I cant see how buying a bed which we need or a washing machine which we need plus a cooker is deprivation of capital when we lost our house our mortgage was just over £300 a month our house was sold for £40,000 less than it was worth and we were then moved into private renting that cost £800 a month the house we moved into ad no room for some of our furniture and we had three days to move so we ended up losing furniture. we have lived the last six years by robbing peter to pay paul we don't drink or smoke I have been out for two meals in six years we have not had any break for six years surely a week in a small B&B could not be seen as ostentatious

princessdon

I always think its common sense. If you didn't have benefits would you do the same?

Eg if your washing machine is broken and you are using a mates and or it's so old it's not cost effective then clearly it would be unfair to treat as DOC. If its a few years old works fine, you just want to use the money to get benefits and give your old working machine to a daughter then it's not. Same with the bed. Car servicing should be fine.

Re holiday - short break sounds ideal - carribean trip for your family including your daughter/grandchild is a no no. Anything that brings it down to exactly 6k, would be looked at.

No one is saying don't spend, but the test is if they think you are spending to keep your benefits on none necessary items then they could be questioned and you can see why. You cannot gift money, well you can but if you can afford to give away money then rightly so they'll expect to treat as DOC.