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Housing_Benefit_Officer

The £12k is yours. You failed to declare it and have committed fraud. No excuses. Your JSA will cease and be cancelled back to when your capital exceeded £6k.

Regarding the other account - they will probably say 50% of that is yours - taking your capital to over £16k - your help towards your Council Tax will be cancelled back to when your capital exceeded £16k.

At least you have cash in two accounts that you can use to pay off your overpayments - although if they prosecute you they could freeze and then cease them under the proceeds of crime act.

Beowulf1954

paddedjohn wrote: »

Straight away im smelling a rat, you are skint with no pension to look forward to but you manage to buy a house for cash leaving you on the breadline, 5 more weeks of the school hols more like.

I worked most of my life and had £30,000 invested in premium bonds and £12,000 in an ISA account. I cashed in all the premium bonds and borrowed the £14,000 from my uncle which will be paid off next year when the Newcastle account matures. You make it sound as if it was a crime for someone in their late 50's to buy a house for cash rather than take on a mortgage!

Beowulf1954

MacMickster wrote: »

OP.

I take it that you will have full paperwork to back up your story re the loan from your uncle. If he had a solicitor draw up an agreement which effectively assigned that Newcastle account to him then you MIGHT get away with that one.

Your mother's money held in your account is a different matter altogether. If your mother is claiming any means-tested benefits then you might both find yourselves in some bother.

Time to bring your early retirement to an end I think.

He's my uncle so no we didn't get a solicitor draw up an agreement obviously as he trusts me to repay him.

As for my mothers money held in my account you appear to have misread that one. The account in question is my mothers account in her name under her address not mine. It was money she inherited from my father when he died and nothing to do with me. I have never accessed that account and couldn't if I wanted to as my mother has the necessary cards in her safe. My name is on the account so that when my mother dies I will have access to it.

k12479

jacques_chirac wrote: »

Happy to take (fraudulently), not happy to give back. And they say it is the young people with the poor attitude to work ...

Your attitude isn't so great either...https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4730183

Jamie_Carter

Beowulf1954 wrote: »

I worked most of my life and had £30,000 invested in premium bonds and £12,000 in an ISA account. I cashed in all the premium bonds and borrowed the £14,000 from my uncle which will be paid off next year when the Newcastle account matures. You make it sound as if it was a crime for someone in their late 50's to buy a house for cash rather than take on a mortgage!

No, it is a crime to expect tax payers to pay your benefits when you have loads of money stashed away.

paddedjohn

k12479 wrote: »

Your attitude isn't so great either...https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4730183

I think an apology may be forthcoming, they are 2 different posters.;)

k12479

paddedjohn wrote: »

I think an apology may be forthcoming, they are 2 different posters.;)

Indeed, they are. Apologies to the honourable jacques chirac.

jacqeus chirac, on the other hand is a fraudster like the OP.

MacMickster

Beowulf1954 wrote: »

He's my uncle so no we didn't get a solicitor draw up an agreement obviously as he trusts me to repay him.

As for my mothers money held in my account you appear to have misread that one. The account in question is my mothers account in her name under her address not mine. It was money she inherited from my father when he died and nothing to do with me. I have never accessed that account and couldn't if I wanted to as my mother has the necessary cards in her safe. My name is on the account so that when my mother dies I will have access to it.

Sadly for your uncle, you are unlikely to be able to repay him as intended, as the DWP will want some, or all, of that money from you. People's circumstances change, which is why a written agreement should be obtained when lending money - even to family. Also, no-one should lend any amount that they are not prepared to wave goodbye to.

As for the (I now presume joint) account with your mother, any money held in a joint account belongs to both account holders. Either one can access the money and empty the account. Whether you consider it to be yours or not, the fact is that all of that money is yours (and you can access tht without the card just by going to the bank with proof of your identity).

When claiming benefits you can't just ignore the legal reality of the capital available to you. I suspect that this will be a harsh lesson for your mother and uncle as well as you, as they are going to lose money due to their trust in you.

tokenfield

Nick_C wrote: »

Well I find it hard to believe your story, and I expect the Benefits Agency will also find it incredible. Your mother opened an account in your name without your knowledge? I would have thought that was impossible! Did she forge your signature?

.

The OP never said that - read the post properly!

The OP knew full well that the account was in their name but it was the mother's money. The OP never touched the account. The OP has also explained why the mother did it that way.

fishybusiness

There's more to this IMO, the OP's other thread suggests he lost his job around October 2011, and started claiming JSA at some point afterwards.

He has said this

Just over two years ago I got the chance of buying my house

Obviously before he lost his job, and then this

As I'm 58 I didn't want to have a mortgage so I basically cashed in everything I had to buy the house for cash

Meaning OP had plenty of cash around, and then this

I was £14,000 short and thought about cashing in the Newcastle account where I had £12,000

So he had another £12k here, but didn't want to lose the interest

The problem was that it was locked into a 5 year investment at 5% per year and that was really too good to give up

Never mind the deal with his uncle, and the joint account problem, this guy has enough money to buy a house cash, excepting £2k, and then wants to claim JSA and Council Tax Benefit so he can keep his money and own his home.

Is there any wonder the DWP asked a few questions?