worried over deprivation

tonyciclo

Hi I hope I'm in the right place to ask this question. My sister and I have are to inherit half each of our dad's estate which is worth about £440,000. The problem I have is I'm trying not to land my wife and me in hot water and at the same time give my sis somewhere to live. We don't need my half as I have nearly £10,000 of savings already, we own our own home and have enough money coming in each week to live off with pensions and Pension Credit. My sis wants to buy her own home, she is single and has always rented and has no savings. She can't get a mortgage as her earnings are too low. I've suggested to her that we change dad's will so that she gets everything so that she can buy a home. Without my half she won't be able to buy much with her half as we both live in a very expensive area where £400,000 will just about buy a 3 bed house.
If I do this would I still get my Pension Credit? If it does cause a problem she won't have enough for her home and we can't afford to lose the £120 a week we get from the Pension Credit. Does that make sense?
Hope somebody can help please

McKneff

Im sorry but are you really asking if you can give 200, 000 plus away to your sibling and still get benefits. Its not just pension credit, there are lots of other things to consider, if you have to have care or go into a home etc.

Tell your sister to rent. her half will last for a good while paying rent.

You cant just change your father's will on a whim

mrcow

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cto/customerguide/page21.htm

Have a read

Teahfc

tonyciclo wrote: »

Hi I hope I'm in the right place to ask this question. My sister and I have are to inherit half each of our dad's estate which is worth about £440,000. The problem I have is I'm trying not to land my wife and me in hot water and at the same time give my sis somewhere to live. We don't need my half as I have nearly £10,000 of savings already, we own our own home and have enough money coming in each week to live off with pensions and Pension Credit. My sis wants to buy her own home, she is single and has always rented and has no savings. She can't get a mortgage as her earnings are too low. I've suggested to her that we change dad's will so that she gets everything so that she can buy a home. Without my half she won't be able to buy much with her half as we both live in a very expensive area where £400,000 will just about buy a 3 bed house.
If I do this would I still get my Pension Credit? If it does cause a problem she won't have enough for her home and we can't afford to lose the £120 a week we get from the Pension Credit. Does that make sense?
Hope somebody can help please

SO if you cannot afford to lose your pension credits why should the tax payer in theory subsidise your single sisters 3 bedroom house by giving you benefits you say you cannot live without when you have access to £200k ?

rogerblack

tonyciclo wrote: »

Hi I hope I'm in the right place to ask this question. My sister and I have are to inherit half each of our dad's estate which is worth about £440,000. The problem I have is I'm trying not to land my wife and me in hot water and at the same time give my sis somewhere to live. We don't need my half as I have nearly £10,000 of savings already, we own our own home and have enough money coming in each week to live off with pensions and Pension Credit.

This is a complex area.
The IHT implications are one thing.

In many means tested benefits, if you do not take all of what you are legally entitled to, you may be treated as still having that money.

However, my understanding is on pension credit, you may be in an assessed income period.
If you are, then you may not need to tell them about changes in capital such as this.
This is a complex area, and taking professional advice is probably worthwhile.

sammyjammy

I can't believe you can be getting pension credit and say you don't need the money.

Can the sister not buy a 1 bed house/flat. If she is a similar age to you and single why would she need a three bedroom house?

tonyciclo

Thanks everyone. I understand about the inheritance tax part, that has already been paid. As I see it we need the pension credit to top our income up and don't think that dad would be happy if his money was scandered away every week if we lost it. I do know that if I did take my half and used it with the sale price we get for our home and buy a new home they couldn't touch it. All I want is my sis to have her own home. We do have an income period for pension credit but it is up for a recjeck next june. So it seems that to keep our income I have to take my half and buy a new house. Seems a bif wrong that she can't have it to do the same.
I had better get some help I think from a lawyer or CAB.

tonyciclo

sammyjammy wrote: »

I can't believe you can be getting pension credit and say you don't need the money.

Can the sister not buy a 1 bed house/flat. If she is a similar age to you and single why would she need a three bedroom house?

No we don't need the money we get more than enough from pensions and pension credit. We can actually save a bit each month but at the moment daren't do it as it would take us over the capital limit of £10,000.Instead my wife buys bits for the home and have just got rid of our old car to buy another. My sis could buy a 1 bed property but in the area were we live there aren't any. the smallest is a 2 bed semi but they rarely comeup, besides she has friends stay over and finds that 3 bed is what she needs, she rents a 3 bed as it is.The more the bedtooms the bigger it is downstairs.

jacques_chirac

sammyjammy wrote: »

I can't believe you can be getting pension credit and say you don't need the money.

Can the sister not buy a 1 bed house/flat. If she is a similar age to you and single why would she need a three bedroom house?

Anyone would think they were making it up

Housing_Benefit_Officer

When you are on Pension Credit you get an assessed income period and any capital received during that period is ignored. So if you get £200k then the Pension Service will ignore it for the length of the AIP so you end up having your full rent and council tax paid while sitting on a fortune.

If you are under pension age then your benefits stop when your capital goes over £16k.

tonyciclo

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

When you are on Pension Credit you get an assessed income period and any capital received during that period is ignored. So if you get £200k then the Pension Service will ignore it for the length of the AIP so you end up having your full rent and council tax paid while sitting on a fortune.

If you are under pension age then your benefits stop when your capital goes over £16k.

Thanks that is very interesting to know. Our period comes to an end next June so if we can arrange for dad's estate not to be closed until the new period is set we can do what we want? By the time the next time will be in 2019 and we won't have the money. You have given me the answer tahnks so much.