Advice needed

newmum22

I have savings as was saving to get another house but now that I cant work I cant get another mortgage. Otherwise I would have used it to pay off current mortgage sooner.
Not trying to do any wrong just wanted to know if there were any options for helping me not waste my savings if I didn't have to but looks like I have no choice.

tonyciclo

paddedjohn wrote: »

If you had £50k savings why weren't they used to pay the mortgage off before you needed to claim benefits? Fair enough if you came into £50k and paid the mortgage off while still working but to do it just to claim benefits is tantamount to fraud.


By the way I reckon the OP and tonycirco are one and the same person and is a troll.

From the little that I know, that if you paid off the mortgage using the savings then claimed a benefit you would still be held to have deprived yourself of that capital. They would tell you that you should not have repaid the mortgage and should have used it to live off then claimed benefits when the savings got down to £6000. You can't win.
My brother received a large amount of money from the Criminal Injuries Board in 1998, about £245,000. He had a mortgage of £100,000 and was on long term sick and disability. He wasn't allowed to use that money to settle his mortgage. They stopped his Income Support until he used the money to live off. If he had have settled the mortgage he still wouldn't have got his Income Support back because of deprivation and then would have no money to live off . I am nothing to do with the person that started this letter.

tonyciclo

newmum22 wrote: »

I have savings as was saving to get another house but now that I cant work I cant get another mortgage. Otherwise I would have used it to pay off current mortgage sooner.
Not trying to do any wrong just wanted to know if there were any options for helping me not waste my savings if I didn't have to but looks like I have no choice.

It seems that you have no choice other than to use the savings to live off. There is nothing stopping you selling up and putting the sale proceeds together with the savings to buy another property. Then you could claim full benefits.

Caz3121

tonyciclo wrote: »

My brother received a large amount of money from the Criminal Injuries Board in 1998, about £245,000. He had a mortgage of £100,000 and was on long term sick and disability. He wasn't allowed to use that money to settle his mortgage. They stopped his Income Support until he used the money to live off. If he had have settled the mortgage he still wouldn't have got his Income Support back because of deprivation and then would have no money to live off . I am nothing to do with the person that started this letter.

It is his money to do what he wishes with, paying off the mortgage would still leave £145k so it would keep him going for many many years with no housing costs. They cannot stop anyone from spending money on anything they wish to. What will be assessed is whether the money was spent to enable someone to claim means tested benefits. The figure given by criminal injuries would have assessed his level of injury and how long it would be until he would be able to support himself and to recompense him having to pay for things that he does not have a wage to pay for. I would imagine if all the benefits stayed in place in a situation like this, the award would be much smaller as the needs would be less.
Did he take advice at the time. I believe that there are certain trusts that can be set up that do not give full access to the capital so benefits are not affected in the same way, but these need to be done at the time of the award

Caz3121

tonyciclo wrote: »

It seems that you have no choice other than to use the savings to live off. There is nothing stopping you selling up and putting the sale proceeds together with the savings to buy another property. Then you could claim full benefits.

If you could buy a property for the cash you have. I doubt lenders would give a mortgage with no earned income, some will consider some benefits but I doubt saying you intend the mortgage is to be paid by SMI would qualify as it is now time limited

tonyciclo

Caz3121 wrote: »

It is his money to do what he wishes with, paying off the mortgage would still leave £145k so it would keep him going for many many years with no housing costs. They cannot stop anyone from spending money on anything they wish to. What will be assessed is whether the money was spent to enable someone to claim means tested benefits. The figure given by criminal injuries would have assessed his level of injury and how long it would be until he would be able to support himself and to recompense him having to pay for things that he does not have a wage to pay for. I would imagine if all the benefits stayed in place in a situation like this, the award would be much smaller as the needs would be less.
Did he take advice at the time. I believe that there are certain trusts that can be set up that do not give full access to the capital so benefits are not affected in the same way, but these need to be done at the time of the award

No there was no advice obtained, he did the claim himself. I know this was quite a few years ago, but after 15 years all but £11,000 has been spent on living costs including keeping the mortgage payments up to date. He still has the £100,000 mortgage though as he was worried that when his savings get down to below £6000 they would have said that he had deprived himself of money that was needlessly used to settle the mortgage. By next year he should be able to make a claim for ESA and PIP and hopefully get his mortgage paid for. He can prove that every penny of the £234,000 has been spent wisely on living costs and associated disability costs (taxis etc).

SandraScarlett

paddedjohn wrote: »

By the way I reckon the OP and tonycirco are one and the same person and is a troll.

....... and may have a Freelander.

xx

Poppie68

SandraScarlett wrote: »

....... and may have a Freelander.

xx

And giving himself away on the disability forum.;)