Pension credits

cavework

Could someone explain if any of these would be affected please?
My Mum recently moved in with us and her house is being sold.
We have a buyer and should complete by the end of Jan 2014.
Mum is 88 and gets her State pension, pension credits and lower rate AA.She also gets approx £80 per month from my deceased fathers occupational pension
She will have approx 30K from the sale of the house.
The pensions office have asked for the NI number of myself and my husband and the DOB's of my 2 adult sons in addition to the change of address info?
No one in the household is on benefits although my husband will be eligible for state pension in March.
We want to make sure that Mum is not claiming anything she is not entitled to

lld01

cavework wrote: »

Could someone explain if any of these would be affected please?
My Mum recently moved in with us and her house is being sold.
We have a buyer and should complete by the end of Jan 2014.
Mum is 88 and gets her State pension, pension credits and lower rate AA.She also gets approx £80 per month from my deceased fathers occupational pension
She will have approx 30K from the sale of the house.
The pensions office have asked for the NI number of myself and my husband and the DOB's of my 2 adult sons in addition to the change of address info?
No one in the household is on benefits although my husband will be eligible for state pension in March.
We want to make sure that Mum is not claiming anything she is not entitled to

It is possible she is recieving the severe disability premium (SDP) as part of the pension credit - worth approx £60/week - she will no longer be entitled to this premium as she is living with someone else. That is why they would have asked for details of other household members.

It is likely at the age of 88 that she has what's called an Assessed Income Period (AIP), this means any increased in savings/capital will be ignored.

Dunroamin

Does she have a mortgage to repay or is she selling her house for only £30K?

cavework

Hi,
There is an equity release on the property which was taken out years ago. My Dad left his share of the property to me (tenants in common), so approx 60K profit will be shared 50/50 with my Mum.
I want to invest Mums share in case (God forbid) she ever does need to enter a Nursing home.
Mum lives rent free with us

xylophone

Since mother did not own the whole house but only 50% of it. I cannot see that the whole £60,000 could possibly be considered as belonging to mother? The OP states that the property had been owned as tenants-in-common and her father willed his share to her.

With regard to £30,000, this certainly belongs to mother and she may use it as she wishes, although at her age, it would be inadvisable to give it away because if she were to need care, the council might well say that she had deprived herself of capital.

The OP's mother should advise DWP of her change of circumstances so that any necessary adjustments can be made.

Mother might wish to consider using her ISA allowance in one way or another.

xylophone

We are too young at the moment to have to think about a care home for either of us, but we are putting in place sufficient safeguards that will mean that the council will have to cough up in the future and voluntary top up payments could be made. All of our capital, bar just under £10K is to be tied up in two Discretionary Trusts, with our children being the trustees. Our new home will also be included as an asset split 50/50 in these trusts.

http://www.ts-p.co.uk/uploaded/publications/information_sheets/Wills_Trusts_and_Tax_Planning/care_home_fees.PDF might be worth a look.