Hiding assets

mountainofdebt

Of course the beneficiary is hoping that the person they would be giving the money to a) is honest and b) doesn't drop down dead themselves because wouldn't that money then form part of their estate????

patman99

I'm sure that I remember reading on another thread on here that money you gain through compensation or inheritence is disregarded for 1 year.

Also, Shorty, your friend could set up a trust fund and deposit the cheque in to it.
Monies held in trust are disregarded for benefits purposes as they are tied-up for a time set when the trust was set up and therefore they are not freely available for day-to-day living.

The op's friend does remind me of a mate of mine who tried hiding money from the DWP when his dad died as he was on benefits.
His part of the inheritence was put in an account in his sisters name. Unfortuanatley his sister died a couple of years later and the contents of her bank account were left to be split equally amongst her remaining 3 siblings (with the exception of the one special account). My mate then decided to move the remains of the money left from his dad along with that from his sister into his son's account as his son was long-term employed.
Within a year, his son had been laid-off and with all the money from his dad sitting in his account, he was stuffed as far as benefits were concerned.

The actions of one person ended up affecting someone else.

Lesson learned. He should have used the inheritence to buy gold jewellery until he was below the £6k limit.

Mersey_2

missapril1975 - I agree that that can happen, although it's merley matching CGT gains from HMRC data sharing, from wealthier people and those who have Wills.

Mojisola was suggesting the DWP have the knowledge, ability and permission to search databases - even though some will be abroad - in order to match the names and ID's of beneficiaries' receiving assets, in order to see whether it puts their assets over the £6k assets' threshold, ie relevant to the OP.

I realise there are exceptions to the DPA eg s29 in order to prevent fraud; but, it doesn't allow Govt departments to go on largescale fishing expeditions, quite apart from the fact that they wouldn't have the manpower or resources needed.

Mojisola

patman99 wrote: »

I'm sure that I remember reading on another thread on here that money you gain through compensation or inheritence is disregarded for 1 year.

Also, Shorty, your friend could set up a trust fund and deposit the cheque in to it.
Monies held in trust are disregarded for benefits purposes as they are tied-up for a time set when the trust was set up and therefore they are not freely available for day-to-day living.

Neither of these is right. If you are on means tested benefits and get an inheritance which is above the capital limits, your benefits will stop immediately.

If the deceased had set up a trust in a will for the beneficiary on benefits, he could have carried on claiming because the money wouldn't be his - it would be kept separate in the trust.

What you can't do is inherit cash and then put it in a trust of your own making. You would just be assessed as if you had the money and lose your benefits.

Mojisola

Mersey wrote: »

missapril1975 - I agree that that can happen, although it's merley matching CGT gains from HMRC data sharing, from wealthier people and those who have Wills.

Mojisula was suggesting the DWP have the knowledge, ability and permission to search databases - even though some will be abroad - in order to match the names and ID's of beneficiaries' receiving assets, in order to see whether it puts their assets over the £6k assets' threshold, ie relevant to the OP.

I realise there are exceptions to the DPA eg s29 in order to prevent fraud; but, it doesn't allow Govt departments to go on largescale fishing expeditions, quite apart from the fact that they wouldn't have the manpower or resources needed.

Did I say they chase up beneficiaries who live abroad?

You might not want to believe what happens but the Estate Recovery department does contact the executors of anyone who was on means tested benefits and whose assets appear to exceed the capital allowances. The executors are legally obliged to repay any overpayments from the estate.

Mersey_2

I agree that the DWP has the ability to contact re the dead person's assets - and it's right that they should do so.

But I took this:

Mojisola wrote: »

So all the people who work in the Estate Recovery department of the DWP are imaginary and all the letters that get sent out to the executors of claimants' estates don't exist?

to mean that you believe the DWP then trawls beneficiaries' bank accounts/HMRC records' to see whether the bequest(s) puts them over the threshold, as relevant to the OP. I'm glad that isn't what you meant.

Mojisola

Mersey wrote: »

But I took this:

to mean that you believe the DWP then trawls beneficiaries' bank accounts/HMRC records' to see whether the bequest(s) puts them over the threshold, as relevant to the OP. I'm glad that isn't what you meant.

They don't need to because they get copies of probate and can see whether the amount of the estate exceeds the amount the deceased was claiming to possess. It's a very simple exercise.

In many cases, the estate does exceed the benefits capital limits because the value of the house isn't taken into account when claiming benefits but is in the estate records but the executors still have to explain the discrepancy.

Mersey_2

Yes, we're agreed that the DWP can search re the deceased's estate; not the beneficiaries' assets.

dippy3103

Let's not forget that the majority of people on means tested benefits are honest so it's not often the estate does exceed.
Recovery from estates also recover o/ps that accrued for other reasons prior to death

missapril75

Mersey wrote: »

missapril1975 - I agree that that can happen, although it's merley matching CGT gains from HMRC data sharing, from wealthier people and those who have Wills.

Nope. Not just wealthy nor just those with wills. Certainly the DWP has access to data that it never used to. But what I described was routine even way back in the 70s. I used to deal with the cases where there was more money than declared and it was by no means just the wealthy.

I just checked the overpayment recovery guide and the form that is issued even has the same number it did back then. :rotfl:

Mostly it was the property they had lived in and it made no difference.

I realise there are exceptions to the DPA eg s29 in order to prevent fraud; but, it doesn't allow Govt departments to go on largescale fishing expeditions, quite apart from the fact that they wouldn't have the manpower or resources needed.

It's not a fishing expedition, it's routine action when the department paying means tested benefit is notified of a death.