Hiding assets

BigAunty

I also have a relative who was widowed and sought to avoid means testing of her benefits by transferring her inherited capital into her son's bank account.

The DWP caught up with her but accepted her fabricated explanation along the lines of taking the type of action with her late husband's estate by giving it to their son, the impact of grief, ignorance of the rules around means testing, etc, and general widow-woman wailing. She was terrified of being prosecuted but nothing happened along criminal lines.

I expect the DWP have a certain type of tolerance to the type of stories she trotted out, prefering to settle a lot of the matters by stopping benefits and arranging for overpayments to be paid back.

Her way around current means testing is apparently to operate a bank account in a false name, how she got this account, I don't know. However, when she dies, I can't see how her children can access this secret account in a false name so in the long-term it spectacularly backfires...

Cheeky_Monkey

shorty33 wrote: »

Thanks dippy, I think armed with this I should be able to persuade both parties to think again.

It's not a matter of you 'persuading' the two crooks to think again (I say two because no doubt the person hiding the money will get a slice for their trouble). You are legally bound to distribute the estate as per the exact instructions in the will i.e. directly to the beneficiary.

If you do take part in this fraud, I hope all three of you go down :mad:

Pollycat

Cheeky_Monkey wrote: »

It's not a matter of you 'persuading' the two crooks to think again (I say two because no doubt the person hiding the money will get a slice for their trouble). You are legally bound to distribute the estate as per the exact instructions in the will i.e. directly to the beneficiary.

If you do take part in this fraud, I hope all three of you go down :mad:

The OP says the money would be dispersed as per the will.

shorty33 wrote: »

I am not hiding it. The money would be dispersed as per the will. It is up to the beneficiary to decide what they do with it afterwards.

From the OP's posts, I don't get that he is considering having anything to do with this fraud.

I take it to mean that he is trying to persuade the beneficiary and whoever is being asked to hide the money that they would be breaking the law.

Marisco

Purely out of curiosity, how would the DWP know someone had an inheritance if no one told them? What I mean is, say person A, who is not claiming any benefits, dies, and leaves, say £20,000 to person B, who is on means tested benefits, how would the DWP know this if person B doesn't tell them, and decides to put the money "under the bed" rather than in a traceable bank account? Do they go through every single will to see if the beneficiaries match anyone in their database?

dippy3103

BigAunty wrote: »

I also have a relative who was widowed and sought to avoid means testing of her benefits by transferring her inherited capital into her son's bank account.

The DWP caught up with her but accepted her fabricated explanation along the lines of taking the type of action with her late husband's estate by giving it to their son, the impact of grief, ignorance of the rules around means testing, etc, and general widow-woman wailing. She was terrified of being prosecuted but nothing happened along criminal lines.

I expect the DWP have a certain type of tolerance to the type of stories she trotted out, prefering to settle a lot of the matters by stopping benefits and arranging for overpayments to be paid back.

Her way around current means testing is apparently to operate a bank account in a false name, how she got this account, I don't know. However, when she dies, I can't see how her children can access this secret account in a false name so in the long-term it spectacularly backfires...

The action that is or isn't taken depends on various factors.


The secret bank account may not be as secret as she thinks in this age of increasing data matching

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Marisco wrote: »

Purely out of curiosity, how would the DWP know someone had an inheritance if no one told them? What I mean is, say person A, who is not claiming any benefits, dies, and leaves, say £20,000 to person B, who is on means tested benefits, how would the DWP know this if person B doesn't tell them, and decides to put the money "under the bed" rather than in a traceable bank account? Do they go through every single will to see if the beneficiaries match anyone in their database?

Data matching would reveal the balances of peoples bank accounts.

It would be highly unusual for an executor to withdraw £20k in cash and hand it over.

dippy3103

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

Data matching would reveal the balances of peoples bank accounts.

It would be highly unusual for an executor to withdraw £20k in cash and hand it over.

And don't forget money laundering legislation requires banks to report unusual activity on accounts

patman99

The money can be spent on day-to-day living expenses without having to prove it.


However, if the person used the inheritence to buy, say, a new car, then the DWP would class that as DOA.

So what is to stop the op's friend withdrawing small amounts each week and putting the money in a safety deposit box?.

Don't forget, the rules around savings mean that you get no benefits if your savings are above £16k, but if they are between £6k and £16k you lose something like £1 per £250 over the £6k.

This is why when I am asked to help with benefits claims, I tell my clients that it is essential to tell the DWP each time their savings decrease below the next £250 tier. That way, they don't lose out on their benefits.

I do however, tell them to be honest and not to deliberatly waste their savings in order to gain more benefits as the DWP will see this as a deliberate depreciation of assets and will still count the money as being there.

My advice to the op as executor of the will is to hand the inheritor a cheque for the amount of the inheritence and inform him/her that the DWP do check through the lists of wills and do check the status of people who are in receipt of large amounts of money.

It is then up to the inheritor as to whether or not they attempt to fraudulently hide the money.

Mojisola

patman99 wrote: »

The money can be spent on day-to-day living expenses without having to prove it.

However, if the person used the inheritence to buy, say, a new car, then the DWP would class that as DOA.

Not necessarily. If you bought a top-of-the-range car, DWP would question it but if you just got a normal second-hand car, it would be an appropriate use of the money.

You can also use a windfall to replace broken while goods, replace furniture, carpets, etc, and even have a reasonable holiday.

It doesn't only have to go on daily living expenses.

missapril75

Marisco wrote: »

Purely out of curiosity, how would the DWP know someone had an inheritance if no one told them? ..... Do they go through every single will to see if the beneficiaries match anyone in their database?

The answer is above. Not through every will, just a check made of those for whom it would be relevant. The estates are registered, the registry is checked.

When the DWP is notified of the death of someone on means tested benefits they send off a notice saying how much that person declared in assets (not including their home) and if the estate is a higher figure (most likely explanation being home sale which doesn't matter but it might be because they had more than declared) they get notified back and the enquiry letter follows.