Housing benefit with inheritance

LadyIndigo01

This one is a bit complicated so I will try and keep it brief.

My mother died at the end of August. My brother has lived with her for years since he has been ill. He claims Employment and Support Allowance & Disability Living Allowance. I also have a sister. My sister and I live elsewhere.

My mother did not leave a will and my sister and I have applied for letters of administration. My brother has continued to live in my mothers house so far. The estate is complicated and we have been informed that probate could take a long time to sort out but in the meantime we can sell the house (but we would not receive any money until probate is granted - it would go into the estate).

We need to sell the house to pay inheritance tax. We would like to move my brother out into a smaller place so we can sell the house. My sister and I would not be able to afford to pay his rent - Would he be eligible for Housing Benefit and how do we go about claiming this for him? Does he need to find a place to live first and then submit a claim? I am thinking of contacting the CAB but is there anyone else that would be able to help?

Horseunderwater

http s://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/overview - have a read of this. Her house & total estate would need 2 B worth over £325,000 - is it? Get it valued for probate purposes - meanwhile visit local council & register your brother onto their housing register as he would be in one of the top groups if disabled. There should be no rush to effectively evict your brother until you know all the facts.

rogerblack

LadyIndigo01 wrote: »

My mother died at the end of August. My brother has lived with her for years since he has been ill. He claims Employment and Support Allowance & Disability Living Allowance.

Neglecting everything else.
DLA is never means-tested.
ESA is not means-tested for capital like houses - if the person is on ESA-contribtions.
If, in the two tax years before they started claiming - they were working more than on a part time casual basis, it is likely that they would be eligible for ESA(C) at least for one year if they were in the 'work related' group, and forever if they are in the 'support' group.

If they are on income-based ESA - then this will stop with any significant amount of capital. (>16K).

If he has >16K of capital, he would not be entitled to HB.
If he has 1/3 share of a house - is this not sufficient to purchase somewhere?
Money used for the purposes of purchasing a house you live in is almost always ignored.

If he's getting 1/3 of the estate, and does not put the money into the house, he will not be entitled to HB/ESA for some considerable time - until the money is mostly spent.
After that time, there may be conerns how the money was spent - and if it was spent frivolously in order to claim more benefit.

In principle, the deceased could have made arrangements for money to be held in trust, in a form that the person could not access the capital of.
This would generally have not affected benefit payments at all.
This is too late to do now, and any variance of the will, or not claiming all that is entitled to may be treated as if the money was actually in their hands.

Norman_Castle

If housing benefit is not available for your brother paying interest may be cheaper than re-housing him.

Deadline for paying Inheritance Tax

The executor of a will or administrator of an estate usually has to pay Inheritance Tax by the end of the sixth month after the person died.
After this the estate has to pay interest.

LadyIndigo01

Hi. Thanks for the advice.
Yes the house if worth over £325k. He should receive 1/3 of the estate but it could be a long time before anything is sorted and the estate is distributed. In the meantime the household bills seem huge (esp for a single person) as it is a large house.

I don't really understand the post re ESA. He hasn't been able to work for health reasons for many years and he does not have >16k (although he will have when the estate is finally distributed).

When the estate is distributed he will use the money to rent/purchase a property but I'm wondering if he is entitled to Housing Benefit in the meantime if we are selling mum's house to pay IHT, as his only income is ESA and DLA.

I will look at registering him on the local council housing register. It sounds silly but I didn't know about housing registers but have done a quick online search and think its worth investigating this further.

Many thanks for your help

TELLIT01

As he hasn't worked for a number of years because of illness he will be receiving Income Related ESA. My brother was in a broadly similar position in that he had to move out of our mother's house in order for it to be sold. He got HB and CTR until the house was sold. Then, like your brother will find, all benefits ceased because of the money.
It's definitely worth speaking to your local authority about assistance with somewhere for him to live as he is currently on benefits. Our local authority was actually very helpful in this respect.

Norman_Castle

In the meantime the household bills seem huge (esp for a single person) as it is a large house.

He may currently be entitled to council tax benefit which is presumably a large bill for this property.

http://local.direct.gov.uk/LDGRedirect/index.jsp?LGSL=63&LGIL=0

elmer

For HB you can't rent from a near relative, and as the estate is your mothers, he won't be able to claim unfortunately.
When probate is granted he will own part of the property and will still be ineligible as an owner

hope this helps

elmer

Mojisola

elmer wrote: »

For HB you can't rent from a near relative

Yes you can - as long as it isn't a contrived tenancy.

Ames

elmer wrote: »

For HB you can't rent from a near relative, and as the estate is your mothers, he won't be able to claim unfortunately.
When probate is granted he will own part of the property and will still be ineligible as an owner

hope this helps

elmer

Mojisola wrote: »

Yes you can - as long as it isn't a contrived tenancy.

Plus the issue seems to be where he will live in between the house being sold and him getting the inheritance, alongside how to pay for that home.

rogerblack

TELLIT01 wrote: »

As he hasn't worked for a number of years because of illness he will be receiving Income Related ESA. My brother was in a broadly similar position in that he had to move out of our mother's house in order for it to be sold. He got HB and CTR until the house was sold. Then, like your brother will find, all benefits ceased because of the money.

DLA is not means tested.
ESA - _IF_ there has been a continuous claim since the time he was last in work - perhaps with migration from incapacity benefit - and he is in the support group is also not means tested, and would not be affected by savings.