Deprivation of Capital - how does inheritance affect Benefits ?

rogerblack

pmlindyloo wrote: »

I find it quite bizarre that for HB and CT support the rules are different

It's a bit depressing.
This is hardly the only case.
Different ways of computing self-employed income for HB/JSA/ESA/... and HMRC.
Yet another for UC.

In short - be very very careful that everyone is using the same definitions - do not simply assume you can copy over figures or declarations of similar things.

2012member

Droopydrawers wrote: »

Is This contribution based ESA or Income Related ESA
There are differences for each

Not too sure , friend says it maybe Income Related . What are differences & how do they afect inheritance ?

2012member

bournemouth_bell wrote: »

i paid of my morgage with money from a life insurance (endowment) but it was a joint policy and i was the other

payment was 40k and the mortgage to clear was £29k was left with £11k to pay of credit cards etc,that took me down to under £6k

at the time i was on Income support and notified the DWP it did not affect my payments,actually they were very helpful

tell your friend to notify them it really is not worth not declaring

My friend agrees on declaring - has a little mis-trust with them in verbal infomration (different answers) - it would be best to maybe obtain something in writing from them ? My friend is worried that using all the inheritence money towards the mortgage leaving nothing in bank then DWP stopping benefit, there will be no income ! It maybe best all round if friend can obtain something in writing from them ? It's encouraging to know that you have paid off your mortgage / credit cards - saving DWP paying your mortgage interest . What year was that as I wonder if any DWP rules have changed since then ?

2012member

pmlindyloo wrote: »

I find it quite bizarre that for HB and CT support the rules are different

P1-703

after all that is a means tested benefit too.

In theory you could lose your ESA but still get HB and CT support if you spent your inheritance repaying mortgage etc etc

Thanks for link - it does seem strange that in theory ESA may be stopped but CT/HB is not. Something to show the Decision Maker (if it gets to that stage ?).

System

2012member wrote: »

My friend agrees on declaring - has a little mis-trust with them in verbal infomration (different answers) - it would be best to maybe obtain something in writing from them ? My friend is worried that using all the inheritence money towards the mortgage leaving nothing in bank then DWP stopping benefit, there will be no income ! It maybe best all round if friend can obtain something in writing from them ? It's encouraging to know that you have paid off your mortgage / credit cards - saving DWP paying your mortgage interest . What year was that as I wonder if any DWP rules have changed since then ?

hi,it was 2010

pmlindyloo

I do think your friend is better off getting a decision in writing from the DWP.

It would be very helpful if we had some Decision Makers contributing to the forum who could advise us about any recent changes.

Slightly off topic but would be interested to know if anyone has had a recent experience of this kind of thing being referred to a Decision Maker and the decision made.

I am wondering if the Decision Maker takes into account such things as age of claimant/likelihood of ever being able to pay off capital of mortgage/possibility of future repossession etc.

Also, as well as HB and CT having different regs Universal Credit does too. Are Decision makers being told to be more lenient in the face of there being one rule for those on UC and another for those who are not, just because they are in the wrong area of the country?

Sorry, am rambling - just find the variations quite astonishing in face of the Decision Makers Guide for JSA/ESA stating that paying off a debt that is not due is a 'no no'.

Will shut up now!