Received inheritance but am dsabled and vulnerable.

TELLIT01

As others have said already, you need to get professional legal advice. Comment made here in good faith is no replacement for that. Do you currently have an appointee to manage your financial affairs? If not, DWP may question the assertion that you are unable to manage your own affairs.
Regarding the fact that you are vulnerable, that doesn't alter the rules around the amount of money / capital you can have before it has an effect on Income Related benefits.

xylophone

My Aunt worked hard for that money and there is the possibility that they will try to take that away from me at a rate which I would describe as 'legalised extortion'

This is irrelevant to the case.

GregoryH

TELLIT01 wrote: »

As others have said already, you need to get professional legal advice. Comment made here in good faith is no replacement for that. Do you currently have an appointee to manage your financial affairs? If not, DWP may question the assertion that you are unable to manage your own affairs.
Regarding the fact that you are vulnerable, that doesn't alter the rules around the amount of money / capital you can have before it has an effect on Income Related benefits.

I don't currently have an appointee to manage my financial affairs. My situation on that is made more difficult by the fact that (1) I have never been exploited financially to any great sum and (2) no-one knows the future. That does not mean I am any less vulnerable but may have some affect with the DWP.

Once again I thank you all for the advice. I will see what the solicitors can do and update this post when I know more (even if it is a very appreciated thank you).

GregoryH

xylophone wrote: »

This is irrelevant to the case.

I understand that and thank you. It was not intended as a statement from a legal viewpoint. I have redacted and deleted that comment in my post.

Andypandyboy

You do need to take advice, but the fact that you do not have a financial appointee does not point to you being considered unable to manage finances.

I understand your reluctance to use the money for day to day living expenses at the cost of removal of benefirs until you fall below the threshold. However, it may be an idea to see what would constitute deprivation of assests and what would not. It may be that you could access the money and use it for things which would not normally be available to you.

I hope it pans out for you.

Alice_Holt

It is worth checking if your ESa is contribution-based or income-based.
(If you migrated from IB, there are some circumstances in which it might be contribution-based ).
Have a look at your ESa award letter. If it does happen to be contribution-based you are not affected by the capital limits.

I would think about claiming PIP - this is not means tested. It is paid to help with your illness \ disability.

The CAB could help with benefit advice.
You may be in receipt of other Income based benefits (to which will the capital limits apply) such as Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support.

For the inheritance trust it's likely you would need professional advice. It may be worth checking if the National Autistic Society can signpost you to professional legal advice.

GregoryH

Ames wrote: »

I completely understand your fears. I have bipolar and have problems controlling finances and got an inheritance of about 45k last year. I was terrified of getting it.

The way I'm managing it is to have it in a savings account which has to have six weeks notice to make a withdrawal. I withdraw the same amount I'd be getting in benefits, and I do it every three months. There's other similar options, you could find a way of doing it and withdrawing a month at a time.

I also have a couple of thousand in an easy access account in case of problems. Like, last time I was a week late getting to the bank because I wasn't well, but I could cover that from this account.

I get that it's scary, suddenly having this huge amount of money and losing the safety net of someone else being in charge of when you get it, and how much. Maybe your mum could help you keep on top of the withdrawals?

The final thing to note is that if there's anything you need - equipment, maybe or new furniture, then it means you can buy it. I moved house not long after getting my inheritance and most of my old third hand furniture didn't make it, it was great being able to replace it without having to worry.

God bless you and thank you for understanding my fears.

I am glad you found a solution that worked for you and gave you peace of mind.

Getting that kind of account is a great idea. I would have to make it fortnightly as I would get into financial difficulties with more than a few weeks notice. I will be moving to look be near my Mum in a year or two (as she will be nearly 80), so all new furniture when I move will be good.

GregoryH

Andypandyboy wrote: »

You do need to take advice, but the fact that you do not have a financial appointee does not point to you being considered unable to manage finances.

I understand your reluctance to use the money for day to day living expenses at the cost of removal of benefirs until you fall below the threshold. However, it may be an idea to see what would constitute deprivation of assests and what would not. It may be that you could access the money and use it for things which would not normally be available to you.

I hope it pans out for you.

Thank you. I will see. I can manage money on a fortnightly basis (just) but I think it would barely qualify as being considered to be me being unable to manage finances but one can try.

GregoryH

Alice_Holt wrote: »

It is worth checking if your ESa is contribution-based or income-based.
(If you migrated from IB, there are some circumstances in which it might be contribution-based ).
Have a look at your ESa award letter. If it does happen to be contribution-based you are not affected by the capital limits.

I would think about claiming PIP - this is not means tested. It is paid to help with your illness \ disability.

The CAB could help with benefit advice.
You may be in receipt of other Income based benefits (to which will the capital limits apply) such as Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support.

For the inheritance trust it's likely you would need professional advice. It may be worth checking if the National Autistic Society can signpost you to professional legal advice.

I can confirm my benefit is means tested with an upper limit of 16k. I will be seeking lot's of legal advice. I claim both Housing and Council Tax benefit. I just hope that if a disabled persons trust cannot be set up for me that I can still get Housing Benefit/ESA (albeit at a reduced rate) just so I can stay in the system. Who knows how difficult it would be for me to support myself when her money is gone or I hit the threshold. I am a regular member at my local Autistic Trust so they will help me to claim PIP and give me all the advice they can. I will approach NAS as well once things have progressed and I know where I stand more. The important thing for me at the moment is that the money is going straight to my Mum as that might slow things down a bit as far as the DWP is concerned. I may be able to reasonably claim that I had not received it personally until a permanent solution is found either way.

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it.

Andypandyboy

GregoryH wrote: »

Thank you. I will see. I can manage money on a fortnightly basis (just) but I think it would barely qualify as being considered to be me being unable to manage finances but one can try.

I note from the post above that you don't live at home. So, if you can run a house/flat and manage your day to day expenses I doubt that you would be considered financially unsuitable to take control of the inheritance. I think that maybe the suggestions Ames has given would be a good option.