Received inheritance but am dsabled and vulnerable.

Ames

GregoryH wrote: »

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.

Why do you want to stay in the system?

GregoryH wrote: »

As far as being vulnerable is concerned, I have a history of being physically abused by other people. I have also been sexually abused as a child and as a teenager. I cannot judge peoples attitudes by facial expressions and body language. When people have been aggressive/violent/sexually abusive towards me, I have taken it because my brain does not tell me to run or fight or even acknowledge it in a way that removes me from being abused. One exampled of this is me having a gun pointed at me by a youth and two other people when I was homeless and me walking towards them not understanding or being able to react to the fact that my life was in danger. I am therefore highly susceptible to exploitation where physical abuse would be concerned. My neighbor being one example. He has assaulted me, damaged my property and stolen from me.

If I am not vulnerable, then I am little more than a walking punchbag.

Having a partly autistic brain has it's advantages and disadvantages but I have a lot of friends and people who care for me and I am not bitter about being born this way.

I'm vulnerable in similar ways. I had a partner steal thousands from me and he sexually abused me too. I was bullied so much by my sister in relation to my inheritance that it became a social services safeguarding issue. I've been known to give my bank details to random people who phoned. That's just a small selection. I know how you feel about wanting to be classed as vulnerable in order to access help and protection, but it's an incredibly difficult thing to do. You'd need to speak to someone with legal experience to advise you, which in itself would be very expensive.

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I think that someone who's already posted on here has found this not to be the case, despite making every endeavour to do so. Hopefully she'll confirm that directly before long.

Not quite. I was told by the DWP call centre that buying a place to live would be deprivation, and my benefits advisor backed that up - I didn't get as far as a decision in writing. However, I then found out about the HOLD scheme (Home Ownership for Long-term Disabled). Logic says that if there's a scheme to help people on benefits to buy a property on a shared ownership basis then it can't be deprivation.

I stopped seriously looking into it when I realised that my inheritance was going to be 10k less than originally expected, and that I'd have nothing in reserve to pay for a new boiler/roof/any other big ticket maintenance item. Even if I had the cash, I couldn't trust myself to actually stay on top of it all. Plus, as I'd moved to a flat that met my needs (my previous one didn't) then I was adequately housed and so would struggle to justify it to a decision maker.

In essence, for me to buy somewhere would have been deprivation, because the only possible reason I had for buying was to get rid of the cash.

It could be different for the OP, as every case is judged individually. It needs to be done properly though. My benefits advisor said that it's impossible to get prior approval from the DWP, but a poster on here found that she could. So it's a very murky area.

The other thing to bear in mind, of course, is that future benefit changes could cause problems for any form of ownership other than freehold outright ownership.

Ames

WillowCat wrote: »

That is correct, and if the inheritance is not enough to buy a property outright you could look at shared ownership schemes. HB would still pay the rent but you would have more security than as a private tenant.

You can for now. I personally wouldn't want to risk it in case the next budget changes the rules. For instance, at one point I looked into getting a mortgage, which in theory was possible. But then in the last budget they changed the rules about SMI, which would have meant I'd have had to sell the property.

There's also the issue with SO that you're responsible for 100% of repairs and maintenance.

Celifein wrote: »

Well, I'm even more confused. Is this one of those "assessor's discretion" situations or is there a big book of guidelines somewhere?

It's one of those discretionary things where the same file landing on the desk of two assessors sitting next to each other could get a totally different answer.

dippy3103

You could ask your Mum to pay you an allowance out of it each week.

Means tested benefits are then for people that do not have means of support. You now do. I can however understand that benefits have become a kind of comfort blanket for you- anyone long term on benefits ends up feeling like that. My son has Aspergers so I know a fair bit about how people struggle on a day to day basis- like you he is intelligent & articulate. Though its hard as it makes the disability invisible. I always think of it like an iceberg - a tiny bit visible, most hidden.
Get specialist help & advice asap.

Ames

One thing to be aware of if it's in your mum's account is that things could get complicated if she needs to apply for means tested benefits.

missbiggles1

Ames wrote: »

One thing to be aware of if it's in your mum's account is that things could get complicated if she needs to apply for means tested benefits.

Surely it could be in an account in the OP's name with his mother hanging on to the card and being the only person to know the password etc.? As it would be the OP's own money, with a visible papertrail and having declared it fully, I can't see any problem with that.

sangie595

I know this may not be a welcome contribution for the OP, but I can see a lot of potential problems with mum having the money and/or the card. It assumes that mum is honest and always will be. And I don't mean that in a nasty way. But life throws people curve balls, and she may be fine now, but what if something happens that makes her less financially stable. It's a big temptation to borrow some money,,, and then a bit more. I am afraid it happens all the time with people who are honest as the day is long - they just slip into being a thief, without ever having no intention of paying it back. When they can, which usually ends up as never. It's not theft, it's "borrowing". It might never happen. But it also might. And it does happen. Most financial abuse against vulnerable people is from friends and relatives, not total strangers.

I would think that banking it in the OP's name, but in an account with a very long notice period, would be the best protection against impulse buying. And such accounts can have arrangements to pay out agreed amounts on a regular basis. And even without trustees and so on, many banks do try harder with vulnerable adults and can discuss options and protections to prevent abuse by others - my aunties bank has done this for us without any court orders or legal requirements. I would suggest talking to the bank, perhaps with mum, to discuss the concerns and what they could do to help, would be a good, and no cost option to start out with.

Ames

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Surely it could be in an account in the OP's name with his mother hanging on to the card and being the only person to know the password etc.? As it would be the OP's own money, with a visible papertrail and having declared it fully, I can't see any problem with that.

Of course that would be fine but the OP talked about it being in his mum's account and it 'slowing things down' with the DWP so it sounds like at least to begin with it'll be in her own account.

Stevie_Palimo

Surely the 60.000 should be given to you and any benefits stopped until this is spent down to the allowed saving threshold, There are ways to have this drip fed into another account for ease of access.

Regardless of personal circumstances that you have going on this does very much read along the lines of having your cake and eating it, This may not go down well with the moral high ground brigade but I don't want my taxes being spent on someone with a large amount of money coming to them as it just makes a mockery of the system in place and also takes the pee out of people that pay tax.

Thomas_The_Tank_Top

Must be absolutely awful having to spend your own money.

cbrown372

The money should go into the OP's account and not his Mothers account or it then becomes her money and both in trouble for money laundering. Also she may loose some benefits herself and/or have to pay tax on the money.