Leaving assets to disabled daughter in will

devaboy

My disabled daughter lives independently, supported by (what was) ILF. This is means tested, so if I leave anything to her in my will, that benefit will be stopped until her savings reduce to (approx) £14,000. That means, in effect, I am leaving my money to the government / local council.

How can I word my will, or take alternative action, so that my daughter can get access to her inheritance without losing her independence benefit?

Thanks

Yorkshireman99

devaboy wrote: »

My disabled daughter lives independently, supported by (what was) ILF. This is means tested, so if I leave anything to her in my will, that benefit will be stopped until her savings reduce to (approx) £14,000. That means, in effect, I am leaving my money to the government / local council.

How can I word my will, or take alternative action, so that my daughter can get access to her inheritance without losing her independence benefit?

Thanks

The whole point of MTBs is that they are not paid to those who have cash reserves above a certain level. Why should the taxpayer subsidize those who have sufficient cash assets? It might, and I stress might, be possible to set up some kind of discretionary trust but even so she would probably have to declare the income.

Malthusian

She doesn't have sufficient cash assets, her dad does. If her dad chooses to leave his entire estate to the local cats home, she still won't have sufficient cash assets. There is nothing wrong with wanting to use your money to benefit your daughter instead of moggies or the Government.

That said I don't disagree with the thrust of what Yorkshireman says. A vulnerable beneficiary trust may be worth looking into but I wouldn't even go there without professional advice from a solicitor experienced in such matters.

The point of a discretionary trust is that she would only be assessed on the distributions that the trustees made to her for the purposes of means tested benefits, and the remainder of the capital could eventually be passed to other beneficiaries on her death. However as the OP doesn't mention having anyone else he wants to provide for, I'm not sure this would achieve what he wants to achieve. If you are hoping for some way that she can have access to the full extent of your assets while still receiving means tested benefits, forget it.

devaboy

Would a discretionary trust allow my daughter to have (eg) £100 a week, which would keep her inside the benefit limit. Also, could it pay for a holiday (directly to the travel agent) or to a builder (for house repairs) without my daughter receiving the money and not affect the means testing.

However, my biggest fear is that the government will stop the benefit payments or reduce them significantly so that she can’t live independently. I see my money, primarily, as a back-stop for real emergencies.

securityguy

"Also, could it pay for a holiday (directly to the travel agent) or to a builder (for house repairs) without my daughter receiving the money and not affect the means testing."

No. That would be flatly deceptive.

Nicki

Take specialist advice. We have a discretionary trust in our will for the benefit of our disabled child which should ensure that her care continues when we die.

For those who think this is defrauding the taxman, the ridiculous nature of things is that many essential services are not available on a privately funded basis if the disabled person isn't in residential care. Even now, when my child is a minor, we cannot choose to pay for her to access services which the state provide to others, such as leisure activites for those with special needs, respite care, etc. But family income is looked at when assessing general strain on the house when allocating them. I'd love to be able to pay for my child to have a social life of any description and would happily pay for the 1:1 care she would need to attend that or go with her myself but it's not an option

Yorkshireman99

Nicki wrote: »

Take specialist advice. We have a discretionary trust in our will for the benefit of our disabled child which should ensure that her care continues when we die.

For those who think this is defrauding the taxman, the ridiculous nature of things is that many essential services are not available on a privately funded basis if the disabled person isn't in residential care. Even now, when my child is a minor, we cannot choose to pay for her to access services which the state provide to others, such as leisure activites for those with special needs, respite care, etc. But family income is looked at when assessing general strain on the house when allocating them. I'd love to be able to pay for my child to have a social life of any description and would happily pay for the 1:1 care she would need to attend that or go with her myself but it's not an option

Just curious what regulation prevents you paying for leisure activities? I am aware that the system has many anomalies but this is not one I have heard of before. I don't see it as defrauding the taxman but there have to be some controls.

Newly_retired

My parents set up a discretionary trust for my sister who is in residential care for mental health reasons. She has access(via her POA ) to the interest only, whilst the capital will go, on her death, to her adult children.

This means there is money to buy clothes and Christmas presents etc.
If she had access to it all she would spend it stupidly or give lots away, as she is not competent to deal with finances.

So it is legal and possible.

Nicki

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Just curious what regulation prevents you paying for leisure activities? I am aware that the system has many anomalies but this is not one I have heard of before. I don't see it as defrauding the taxman but there have to be some controls.

Mainstream leisure activities which other parents pay to send their non disabled children to will in our experience not take severely disabled children because they need a higher adult to child ratio, nor will they allow you to pay to provide that extra adult for your child. E.g. The sorts of activities parents take for granted like swimming, or scouts, or any other sports or hobbies.

Specialist disabled leisure activities, certainly in my area in London, are only provided by the council, and access to them is allocated by (and paid for by) the council. If you are not allocated a council place, it isn't permitted to pay your own way to send your child to these. There are no private providers of activities for disabled children in my area - i.e. No activities which disabled children can do if their parents will pay the bill, and also no privately funded respite outside of the home.

So there is no law or regulation which means that this form of provision could not be provided, but just a fact of life that it does not exist in many places.

Yorkshireman99

Nicki wrote: »

Mainstream leisure activities which other parents pay to send their non disabled children to will in our experience not take severely disabled children because they need a higher adult to child ratio, nor will they allow you to pay to provide that extra adult for your child. E.g. The sorts of activities parents take for granted like swimming, or scouts, or any other sports or hobbies.

Specialist disabled leisure activities, certainly in my area in London, are only provided by the council, and access to them is allocated by (and paid for by) the council. If you are not allocated a council place, it isn't permitted to pay your own way to send your child to these. There are no private providers of activities for disabled children in my area - i.e. No activities which disabled children can do if their parents will pay the bill, and also no privately funded respite outside of the home.

So there is no law or regulation which means that this form of provision could not be provided, but just a fact of life that it does not exist in many places.

Noted. That would seem to be a flagrant breach of Equality legislation but I could be wrong. Have you taken it up with the below?

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/disability-discrimination

Nicki

I agree with you on that but as a parent of a disabled child tend to save my strength to battle with health service and education service. Fighting in the leisure sector as well would mean spreading myself very thin!

Back to the point of the OP however this is an area where specialist advice is important as it is easy to leave the disabled person worse off without meaning to do so.