Leaving assets to disabled daughter in will

Malthusian

devaboy wrote:

Would a discretionary trust allow my daughter to have (eg) £100 a week, which would keep her inside the benefit limit.

Yes. If written properly and administered properly by the trustees. Professional advice is essential.

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, as someone mentioned.

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.

Under a discretionary trust the Trustees could have power to change or increase the distributions to your daughter if the Government changes her benefits. However, see above about professional advice.

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Noted. That would seem to be a flagrant breach of Equality legislation but I could be wrong.

Sadly I think this is just a case of economics. The council has enough disabled children on its books to make it viable to take them all to the swimming pool (or other activity). There aren't enough non-qualifying children to put on a disabled class for them. In an ideal world the few non-qualifying children would pay to take part in the qualifying children's activities but the council either can't or won't act as a commercial provider.

I don't know chapter and verse of the Equality Act but I can't see grounds to challenge any part of that. If you run a sports or activities club you are not compelled to offer services for the disabled, otherwise there would be very few sports clubs outside London (and only those run by the Government and other large organisations). Nor can the council be compelled to take your money in order to expand its services for disabled children.

Yorkshireman99

Malthusian wrote: »

Yes. If written properly and administered properly by the trustees. Professional advice is essential.

No, as someone mentioned.

Under a discretionary trust the Trustees could have power to change or increase the distributions to your daughter if the Government changes her benefits. However, see above about professional advice.



Sadly I think this is just a case of economics. The council has enough disabled children on its books to make it viable to take them all to the swimming pool (or other activity). There aren't enough non-qualifying children to put on a disabled class for them. In an ideal world the few non-qualifying children would pay to take part in the qualifying children's activities but the council either can't or won't act as a commercial provider.

I don't know chapter and verse of the Equality Act but I can't see grounds to challenge any part of that. If you run a sports or activities club you are not compelled to offer services for the disabled, otherwise there would be very few sports clubs outside London (and only those run by the Government and other large organisations). Nor can the council be compelled to take your money in order to expand its services for disabled children.

Agreed about the professional advice. As for the disability discrimination you could not be more wrong. Almost all organizations are required make reasonable provision to meet the needs of the disabled and not to discriminate against them. There is a large body of case law on the subject. The Equality and Human Rights Commission are very helpful and it is well worth talking to them. The poster who complained about it says it is too much effort. As with so many things getting help is often not available if someone is not prepared to put one's own effort in as well.

securityguy

"Almost all organizations are required make reasonable provision"

They aren't in any way useful to the OP. Leaving aside the fact that "reasonable" is quite tightly drawn, consider the case of a football team that meets on a council pitch. Are there barriers to access to the pitch for people with disabilities? Maybe, but probably not: there's almost certainly disabled parking, ramped or flat access, maybe braille signage. If there isn't, go to the council, and they'll put it up. So that's the Part 4 of the Equality Act liabilities of the premises owner discharged, and the Part 3 Services obligations. Want access to the football pitch? You have it.

Now, consider the responsibilities of the football club. They are a Part 7 Association (probably). They can't prevent people from joining, being board members, attending meetings, etc, etc. Do they have to run a wheelchair football team, or a blind football team, or whatever, alongside their Saturday morning kickabout? No, they don't.

The same argument applies, mutatis mutandis, to your local swimming club, your local bowls club, whatever. Access to the premises is guaranteed by the Equalities Act. Access to the club is guaranteed too. The club for sport X is in no way obliged to offer a disability-accessible version of the sport to people who cannot play the normal version. And to enforce that would be manifestly unreasonable, which is why the law is drafted the way it is.

Pricivius

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.

With my apologies to the OP for going off topic, I am concerned to read that Nicki has been refused access to scouting for her child. As a Cub Scout Leader, I run a Pack with several disabled children. 4 are able to attend without parental support, although parents have stayed for the first few weeks to settle the child. Another child attends with his mother as his 1 to 1 support. The child joins in as much as he can and receives support and encouragement from the rest of the Pack. I am aware of disabled children in other Packs, including a wheelchair user and a child with a similar disability to my Cub who attends with his older sister as his 1 to 1 support.

Please contact the Scout Association again if you remain interested as my experience is that scouting is inclusive to all, as it should be.

Yorkshireman99

Pricivius wrote: »

With my apologies to the OP for going off topic, I am concerned to read that Nicki has been refused access to scouting for her child. As a Cub Scout Leader, I run a Pack with several disabled children. 4 are able to attend without parental support, although parents have stayed for the first few weeks to settle the child. Another child attends with his mother as his 1 to 1 support. The child joins in as much as he can and receives support and encouragement from the rest of the Pack. I am aware of disabled children in other Packs, including a wheelchair user and a child with a similar disability to my Cub who attends with his older sister as his 1 to 1 support.

Please contact the Scout Association again if you remain interested as my experience is that scouting is inclusive to all, as it should be.

I applaud that. As a wheelchair user myself for more than quarter of a century I have some experience of dealing with the difficulties this causes. With very few exceptions I have found that quite apart from the formal legal aspects people go out of their way to help. Sometimes it requires some ingenuity and patience on both sides, but approached with a positive and good humoured attitude it is amazing what can be done.

Nicki

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

. The poster who complained about it says it is too much effort. As with so many things getting help is often not available if someone is not prepared to put one's own effort in as well.

The poster who explained why a special needs trust is a good idea, would be a better way of describing me than the poster who complained.

I'm not going to even dignify your assertion that I said it was too much effort to talk to leisure providers and that I'm not prepared to put effort in. If you look back, I think you'll find what I actually said was that fighting to ensure that my child gets the medical and educational provision she needs takes up all my time and gets a higher priority, because after all she could die without the first, and all children need the second.

Clearly you don't have severely disabled children of your own, or any empathy for those who do care for them. Lucky you. Not all disabilities are physical by the way, so the wheelchair analogy isn't all that relevant to many circumstances.

Yorkshireman99

Nicki wrote: »

The poster who explained why a special needs trust is a good idea, would be a better way of describing me than the poster who complained.

I'm not going to even dignify your assertion that I said it was too much effort to talk to leisure providers and that I'm not prepared to put effort in. If you look back, I think you'll find what I actually said was that fighting to ensure that my child gets the medical and educational provision she needs takes up all my time and gets a higher priority, because after all she could die without the first, and all children need the second.

Clearly you don't have severely disabled children of your own, or any empathy for those who do care for them. Lucky you. Not all disabilities are physical by the way, so the wheelchair analogy isn't all that relevant to many circumstances.

Oh dear. You really should not jump to conclusions and make completely unsubstantiated accusations that are pure figments of your imagination. I actually have quite a lot of experience with helping children and adults, with both mental and physical disabilities. In my experience there are numerous places that can provide leisure facilities that with some help from the parent or carer that can provide much needed benefits. It does need a certain amount of imagination and effort but is not the impossible task you seem to think.

Savvy_Sue

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

It does need a certain amount of imagination and effort but is not the impossible task you seem to think.

Obviously it's not an impossible task, but to someone in Nicki's situation, it can be just one thing too many to have to research / deal with / fight for / plan around / make happen. And if you feel you are already at full stretch just researching, dealing with, fighting for, planning around and making happen life-support and basic education, I can understand what she said about being spread very thin!