Brother’s inheritance and benefits

TELLIT01

calcotti said:

pmlindyloo said: If your brother is in the support group then it is possible that part of his ESA is contribution based (based on his NI contributions - did he work before receiving benefits?) which is not means tested so he would not lose all of his ESA.

Would also have contribution based entitlement if transferred from Incapacity Benefit.

That was my immediate thought as well, but the OP says it was stopped a few years ago and the brother had to reapply.  If it was stopped in error the Conts entitlement would still be in place.  Without more information about why it was stopped it's not possible to be certain about that.

If the solicitors are the executors of the will, and a beneficiary refuses to accept a bequest, presumably there is a point at which it will be distributed to other beneficiaries.  That has the potential to leave the brother without the funds but deemed still to have them due to Deprivation of Capital rules.  It could get messy.  In fact it could already be messy but nobody realises it.

pmlindyloo

I think the priority is to find out exactly what happened as regards this inheritance.

I am not familiar with the law - if he refused the inheritance outright what would have happened to the money?  Does anyone know?

The OP’s father died in 2018 -at least two years ago. 

moneyfranc

Time seems to contract, in fact our father died 4 years ago. I’m going to start by ringing the solicitor.

calcotti

TELLIT01 said:

calcotti said:

pmlindyloo said: If your brother is in the support group then it is possible that part of his ESA is contribution based (based on his NI contributions - did he work before receiving benefits?) which is not means tested so he would not lose all of his ESA.

Would also have contribution based entitlement if transferred from Incapacity Benefit.

That was my immediate thought as well, but the OP says it was stopped a few years ago and the brother had to reapply.  

I missed that. Apologies. You're right it will depend on why they stopped and then restarted.

Mojisola

pmlindyloo said:

I think the priority is to find out exactly what happened as regards this inheritance.
I am not familiar with the law - if he refused the inheritance outright what would have happened to the money? 

The inheritance would go to the OP as the only other beneficiary but the DWP would consider the refusal to accept the inheritance as deliberate deprivation of capital and assess the brother as if he had received the money.

Worst of both worlds - benefits reduced but no inheritance to use to replace the benefits.

birdofafeather

Mojisola said:

pmlindyloo said:

I think the priority is to find out exactly what happened as regards this inheritance.
I am not familiar with the law - if he refused the inheritance outright what would have happened to the money? 

The inheritance would go to the OP as the only other beneficiary but the DWP would consider the refusal to accept the inheritance as deliberate deprivation of capital and assess the brother as if he had received the money.

Worst of both worlds - benefits reduced but no inheritance to use to replace the benefits.

Although surely at that moment any right-thinking family member would put the money aside to give to the brother when he realises he has naff all benefits coming in. 

moneyfranc

Thanks @birdofafeather, obviously I’m not going to pocket the money and watch my brother go hungry/ slide into even worse mental health ( which, speaking strictly from a self preservation point of view, would end up in my doorstep as I’m next of kin and there’s no other family involved in supporting him). 

Mojisola

birdofafeather said:

Although surely at that moment any right-thinking family member would put the money aside to give to the brother when he realises he has naff all benefits coming in. 

I'm sure that most family members would do so but that's not the issue.

Brother doesn't want to accept the inheritance because his benefits will stop - but they will also stop if he refuses it.

If this is explained to him, maybe he will see sense.

He already owes the DWP for the benefits he's received since the estate was completed and he will need a lump sum to pay that back.  The longer this goes on, the more chance there will be of him being accused of fraud.

TELLIT01

birdofafeather said:

Mojisola said:

pmlindyloo said:

I think the priority is to find out exactly what happened as regards this inheritance.
I am not familiar with the law - if he refused the inheritance outright what would have happened to the money? 

The inheritance would go to the OP as the only other beneficiary but the DWP would consider the refusal to accept the inheritance as deliberate deprivation of capital and assess the brother as if he had received the money.

Worst of both worlds - benefits reduced but no inheritance to use to replace the benefits.

Although surely at that moment any right-thinking family member would put the money aside to give to the brother when he realises he has naff all benefits coming in. 

That is benefit fraud, and the person holding the money would be complicit in it.  The brother is the 'beneficial owner' (I think that's the term) of the money and effectively hiding it is still deprivation of capital.