Investing in property on ESA

calcotti

Nannytone said:

Unless of course it may be possible to keep the claim open on a ni credit only basis?

It would be possible to continue to receive NI credits on the grounds of LCW/LCWRA but that is not an ESA claim and ESA could not be reinstated once stopped.

Zstratts

Thank you all.
With family being in a different area, drug taking and dealing activity going on making me feel unsafe and worse health wise and my needs growing anyway, staying is not an option and moving back to my home area closer to family is the most sensible choice. As if having to live like this is not enough i now am going to be penalised for having a successful career and investing in a house when i could. And they wonder why people top themselves at the enevitability of being destitute and unable to improve their life. If i stay here that is a real possibility. So moving is a no brainer but will see me wave goodbye to any gains i have made. 
Yes i can reduce the mortgage with the proceeds, but not eradicate it. Still on the hook and in the benefits cycle no matter what i do. 

calcotti

Zstratts said:

Yes i can reduce the mortgage with the proceeds, but not eradicate it. Still on the hook and in the benefits cycle no matter what i do. 

I'm not understanding why can't you pay enough of the mortgage off to get you below £16,000 of remaining capital? (For ESA it is possible that might be treated as deprivation of capital but if so you could claim UC for which it would not.)

You said you are on income based ESA - are you sure that it is entirely income based ESA and not a mix of contribution based and income based?

Zstratts

calcotti said:

Zstratts said:

Yes i can reduce the mortgage with the proceeds, but not eradicate it. Still on the hook and in the benefits cycle no matter what i do. 

I'm not understanding why can't you pay enough of the mortgage off to get you below £16,000 of remaining capital? (For ESA it is possible that might be treated as deprivation of capital but if so you could claim UC for which it would not.)

You said you are on income based ESA - are you sure that it is entirely income based ESA and not a mix of contribution based and income based?

I was under the impression you could not have 6k not 16k?! 
As far as my entitlement award states just income based. 
I was off sick from work for almost 12 months before i went onto esa when my job was vacated. As a result i presume that meant no NI contributions were being made which would have made it contribution based?! 

Zstratts

So paying off a chunk of my mortgage may count as deprivation of assets? 
And i presume to put it into a trust for my children would also be the same? 

calcotti

Zstratts said:

So paying off a chunk of my mortgage may count as deprivation of assets? 
And i presume to put it into a trust for my children would also be the same? 

Giving away money will likely be seen as deprivation of capital.
For old ESA paying down a mortgage may be seen as deprivation of capital (but in your circumstances will likely not).
For UC paying down a mortgage will never be seen as deprivation of capital because paying off debt is excluded from being treated as deprivation of capital in UC regulations.

Zstratts

Ok thanks.