Cash gift following Housing Benefit overpayment

ljayljay

I am considering gifting a small legacy to a close friend of my late mother. This person is over pension age & as far as I am aware is unlikely to have much in the way of savings. The gift would be well below the means related capital threshold of £10K. Although never written into a will I know my mum would have wanted for me to do this to allow her good friend to treat herself in my mum's memory.

However, I am aware that a number of years ago this person was overpaid a large amount of Housing Benefit that they were subsequently required to repay. I do not know the details but assume that the overpayment is being repaid from their existing benefits. I am therefore wondering if any such gift would need to be declared to lower the overpayment even if their capital remains below the 10K threshold.

I guess my question is to try & ascertain if the threshold limit becomes irrelevant if the individual has the means to reduce an outstanding overpayment. The person in question is not currently aware of my intention over the gift so I want to be clear on how it may, or hopefully may not, affect any means related benefits & overpayment deductions currently in place.

HillStreetBlues

I can't help you with the question you asked hopefully someone can point you to the right direction.

As any money you give is a gift from you and forms no part of the will,  you can always drip feed the money making smaller gifts instead of one large one. Also if you know what the treat would be you could buy it and gift that to your mum's friend.

Lifematters

If you can be sure that your gift added to any savings she may have do not exceed the capital threshold of £10,000 then she does not need to do anything and it will not impact her housing benefit repayments. 

ljayljay

Lifematters said:

If you can be sure that your gift added to any savings she may have do not exceed the capital threshold of £10,000 then she does not need to do anything and it will not impact her housing benefit repayments. 

Thanks that's good to know.

HillStreetBlues said:

I can't help you with the question you asked hopefully someone can point you to the right direction.

As any money you give is a gift from you and forms no part of the will,  you can always drip feed the money making smaller gifts instead of one large one. Also if you know what the treat would be you could buy it and gift that to your mum's friend.

Thanks, I did think of that as an alternative.

When the time comes I will discuss with her. As far as I know she may want to reduce/pay off the debt in order to increase her income & I am also fine with that. Apparently the overpayment came as a shock so don't want her to fall foul of any more benefit rules.