What benefits would my friends daughter get.

BriNylon

I am going to try to help my friends daughter. 

She is 30 and has severe mental health issues.   She has never really worked so has no nics. 

She has never claimed any benefits and has been living from funds left by a relative.  Currently living with friend.  

She could probably buy a place outright so no rent.   It would probably be beneficial for her mental health to live independently, albeit with help from her mum. 

What sort of state benefits would this girl be able to get. 

I am not even sure she would be willing to claim anything. 

Muttleythefrog

Others will get advice to you but on the face of it my thoughts:

Lack of NI contributions recently will mean contribution based benefits likely excluded

Savings - how much savings does she have? Usually income related (means tested) benefits are affected by savings between £6k and £16k and once you get beyond that upper limit you have no entitlement... below the lower limit the savings don't affect entitlement. I presume if she can buy a place outright she has more than this upper limit so at the moment at least she would not likely be entitled to income related benefits. If she were to buy somewhere leaving her with less than the £16k savings limit then there is an issue of deprivation of capital - this is meant to be a simple concept whereby you get rid of assets like savings in order to qualify for benefits and if a decision maker concludes you did this then they may consider you still have the capital. However the home you live in, if you own it, is not considered capital and so such could come down to a decision maker deciding one way or other whether the motive was primarily to gain benefits.... it would be risky I think to use this strategy but others could advise including possibly that an argument might be made it was a necessary purchase to give independence etc. Paying debts is never considered deprivation and a mortgage could be considered such a debt however that might be an unlikely possibility for her as a strategy. Obviously if she bought a property and still had over £16k in savings then she would not qualify for income related help but could once the savings reduced.. I am not sure if others have advice on this but timeline might be a factor.

Disability benefits. Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is something she definitely may qualify for if her severe mental health problems affect her ability to perform daily tasks like cooking, dressing, washing etc and/or go out (mobility). It's not means tested so savings won't affect entitlement. Many people with mental health issues (myself included) do qualify for PIP and they can get both the Daily Living and Mobility components if sufficiently disabled by mental illness. Claiming is not often an easy process but there is excellent guidance out there (online) and there are possibilities of getting help from the likes of CAB. It's late at night so I'll just set a link for PIP that covers pretty much everything including advice on the activities that are looked at to see if disablement is sufficient to 'score points'. I should caveat that engagement in the processes of claiming and any (later) re-assessments can be demanding in some respects, and necessary, and so probably more difficult with/for someone lacking will or interest in claiming. 
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/

Help with housing would also likely be means tested including regarding council tax so probably not relevant at this time and I'm assuming severe mental disablement (e.g. developmental) is not applicable.

I will link a benefit checker.... often they can be useful to see what can be qualified for.
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

Others might see some other angles..... a lot probably hinges on how a home purchase would be considered in terms of capital and deprivation and the risks of getting that wrong are significant. Hopefully she can get a bit more independence.. but aside from PIP at this late hour my brain is thinking she might struggle to get any benefit support until her savings are diminished... by which point I imagine she will have no choice but to support herself through claiming Universal Credit or working (or both). If in future she were to claim Universal Credit then she could qualify for additional money due to her mental illnesses if she reached a benchmark of disablement in the Work Capability Assessment.

poppy12345

BriNylon said:

 She could probably buy a place outright so no rent. 

Then with savings of more than £16,000 she's excluded from claiming all means tested benefits. She can look at claiming PIP as advised above, it's not means tested so savings/capital doesn't affect it.

If she doesn't have any NI credits for her state pension then she can claim New style ESA, with a fit note. She won't receive any money but once assessed if she's found to have limited capability for work she'll receive NI credits.

TELLIT01

poppy12345 said:

If she doesn't have any NI credits for her state pension then she can claim New style ESA, with a fit note. She won't receive any money but once assessed if she's found to have limited capability for work she'll receive NI credits.

I thought NI contributions in the 2 qualifying years had to be made in order to qualifyto claim New Style ESA.

poppy12345

TELLIT01 said:

poppy12345 said:

If she doesn't have any NI credits for her state pension then she can claim New style ESA, with a fit note. She won't receive any money but once assessed if she's found to have limited capability for work she'll receive NI credits.

I thought NI contributions in the 2 qualifying years had to be made in order to qualifyto claim New Style ESA.

That's correct, which is why is said this.

poppy12345 said:

 She won't receive any money but once assessed if she's found to have limited capability for work she'll receive NI credits.

They will still need to go through the work capability assessment, the same as those that receive money because they have the correct NI contributions in the previous tax years.

ElwoodBlues

Buying a house (to live in) from savings shouldn't be treated as deprivation of capital, because you aren't depriving yourself of the capital, merely exchanging from one form to another. It's just that capital invested in your home is disregarded under UC rules.

If there's savings left over much above 16k (or even 6k), I'd be inclined to put them into a personal pension, where again it will then be disregarded.

kaMelo

If they are not working, so have no income, their maximum allowed pension contribution is £2880 per year.

poppy12345

ElwoodBlues said:

Buying a house (to live in) from savings shouldn't be treated as deprivation of capital, because you aren't depriving yourself of the capital,

Indeed but the money won't be disregarded while they are in the process of buying a property.

ElwoodBlues

poppy12345 said:

ElwoodBlues said:

Buying a house (to live in) from savings shouldn't be treated as deprivation of capital, because you aren't depriving yourself of the capital,

Indeed but the money won't be disregarded while they are in the process of buying a property.

I think a discretionary disregard for money being used to buy a home can be applied? Bit like if you sell a property they give you a 6 month temporary disregard window to redeploy the sale proceeds into a new property purchase.

kaMelo said:

If they are not working, so have no income, their maximum allowed pension contribution is £2880 per year.

Isn't that just for tax relief on it? I think you can still pay in up to the 40k annual allowance, just not reclaim tax on the amount beyond 2880?

poppy12345

ElwoodBlues said:

poppy12345 said:

ElwoodBlues said:

Buying a house (to live in) from savings shouldn't be treated as deprivation of capital, because you aren't depriving yourself of the capital,

Indeed but the money won't be disregarded while they are in the process of buying a property.

I think a discretionary disregard for money being used to buy a home can be applied? Bit like if you sell a property they give you a 6 month temporary disregard window to redeploy the sale proceeds into a new property purchase.

Not in this case it can't be because it's inheritance. A disregard will only apply if you're either selling your current home and buying another. Or you've sold your current home and in the process of buying another.

Isn't that just for tax relief on it? I think you can still pay in up to the 40k annual allowance,

That's not correct either. As has been advised  by KaMelo, if you're not working you can't put 40K into a pension fund. The maximum is £2880/year. https://www.drewberryinsurance.co.uk/pensions-advice/faqs/i-dont-work-can-i-still-pay-into-a-pension

kaMelo

ElwoodBlues said:

Isn't that just for tax relief on it? I think you can still pay in up to the 40k annual allowance, just not reclaim tax on the amount beyond 2880?

To expand on the link @poppy12345 gave;
The maximum you can pay into a pension in any tax year is either your annual earnings or £40,000, whichever is lower. Even if using carry forward from a previous years unused allowance you can never pay more than your annual earnings into a pension fund. The only exception to this is the £2880 allowance given to non earners as explained in the link.