New to UC - advice on spouses pension

sheramber

What she would be asking the pension company is for them to pay the pension to the boys, not her.

If the DWP accept that then it would not be her income but they may consider it deprivation of assets.

bobby21

@sheramber yes, this is what she originally asked them. She directly asked if it was acceptable to give the money back and have it paid to the boys, or at least moving forward the monthly payments. The reply came back as "check if you can return it first" or something to that effect. It wasn't a yes or no. The person she's been speaking to via the messaging system didn't mention anything about deprivation of assets so thanks for the heads up. Neither of us know much about the benefit system, so I really appreciate everyone who has been helping here.

poppy12345

bobby21 said:

@sheramber yes, this is what she originally asked them. She directly asked if it was acceptable to give the money back and have it paid to the boys, or at least moving forward the monthly payments. The reply came back as "check if you can return it first" or something to that effect. It wasn't a yes or no. The person she's been speaking to via the messaging system didn't mention anything about deprivation of assets so thanks for the heads up. Neither of us know much about the benefit system, so I really appreciate everyone who has been helping here.

The reason they can't answer that question is because it's something that hasn't yet happened. It will be a decision maker that will need to make the final decision but i suspect DoA is likely here.

Alice_Holt

bobby21 said:

@sheramber yes, this is what she originally asked them. She directly asked if it was acceptable to give the money back and have it paid to the boys, or at least moving forward the monthly payments. The reply came back as "check if you can return it first" or something to that effect. It wasn't a yes or no. The person she's been speaking to via the messaging system didn't mention anything about deprivation of assets so thanks for the heads up. Neither of us know much about the benefit system, so I really appreciate everyone who has been helping here.

        Unfortunately the JC staff and UC call handlers can give incorrect info. They are not trained to be benefit advisers, but do field questions about complicated benefit issues.

      If the £20 was redirected into the child's account, it is possible a DWP decision maker could take the view that she had deprived herself of income in order to increase her UC payments. However, any such judgement carries the right of appeal and she could ask a tribunal to rule on their decision.
   
    As has been said, the lump sum of c.£1,500 would not affect the amount of UC payable as long as her total savings (including any unspent element of that pension payment) remain under £6k.

   If she needs help with the bereavement support payments -
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/claiming-bereavement-support-payment/
   - her local advice charity may be able to help.

bobby21

Thank you both.

I've just spoken to her on the phone and relayed all this to her. She's going to claim BSP and then write off the £20/month - she doesn't want the fuss and trouble of having a DoA ruling on her. She's very happy to hear the lump sum will not be factored in. The BSP will more than compensate for the monthly amount and she anticipates not being on UC by the time the BSP stops.

Thank you to everyone who replied to this thread. You have really helped put her mind at ease and lift her mood. 

Keep_pedalling

Another factor here is pension payments to a spouse are for life, for dependant children it ends when they are 23 or leave full time education whichever occurs first.

bobby21

@Keep_pedalling yes, thankfully. At worst she is going to lose just short of £500, then when back at work it'll be hers again.

Also, to anyone who has been following this and may be interested, she did phone the pension provider just to see what they said. They told her that their policy is to pay it into the spouse's account only and it cannot be paused. They said they've unfortunately come across this situation before, and she is lucky in some ways that the lump is so small. If the lump was larger, she may be in a much worse situation.

So there you have it. There was never any possibility of it going into the children's ISAs or delaying it. So even if the DWP did say they wouldn't consider that DoA, nothing could have been done anyway. Them's the breaks, but in the grand scheme of things it's a small amount when the pension runs for life. At least she will be able to keep the lump and will have the BSP too.