Owning a home, private renting property & claiming housing benefit

Alice_Holt

If your mum (assuming she does not have a DWP appointee) tells her local authority (for HB and CTr) and the DWP (re PC) now, then there is a reduced chance of her getting charged with benefit fraud.
Waiting till they find out, will increase the chances of a criminal benefit fraud conviction. 

She will then need to repay all HB, PC, and Council Tax reduction monies as she was not entitled to any of these means tested benefits.
Selling the house to repay these debts and leaving her with a sum of money to support her, would seem sensible.

Is she in receipt of a disability benefit, such as AA or PIP ?

She may want to look at using any residual monies from the house sale to fund council / HA supported housing as this is likely to be more appropriate for her needs than a private rent.

As others have said there appears to be a large question mark over the 'help and oversight' provided to her by her family, and whether they have acted in her (or their) best interests. If she has mental capacity, she may want to contact a charity such as Age UK and see if they have any advocacy workers who may be able to support her through this mess.

LinLui

And - with respect - I suggest you get some very good advice before telling your brother. It may have been entirely innocent, in which case there is no harm done, but it looks very suspicious that the intention was to sign the house over to one child (there was never any guarantee he would share it) whilst mum claimed benefits. Just because the documents weren't signed doesn't mean that there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Maybe ignorance and and bad choices on all sides - but it could also bear the hallmarks of financial abuse if one child intended to end up depriving a parent of their financial assets. Even if that wasn't the intention and it is all innocent, I won't be the only person who might wonder about it - you can almost certainly guarantee that council officers will (or should) because we are encoraged to consdier such possibilities as part of our safeguarding responsibilities. That could result in a safeguarding referral for your mother, to ascertain that she is not being coerced or manipulated and is capable of making decisions.

edisoneb

Firstly thank you for all the replies.
i have a little more information, it seems the fault is on my brothers part and he will take ownership of this and hopefully be given the option to re pay the benefits she has been given. 

The property was sold to my brother, well it should have been - pension credit and housing benefit were told about the £15,000 sale and she has only been receiving amounts what she was entitled to. Yes this is possibly lower than she may get on the market however most houses here sell for less than £25,000 - £30,000 and there are repairs needing done on the property such as roof etc. She never was given the money from my brother and although she signed forms for land registry he never got round to submitting them. I am going to explain the mess to DWP tomorrow, and the land registry and moving foreword try to get some sort of power of attorney so I can be involved in anything financial for my Mum moving forward. I just hope that the house sale can be backdated and he will give the money and it be over with, or that they will allow the option to pay it back and the house will be put on the market or sold to him like it should have been a year ago. 

elsien

Glad things have got a bit clearer.
If your brother is still planning to buy the house, I do think you need to get a proper evidenced valuation on it as it is because  otherwise it does look as if it’s been sold cheaply purely to get means tested benefits and could still be open to question. 

Power of attorneys is easy enough to do online. Your mum needs to consider who she wants to act for her because she may want the two of you to try and be fair (which  is what my mother said) but with your brother and how he has managed things up until now he may not be the wisest choice. 

HampshireH

Wow. Without disclosing personal info. Where are houses only 25-30k?

elsien

County Durham?
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/houses/county-durham/?price_max=30000&price_min=20000&property_sub_type=terraced&q=County%20Durham&radius=40&results_sort=lowest_price&search_source=for-sale

chapea

Those adverts are all auction guide prices and whilst not expensive areas would be surprised if they go for those sort of prices 

TELLIT01

A property sold for £15k!  Unless that is the true value of the property there will be a problem with Deprivation of Capital i.e. disposal of assets in order to claim benefits.  This is actually getting more and more complicated and the information being provided by the OP is also contradictory at times, even if not intentionally so.

poppy12345

This all sounds rather strange to me. First you said that the plan was to put the property into your brothers name. Further on in the thread you said that the property was sold to your brother for £15,000 but he never actually gave her that money, so how was it actually sold? It can't have been sold if he never paid for it... 

Who's name is the property in now? 

swingaloo

If your brother is taking ownership then let him speak to the DWP as this is a complete mess. Your mother still owns the house and so all the housing benefit etc she has claimed has been claimed fraudulently. Whatever your brother and mum meant to do was never done and so it is going to take some untangling.

The claim is in your mums name and she is the one they will come after for recompense not your brother,