Do I have to declare a money gift to universal credit and on my tax return?

Beachcomber372

HillStreetBlues said:

Have you lodged an official complaint?

No, I've no idea how to or if it will make any difference.

HillStreetBlues

Beachcomber372 said:

HillStreetBlues said:

Have you lodged an official complaint?

No, I've no idea how to or if it will make any difference.

https://makeacomplaint.dwp.gov.uk/

Your complaint will be that after reporting an increase in capital  3 months later  the clueless  bods  are still fart arsing about unable to understand even the basic rules of UC and  you need someone with an ounce of intelligence to look at it.
(you might want to paraphrase it).

Beachcomber372

HillStreetBlues said:

Beachcomber372 said:

HillStreetBlues said:

Have you lodged an official complaint?

No, I've no idea how to or if it will make any difference.

https://makeacomplaint.dwp.gov.uk/

Your complaint will be that after reporting an increase in capital  3 months later  the clueless  bods  are still fart arsing about unable to understand even the basic rules of UC and  you need someone with an ounce of intelligence to look at it.
(you might want to paraphrase it).

ManyThanks 👍

Newcad

To try and simplify things a little, look at the money like this:

The inherited money is not remuneration for work done. So it is not 'earned income'.

The inherited money is not on the list of what counts as unearned income for UC. So it is not 'unearned income'.

See "What is unearned income?" on pages 3 and 4 of this Decision Makers guidance for the list of what counts as unearned income:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66867c21899a6f92e5d9ccf5/admh5.pdf

Even if you want to class it as a 'gift' rather than an inheritance then a gift still isn't unearned income.

As it can't be classed as either kind of income for UC then it can only be capital.

PS. It can't even be 'Capital treated as income' - that has to be regular payments and not just a one-off.

Beachcomber372

Newcad said:

To try and simplify things a little, look at the money like this:

The inherited money is not remuneration for work done. So it is not 'earned income'.

The inherited money is not on the list of what counts as unearned income for UC. So it is not 'unearned income'.

See "What is unearned income?" on pages 3 and 4 of this Decision Makers guidance for the list of what counts as unearned income:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66867c21899a6f92e5d9ccf5/admh5.pdf

Even if you want to class it as a 'gift' rather than an inheritance then a gift still isn't unearned income.

As it can't be classed as either kind of income for UC then it can only be capital.

PS. It can't even be 'Capital treated as income' - that has to be regular payments and not just a one-off.

Thanks, I've just checked with the deceased customer's daughters and they have told me, I quote "Any of the inheritance money from Dad's estate is not classed as income and is not taxable, this means (myself)/we do not need to declare this money to HMRC" I've just told the job centre this information in my UC journal and they have forwarded it to a decision maker. 
I don't know if UC are being difficult on purpose to put people off from claiming ? They already told us a while ago that our transitional period from tax credits was finished even though we still had a few months left to go. And had to tell them it wasn't finished and gave them exact dates which could easily be found in their journal 🙄 They did apologise for their mistake though.

Newcad

Beachcomber372 said:

I don't know if UC are being difficult on purpose to put people off from claiming ?

Nope, they are just woefully inadequately trained.

To be fair they are also very overworked and so can't/don't spend much time looking into things and just trot out any old bull at times.

Maybe that will change now that they are going back to being jobcentres rather than benefits administration centres.
If that has the side effect of preventing "Work Coaches" from making (incorrect) benefit decisions that have to be challenged and corrected then that will be a change for the better.
I won't be holding my breath, but as I'm only 13 months off State Pension then those changes probably won't be in time to affect me much anyway.

Beachcomber372

All sorted now, the decision maker agrees that the gift is indeed capital and not income.
Thanks everyone for your help and advice 🙂👍

Newcad

Good to hear that it eventually got to a DM who saw sense.

However you are still doing it wrong yourself - Please, please, start referring to things corrrectly otherwise you may have problems again in future.

This money is an inheritance from a will, it is NOT a 'gift' - your calling it the wrong thing (a 'gift from a customer') is probably what gave someone at the DWP the wrong idea in the first place.

The words that you use, and the names that you call things, can be important when it comes to benefits.
If you use the wrong word / wrong name for something then you will probably get a wrong decision. (or be given the wrong advice).