Have I messed up?!

Lissilou

Hello. Looking for advice and help. In a nutshell myself and my sibling were left a sum of money by our Nanna. My Mum was left out of this arrangement.

Mum and Dad retired and doing ok on state pension and Dad's small pension. Dad has since died :-(

My sibling and I decided to share the inheritance money with Mum and just put a lump sum into her savings. Without the joint pension and Dad's pension she was running short and having to cut down too much.

I have since realised that she would have been entitled to pension credit but now she has these new savings she does not qualify. I don't want to sound greedy - I don't actually have a pension myself and our house need work etc etc so the money exchanged wasn't money that wasn't needed for other things. Mum is living partly from these savings (ie they top up her state pension). We probably shouldn't have done things the way we did. Is there a legal way of taking the money back, thus allowing her to apply for pension credit and maybe just paying for big things she needs ourselves going forward such as household repairs (she recently needed new roofing costing £4K which she used her savings for where we could have paid). Have we messed up?

For info - Mum is on the 'old' state pension not the new one which I believe is a bit higher. Thanks in advance 

tacpot12

There is no way to legally take back the money you have given to your Mum. She can give you the money back, but when they check her entitlement for Pension Credit they will say that she has intentionally deprived herself of this capital. This means they will assume that she still has it. 

However, not all is lost. Your mum is allowed to have up to £10,000 in savings and still qualify for Pension Credit, assuming her pension income is low. 

She is allowed to spend her savings on the things she needs; such as a new roof, or a new boiler or appliances when they break down, or sofas and mattresses as theese wear out. So if she can't claim Pension Credit now, she may be able to in the future. 

I don't see that you have done anything wrong in giving your Mum this money. It seems a generous and selfless act.

Marcon

Lissilou said:

Hello. Looking for advice and help. In a nutshell myself and my sibling were left a sum of money by our Nanna. My Mum was left out of this arrangement.

Mum and Dad retired and doing ok on state pension and Dad's small pension. Dad has since died :-(

My sibling and I decided to share the inheritance money with Mum and just put a lump sum into her savings. Without the joint pension and Dad's pension she was running short and having to cut down too much.

I have since realised that she would have been entitled to pension credit but now she has these new savings she does not qualify. I don't want to sound greedy - I don't actually have a pension myself and our house need work etc etc so the money exchanged wasn't money that wasn't needed for other things. Mum is living partly from these savings (ie they top up her state pension). We probably shouldn't have done things the way we did. Is there a legal way of taking the money back, thus allowing her to apply for pension credit and maybe just paying for big things she needs ourselves going forward such as household repairs (she recently needed new roofing costing £4K which she used her savings for where we could have paid). Have we messed up?

For info - Mum is on the 'old' state pension not the new one which I believe is a bit higher. Thanks in advance 

How much does your mum have in savings? She might still qualify: https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/eligibility

Mark_d

You gifted the money to your mum.  She can't now give money to you to enable her to claim [more] benefits.

There may be a number of things you can do for your mum to support her - check what benefits she's entitled to, perhaps she can downsize to a more efficient property requiring less maintenance, perhaps there are more efficient ways for her to have the phone/internet/TV services she needs....

Madeinireland101

A person without scruples would probably draw up a loan agreement that says the money you have given to your mum is a loan with zero interest to be paid. That way you can just ask for the loan back. Job done. This of course means you would need to get into a tardis but I’m not sure how anyone in authority could prove otherwise -  especially as only you, your sibling and your mum would have to sign the loan agreement. Of course I could not possibly condone this approach.

Moonwolf

Madeinireland101 said:

A person without scruples would probably draw up a loan agreement that says the money you have given to your mum is a loan with zero interest to be paid. That way you can just ask for the loan back. Job done. This of course means you would need to get into a tardis but I’m not sure how anyone in authority could prove otherwise -  especially as only you, your sibling and your mum would have to sign the loan agreement. Of course I could not possibly condone this approach.

That was my thought but...

The local authority could (I think would) decide it is deprivation of assets, the 2014 Care Act gives them a lot of latitude.  Then that person might have to go through an appeals process, to the ombudsman and even a legal process with all the expenses involved.  It is a possible win though if they could convincingly show they gave the cash as a loan, perhaps to tide their mother over during her initial grief, but that doesn't mean it is simple.

In the above example, the OP has admitted it wasn't the plan and would be committing perjury if it went to law, so would need to be 100% confident there is nothing that could leak out that demonstrated that.  Texts that a disgruntled third party might access or a supposedly anonymous post on a forum that could be traced back.