Gifting money on pension credit

janetdunne1969

My dad 82 qualifies for pension credit (just under £4pw).

He wants to gift me, my brother and sister some money.  Since my mum's passing last autumn, his outlook on life has changed a bit but his anxiety levels are through the roof and he's terrified of being "in trouble" with the DWP and of being accused of deprivation of assets.  I've trawled the internet and gov pages and it seems to be unclear.

Is there a set amount per year he can gift?  Thanks.

Brie

My question back to you is can he really afford to do this?  His income must be incredibly low to be eligible for pension credit.  Can't you refuse to take it and just tell him it's his just due after a lifetime of hard work??

janetdunne1969

He can afford to do so, his pension credit entitlement is low due to savings Brie said:

My question back to you is can he really afford to do this?  His income must be incredibly low to be eligible for pension credit.  Can't you refuse to take it and just tell him it's his just due after a lifetime of hard work??

His pension credit entitlement is low due to his savings.  He just wants to give us enough for a holiday.  He's of the mind that we're going to get it in the end anyway.  We tried to tell him to treat himself but he won't.

HillStreetBlues

janetdunne1969 said:

His pension credit entitlement is low due to his savings.  He just wants to give us enough for a holiday.  He's of the mind that we're going to get it in the end anyway.  We tried to tell him to treat himself but he won't.

The issue is if it gives away money then his PC will increase so that might be seen a depreciation of capital and will be treated as if he still has the money.

Spoonie_Turtle

If he can afford to do it on his current level of income, then the worst that will happen is his Pension Credit stays the same.

They will almost certainly treat him as still having the same amount of savings, rather than increasing PC because his savings have decreased.

So realistically, what he can do is give the money and just not say anything to DWP assuming it'll make no difference anyway.
- Or, he can inform them of the change in savings on the off-chance they don't see it as DoC and he gets increased PC, but fully expecting to have to tell them where the money went and expecting they'll probably treat it as DoC and nothing changes.
- Or, tell them because he's choosing to stick to the letter of the requirement to inform them of any changes (if that's his mindset) and again expect his PC to ultimately stay the same.

It's only a problem if he expects his Pension Credit amount to increase and is factoring that in, but he'd have to be giving away an awful lot for it to make *very* much of a difference (as the deduction is £1 per week for every £500 in savings above £10,000).

It's not that he can't do XYZ with his money, it's that he can't do XYZ and assume he'll get more money.  Which, nothing you've said indicates he's thinking that way anyway.

Auti

Just be aware if it is a big amount of money (and I have no idea what constitutes a big amount in LA eyes) and he needs care in the future they may question why he gave money away and deprived himself of money to pay for it. I would imagine if only giving say under a thousand and only once they would not class it as depriving.