Lump Sum Pension Payment Universal Credit

Megan7898

Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen these before. I wish someone from UC had spent a quick call explaining things at the start. That document was published in Sept 24 and she started receiving UC in Nov 2020. What will happen if no one picks this up? As I have said I have left jnl messages and phoned. I really am struggling to function. Should we close universal credit claim and support my sister financially, I could gift her money, even the amount she contributed to the caravan then she could draw her pension after that. She is aware of the situation and is also concerned.

Spoonie_Turtle

Megan7898 said:

Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen these before. I wish someone from UC had spent a quick call explaining things at the start. That document was published in Sept 24 and she started receiving UC in Nov 2020. What will happen if no one picks this up? As I have said I have left jnl messages and phoned. I really am struggling to function. Should we close universal credit claim and support my sister financially, I could gift her money, even the amount she contributed to the caravan then she could draw her pension after that. She is aware of the situation and is also concerned.

Unfortunately the rules have been the same since the 2010s, that particular page may have been published last year but it will have replaced previous pages published before that.

If your sister is in a position where she doesn't need UC to survive then quite honestly you don't need to be *worrying*, just take it as it comes with them looking at the evidence and making their decision.  Don't close her claim yet, wait to see what the outcome is.  But in the meantime maybe put aside an amount equivalent to the UC she receives now until the decision is made, in case it does turn out to be an overpayment and then you'll be off to a good start to repay it. 

Megan7898

Issue is that no one has replied to my 2 jnl messages and my call to help line were not of any use as the gentleman said jnl message 2 days after my jnl messages says review complete and no change to universal credit. What if no one acts on my messages, do I just leave it. How do you think this will be viewed, we are happy to repay but don't want to get into trouble for this as it was not intentional at all. My sister gets quite a lot universal credit as receives UC and LCWRA element and her rent too. People are saying it may be treated as gifting money so I'm looking at that now and that's showing "deprivation of capital" again not intentional so how would that be dealt with. 

Northern_Wanderer

It might mean that there has been an overpayment and it will need to be paid back. You cannot change what has happened and can only deal with what might come. It will be down to a decision maker.

8dayweek

I think you’ve got two possible outcomes…

1. It’s deemed as deprivation of capital (i.e. Sister had 20k and has essentially given it away). Sister will be treated as having 20k from the date it was drawn down, with depreciating capital applied thereafter. Essentially all AP’s in which she’s treated as having more than 20k will be wholly overpaid, then in AP’s where assumed capital decreases to below £16k they’ll be partial overpayments based on the normal notional income deductions for capital. 

2. It’s deemed as Capital and so a “value” is assigned to this by the Decision Maker taking into account current value, number of owners and so on. If the value attributed to it is over 16k then UC entitlement ends, plus any associated overpayment for past AP’s. If the value attributed to it is between 6k and 16k then normal notional income deductions for capital are applied, including for any past period with associated overpayments. 

What I would be more concerned about is the optics don’t look great… Your Sister needs an appointee to help her manage her benefits because she is mentally incapable or severely disabled. Your Sister is able to understand and safely make complex financial decisions in relation to 5 figure sums. I know it’s not black and white, but you can see how the two statements are at odds with one another. Add to this the upshot of her financial decisions is she’s within 10 years of retirement, her pension pot is down 30k and she’s given away 20k to her Sister to purchase a caravan (which she has no ownership - part or otherwise - of). 

TELLIT01

Is it possible to create a legally binding document adding the sister as part owner of the static caravan?  The OP would have to bear the cost of doing that.  To be blunt, I think DWP and other organisations would take a pretty negative view on the suitability of an appointee who convinced the person they have responsibility for to hand over £20k and having nothing for it.

born_again

Megan7898 said:

Issue is that no one has replied to my 2 jnl messages and my call to help line were not of any use as the gentleman said jnl message 2 days after my jnl messages says review complete and no change to universal credit. What if no one acts on my messages, do I just leave it. How do you think this will be viewed, we are happy to repay but don't want to get into trouble for this as it was not intentional at all. My sister gets quite a lot universal credit as receives UC and LCWRA element and her rent too. People are saying it may be treated as gifting money so I'm looking at that now and that's showing "deprivation of capital" again not intentional so how would that be dealt with. 

Messages can take a while to be responded to.
TBH, given the review & no change. I think that your messages may/will now be passed onto be looked at. So it will be out of the remit of the people responding to them. So may not get a reply for a long time till they come back asking for further bank statements, or even a meeting.. (worse case)

All you can do not is stop poking the bear & let this run it's course.

I would not close the claim (could look worse) & agree with @Spoonie_Turtle to put the money on one side for now. So long as does not exceed the £6K limit, as that would need reporting.