Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction and Savings Query

born_again

While I get what @HillStreetBlues is saying & agree with their advice.

I think the damming statement would be

He sends all the money he gets on a weekly basis from his account to my bank account, this is because he wants me to take care of everything financially. This includes ensuring all our bills are paid, buying food, anything else he and myself need and the usual day to day expenses.

Clearly this will show in OP account on a weekly basis, & OP has said, not transferring any excess back, due to father saying it is a gift.
You can see from the councils point of view,  exactly why they have taken the action they have. As it looks like he is keeping his balance low to keep benefits. While OP is increasing their savings from the excess.

No offence to anyone. 

Blancmang25

HillStreetBlues said:

Blancmang25 said:

HillStreetBlues said:

What they are saying is you are the legal owner of the capital but your father is the beneficial owner of the capital. With beneficial ownership it's the onus is always on the claiming it.
EG if it was the other way round and you had your money is your fathers account, it would be up to you to prove it's your money in his account.
All the council can is have a hunch, but that's a long way from any sort of prove.

The housing benefit regulations consider deprivation of capital or income. I expect the council tax reduction scheme for the local authority will have the same regulation. 

It can only be DoC if father has over £10k if over SPA.
As an example if a person over SPA has £7.5k capital, they can spend it or give it away it's not DoC as at that point in time  it won't effect any entitlement so impossible to be DoC. If  6 months later they do the same again, it's still not DoC as same rules apply. They can not go back in time and claim £15k was given away.

HB regs allow a person to have savings up to £16,000. Anything between £6,000 - £16,000 then attracts a notional income from the savings this amount is then added to the weekly income.
CTR - local authorities have their own schemes, some do not allow a claimant to have over £6,000 in savings and some it's £10,000. 
Regarding deprivation of capital(hb would look at any fluctuation in savings on reviews, plus the claimant is under a duty to notify of any changes in circumstances) this is different to income. 
The father has given the son all of his income, therefore depriving himself of his income, had he kept the money in his bank account, this would have built up in his account. There is nothing to stop him using his income to pay for help, new furniture  etc.

Nerdtech

born_again said:

While I get what @HillStreetBlues is saying & agree with their advice.

I think the damming statement would be

He sends all the money he gets on a weekly basis from his account to my bank account, this is because he wants me to take care of everything financially. This includes ensuring all our bills are paid, buying food, anything else he and myself need and the usual day to day expenses.

Clearly this will show in OP account on a weekly basis, & OP has said, not transferring any excess back, due to father saying it is a gift.
You can see from the councils point of view,  exactly why they have taken the action they have. As it looks like he is keeping his balance low to keep benefits. While OP is increasing their savings from the excess.

No offence to anyone. 

No offence taken. I can see it from their point of view but my father wouldn't know anything about keeping balances below any threshold to keep their existing benefits. He is totally unaware of anything like this and how the benefits system works, it just looks that way. The man didn't claim HB and CTR until he was 75 years old, he's now 82. I was actually totally unaware of anything about this until recently, I had no idea about means-tested benefits if I had done this wouldn't have happened. But as his sole caregiver it's my responsibility to find about things like this, even though it's very hard to keep on top of everything, I still feel like I have failed him.

TimeLord1

They're also asking for dates and proof of when you moved in and became his carer; his letters will help with what he's getting, etc. Send all relevant information regarding this. So sending just the bank statements won't give them a clear picture unless they have full details.

They're not seeing the full picture just sending statements.

HillStreetBlues

born_again said:

I think the damming statement would be

He sends all the money he gets on a weekly basis from his account to my bank account, this is because he wants me to take care of everything financially. This includes ensuring all our bills are paid, buying food, anything else he and myself need and the usual day to day expenses.

Clearly this will show in OP account on a weekly basis, & OP has said, not transferring any excess back, due to father saying it is a gift.
You can see from the councils point of view,  exactly why they have taken the action they have. As it looks like he is keeping his balance low to keep benefits. While OP is increasing their savings from the excess.

No offence to anyone. 

I do see the council's POV, but it's a legally incorrect view as long as the father has no claim to the money.
If a person is under the lower limit that person can deliberate make sure that the never breach that limit so keeping full entitlement to income related benefits. There could be a moral issue able doing that as it could be seen as playing the system (not saying that the OP has done this) but morals are for another forum board.
EDIT  not implying that you treating this forum any different than I do. If it comes across that way, I will edit my post, just let me know

Nerdtech

TimeLord1 said:

They're also asking for dates and proof of when you moved in and became his carer; his letters will help with what he's getting, etc. Send all relevant information regarding this. So sending just the bank statements won't give them a clear picture unless they have full details.

They're not seeing the full picture just sending statements.

My mom sadly died in 2016 and that is around the time I took on the role of being a caregiver for my dad. I'm not sure who informed them I moved in with my dad in 2019 though, this was an error on their part. I didn't even claim CA for quite a while as I had no idea it even existed until a friend told me about it.

born_again

HillStreetBlues said:

born_again said:

I think the damming statement would be

He sends all the money he gets on a weekly basis from his account to my bank account, this is because he wants me to take care of everything financially. This includes ensuring all our bills are paid, buying food, anything else he and myself need and the usual day to day expenses.

Clearly this will show in OP account on a weekly basis, & OP has said, not transferring any excess back, due to father saying it is a gift.
You can see from the councils point of view,  exactly why they have taken the action they have. As it looks like he is keeping his balance low to keep benefits. While OP is increasing their savings from the excess.

No offence to anyone. 

I do see the council's POV, but it's a legally incorrect view as long as the father has no claim to the money.
If a person is under the lower limit that person can deliberate make sure that the never breach that limit so keeping full entitlement to income related benefits. There could be a moral issue able doing that as it could be seen as playing the system (not saying that the OP has done this) but morals are for another forum board.
EDIT  not implying that you treating this forum any different than I do. If it comes across that way, I will edit my post, just let me know

No problem 👍

sheramber

Nerdtech said:

TimeLord1 said:

They're also asking for dates and proof of when you moved in and became his carer; his letters will help with what he's getting, etc. Send all relevant information regarding this. So sending just the bank statements won't give them a clear picture unless they have full details.

They're not seeing the full picture just sending statements.

My mom sadly died in 2016 and that is around the time I took on the role of being a caregiver for my dad. I'm not sure who informed them I moved in with my dad in 2019 though, this was an error on their part. I didn't even claim CA for quite a while as I had no idea it even existed until a friend told me about it.

When did you mive in to care for your dad?  2016?

When did you first claim carer's allowance?  Was it 2019 by any chance ?

Nerdtech

sheramber said:

Nerdtech said:

TimeLord1 said:

They're also asking for dates and proof of when you moved in and became his carer; his letters will help with what he's getting, etc. Send all relevant information regarding this. So sending just the bank statements won't give them a clear picture unless they have full details.

They're not seeing the full picture just sending statements.

My mom sadly died in 2016 and that is around the time I took on the role of being a caregiver for my dad. I'm not sure who informed them I moved in with my dad in 2019 though, this was an error on their part. I didn't even claim CA for quite a while as I had no idea it even existed until a friend told me about it.

When did you mive in to care for your dad?  2016?

When did you first claim carer's allowance?  Was it 2019 by any chance ?

I never moved in because I have been living in the same property with my parents since 1987. I started claiming carers allowance about 5 months after my mother passed away in 2016. 

Nerdtech

I was thinking about when he asked me why am I not claiming the carers element of UC and I told him because I had savings (what I believed to be my savings at the time). Since he's now told me that the majority of the savings are my fathers now I technically have no or very little savings could I now apply for the carers element of UC?