pension credit declined due to oversees property

runi27

Hi,

My mother is on a low income at the moment - the only money she gets is her state pension, so she has no other savings, private pensions, etc etc.

today I decided to go on to entitledto.co.uk to find out if she should be getting other benefits, and the results came back that she might be entitled to get 40.28 pension credit per week and 29.59 Councill Tax benefit pw.

We have applied for council tax benefit but she is not going to be awarded pension credit as she owns half a property abroad and that is considered to be capital, they take £1 for every £500 pounds that the property is worth.

She is suffering from hardship at the moment, no other money is coming in apart from her state pension.

50% of the house oversees is in her name, and the other 50% was in my dads name however he passed away in January 2008, so my dads 50% is in "interstate". She cannot sell the house untill its all in her name, and she has run out of money for legal fees and at the moment its costing her over £100 per month in bills, she cannot rent it out as its in a state of dis-repair. Luckily the solicitor abroad has agreed to be paid once its all sorted and she has sold up.

I just think that its unfair she is not going to get pension credit, she got zero cash and she has about twice us much going out every month then she has coming in, I live with her and give her £100 every two weeks our of my JSA. I'm not living at the moment on the remaining £20 odd pounds, cannot ever afford a haircut.

to be honest I'd like to challenge this pension credit as I think she should get it, is it worth it and any pointers for us.

thanks

GlasweJen

You can't as your mum owns property abroad that is not her primary home. I sympathise with your situation but rules are rules, if I owned a house abroad I would certainly not be asking the state for benefits.

runi27

I see what you are saying and thanks for your response its nice to hear what they said from a 3rd party. however from a technical perspective, she owns half a house, which she cannot hasn't much right over because of dutch laws

in all fairness though, the pension service did ask for legal documentation confirming she has no legal right to sell the property, but we never followed it up, that was last year but we have totally run out of dosh which is why I've been doing some research today.

I don't think we will follow that up coz as you say, she owns property abroad it isn't really there problem regarding our legal problems we face.

cheers

GlasweJen

well in that case if they can make a concession while the house is tied I'd be on the phone getting the paperwork to prove that your mum can't access funds from the house then have it off to them asap. They wont budge until they have all the necessary bits of paper unfortunately.

Good luck!

suelees1

She has to get the legal document - letter or whatever. They should backdate PC and CTB. She WILL be entitled to more benefits as soon as she produced this.

Even when she does get the go-ahead to sell they will continue to disregard the value of the property as long as she is taking reasonable steps to realise her financial interest in it.

Oldernotwiser

suelees1 wrote: »

She has to get the legal document - letter or whatever. They should backdate PC and CTB. She WILL be entitled to more benefits as soon as she produced this.

Even when she does get the go-ahead to sell they will continue to disregard the value of the property as long as she is taking reasonable steps to realise her financial interest in it.

Won't she have to pay it back when the property's sold? That sounds like an easily exploited loophole to me!

suelees1

No she won't

Oldernotwiser

suelees1 wrote: »

No she won't

Wow! What a crazy situation!

GlasweJen

Yup, but then it's a strange set of circumstances and obviously any money from the house being sold will likely push her over the line for claiming benefits for a good while.