Hands off...

gordon.hunter

I hope someone can provide advice on a complicated situation which I will try to simplify as much as possible.

My mother and father emigrated to Cyprus as a married couple and split up. My mother is back in the UK and is in and out of hospital with manic depression since August 2008. My father ran up alot of debt and sold his villa for a loss and gave my mother £31000. He has since moved to Moldova with another woman and lives on a similar amount of money from the sale of his villa and a £1400 pension per month which is funded from the UK and transferred to an HSBC bank account. We do not know how much the house was actually sold for and so my father could by lying and have actually kept most of the money himself. He does not give my mother any of the pension. All she has is £27000 / £28000 left of this money given to her by my father. We as our sons have had to use it at times to her things and pay bills that her benefit of £162 a fortnight cannot cover and the situation I face is that this money dwindles away. In applying for benefits they are being difficult as they are asking for information that only our father could provide and we are not on the best of terms with my father at the moment. Is it possible that my mother could impart this money to us as some kind of financial gift so that it is taken out of the equation when assessing benefits and furthermore taken out of the equation when pursuing a lawyer to address my father about the situation and avoiding any legal fees.

I would really appreciate some advice.

Thanks

[Deleted User]

if your mother gave you the money she would still be treated by the dwp as having it.under the deprivation of capital rules
One thought,is she not entitled to any share of his pension if they are divorced/seperated?