left money in will on benefit

confusedaswell

Tell me if you are left a few thousand in someones will 15000 and you are on housing benefit, you have to declare it and lose your benefit. So for the people who are on benefit that are left anything in someones will is there anyway round it. Or was it just a waste of time being included in the will.:mad:

SuziQ

I would have thought you would be happy to lose that benefit to have a lump sum like £15,000 left to you? Is there amy guideline on how you are 'allowed' to spend it? If not you should still benefit and if I were so lucky,would use it to clear debts,leaving me more to live on day to day!

Jules

No way round it, as they do check bank accounts.

However the 1st £6,000 is ignored for most benefits and tarriff income charged on the rest up to £16,000, over £16,000 and then you lose your benefits completely.

If you do spend it you have to prove that these were necessary spends and not frivilous otherwise they will treat you as though you still have the money (notional capital).

Savings thresholds are different for those on Pension Credits.

[Deleted User]

The "tarriff" is £1 of benefits lost per week for every £250 of capital over £6000,as said once you get to £16k you lose all means tested benefits,notional capital is often referred to as deprivation of capital,and if they dont like what youve spent the money on you will be treated as still having that money

Zygorf_2

Agree partly with what Jules is saying, you must declare it to the benefits department and if you are under 60 the first £6000 is ignored. For everything over £6000 every £250 will be treated as £1 of income. This means (assuming that you are not receiving Income Support or Income based Job Seekers Allowance) that with £15k capital your housing benefit would be reduced by £23.40 per week and council tax benefit would be reduced by £7.20 per week.

If you are in receipt of Income Support of Income based Job Seekers Allowance your benefit entitlement will remain unchanged as long as these benefits continue (but you would need to declare the capital to the DWP).

If you have £16000 or more you will fail to qualify for any benefit.

You can spend the money on whatever you want, not only necessary things, so long as you are not spending it in order to qualify for housing benefit (or more housing benefit). It is the intention of the spending which must be taken into account, not what you spend the money on.

You may lose benefit due to having a large savings balance but as you will most likely be spending this money to cover the decrease in housing benefit you will be able to have your benefit re-assessed based on the new savings balance as it is decreases.

Hope that all made sense...

Zygorf_2

woodbine wrote: »

The "tarriff" is £1 of benefits lost per week for every £250 of capital over £6000,as said once you get to £16k you lose all means tested benefits,notional capital is often referred to as deprivation of capital,and if they dont like what youve spent the money on you will be treated as still having that money

I was about to write this too in my post but remembered (checked in Zebedee & Ward really ) that each £250 is treated as £1 of tariff income, not £1 benefit loss. So, as the Housing benefit (HB) taper is 65% and the council tax benefit (CTB) taper is 20%, this work out as being 65p loss of HB and 20p loss of CTB per £250 capital.

Don't mean to be impolite, just making sure the information is correct.

seven-day-weekend

Even if you have to spend some of your £15,000 on rent etc, you can reclaim full benefits again when it gets down to £6000.

So you're still six grand better off than you were (assuming you had no savings to start with).