ESA, capital, and owning one's home

Teasedale
Teasedale Posts: 45 Forumite
in Benefits & tax credits
My ex has an asset that she wants to swap for a house I own of equivalent market value. She would then be able to claim full ESA because her remaining capital would be under the limit.



Suits me too, but what could possibly go wrong?

Comments

  • TELLIT01
    TELLIT01 Posts: 16,453 Forumite
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    Will she be living in the house she will then own? If not, the value of the property will be taken into account when calculating entitlement to Income Related benefits.
  • Teasedale
    Teasedale Posts: 45 Forumite
    Sunny_Intervals wrote: »
    Assuming she was trading her asset for your house in order to live in the house,
    Yup
    Best to write to the DWP first to get some kind of confirmation first, though, so as to avoid any accusation of deprivation of capital.
    Mmm, might cause delay though. Once the deed is done they've got a simple choice, allow or disallow, and she is no worse off.
  • TELLIT01
    TELLIT01 Posts: 16,453 Forumite
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    [QUOTE=Sunny Intervals;74630299
    Best to write to the DWP first to get some kind of confirmation first, though, so as to avoid any accusation of deprivation of capital.[/QUOTE]


    It's very rare that DWP would give a definitive anser to a hypothetical question. There are too many variables which are difficult to factor in.


    If she is acquiring a property to live in it's highly unlikely that it would be considered to be deprivation of capital.


    Just from interest, what asset would she be swapping?
  • Teasedale
    Teasedale Posts: 45 Forumite
    TELLIT01 wrote: »
    Just from interest, what asset would she be swapping?
    Sorry, too autobiographical!
  • TELLIT01
    TELLIT01 Posts: 16,453 Forumite
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    Teasedale wrote: »
    Sorry, too autobiographical!


    No problem. The question was really because many personal assets with the exception of another property would be unlikely to affect benefit entitlement. I'm also assuming she will be claiming Income Related benefit, as Contribution based ESA doesn't consider savings or other assets with the exception of any pension which is in payment.
  • Teasedale
    Teasedale Posts: 45 Forumite
    Sunny_Intervals wrote: »
    ...there may be questions they want to ask (e.g. what would be considered sufficient evidence of its value vs the house value)...
    Good point, and I have it covered already.
    ...b) even without a definite yes/no and an absolute protection from DoC rules, it keeps everything above board, so there can be no accusations of her trying to do something sneaky/commit benefit fraud.
    Hmm, I don't see how it keeps everything above board. It might even arouse suspicion, in fact I suspect almost everything does arouse suspicion in the "official" mind.
  • Mojisola
    Mojisola Posts: 35,557 Forumite
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    Teasedale wrote: »
    My ex has an asset that she wants to swap for a house I own of equivalent market value. She would then be able to claim full ESA because her remaining capital would be under the limit.
    TELLIT01 wrote: »
    No problem. The question was really because many personal assets with the exception of another property would be unlikely to affect benefit entitlement. I'm also assuming she will be claiming Income Related benefit, as Contribution based ESA doesn't consider savings or other assets with the exception of any pension which is in payment.

    This is obviously something that is counted as capital otherwise the ex would be able to claim full ESA now.
  • TELLIT01
    TELLIT01 Posts: 16,453 Forumite
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    Mojisola wrote: »
    This is obviously something that is counted as capital otherwise the ex would be able to claim full ESA now.


    With the reference to 'full ESA' I assume from that she currently has a live claim for ESA with reduced payment due to the asset she is planning to swap for the house. If that is the case, and the asset suddenly disappears, it will raise questions with ESA (or it should at least) so just answer the questions honestly. I'll repeat what I said earlier that if the existing asset is used to purchase a property to live in and it is her only property it shouldn't cause a problem.
  • Teasedale
    Teasedale Posts: 45 Forumite
    TELLIT01 wrote: »
    If ... the asset suddenly disappears, it will raise questions with ESA (or it should at least) so just answer the questions honestly
    Clearly to make any change she will have to ask the DWP to consider the change of circumstances. IOW, she will raise the questions with DWP directly. Otherwise how on earth would they know?

    Which also makes writing a letter as Sunny suggested a bit OTT.

    I don't need anyone's advice to answer questions honestly, by the way.

    So thanks for your help folks, let's close this one now.
This discussion has been closed.
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