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Buying council home count as deprivation of capital?

roann

I’m a 59 yr old lady unable to work and get pip and esa

My husband is 77

I inherited money from my mums estate in July 2023

I’ve applied for the right to buy my council home and have been giving the offer

It’s almost what I inherited , we’d have a couple of thousand left if we went ahead with the purchase

We’d like to buy the house

But would the Works and Pensions class it as deprivation

I can’t seem to find anywhere that would answer my question

I’ve got about 8-9 weeks to fill in the forms to accept the offer to buy our council home

Can you advise me please

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Comments

poppy123456

Buying the home you live in is unlikely to be treated as deprivation of capital. However, if you've already got access to the inheritance, I would have expected all Income Related benefits to have ended, if your capital/savings is more than £16,000.

Jimm_Alumni

Hello @roann, welcome to the community 😊 As Poppy says, using those funds to buy the home you live in is not likely to be treated as deprivation.

If you have other questions or want to discuss Poppy's concern about already having access to the funds please just ask away. It'll only matter if you have any benefits that are means tested. I'll move this over to our benefits category as well.

roann

I get esa but the reduced one as my inheritance affected our benefits

We pay full rent and council tax

I’m just concerned as our savings may go below £6000 and wonder if I’d be able to go back on the other esa , my husbands list the fuel allowance

So I have to make sure we’ll be able to live similar as we are now

Thank you for your reply

poppy123456

With capital of more than £16,000 and your ESA continuing then part of it must have been contributions based because that isn’t means tested.

Once your capability drops below £16,000 you can contact DWP to be reassessed for the Income Related top up. You will know doubt be asked what you did with the money.

As you will own your own home of course there will be no need to claim housing benefit.

Do be aware though that owning your own home means you will be responsible for all the repairs. Whereas renting you are not responsible for them.