Hypethetical Question

Larsson09

Hi Guys,

I have a “acquaintance” that inherited around 200k nearly three years ago.

Naturally they came off benefits at the time. They’ve now pretty much spent it and are assuming they can claim benefits.

I’ve said that there must be questions to answer but I may be wrong, these are both over retirement age so I’ve said I’ll ask the question for them. They’re definitely under the 16k bracket anyway and I’m not sure they’ve spent it sensibly however I’m no one’s judge.

Thanks in advance

poppy123456

When you say over retirement age if you mean they are both state pension age? They can look at claiming Pension Credit but whether there's any entitlement to this will depend on their joint circumstances. There's a pension credit calculator they can check here. https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator

For pension credit, there's no upper capital limit. It's £10,000 and for every £500 or part thereof there's a £1/week deduction in pension credit.

If they rent their home there's housing benefit from their local Authority. There's also council tax reduction. Will they check bank statements? Yes, possibly but I can't say for certain.

Larsson09

ok thanks for your response.

I guess what I was meaning more directly and I’m not sure it’s achievable from the DWPs side but is there like a set amount of time a certain amount of money should last or a sanction if you’ve had a certain amount etc

I hope that makes sense.

Thank you

poppy123456

I don't believe there is. If they've given any of the money away though, then this would be seen as deprivation of capital and they could still. be treated as having that money but on the other hand it will depend on how long ago they gave it away.

If they bought a property to live in then it's unlikely that would be seen as deprivation of capital.

Are they renting their home?

Have they checked entitlement to pension credit? Not everyone is entitled to it.