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Money in savings till house sale - will benefits get stopped?
My daughter and son in law are both disabled and receive Employment Support allowance and disability benefits. My son in law's parents bought his house for him many years ago. We are moving into a large house where they can live with us and we need to sell two properties that we own, plus the one my son in law owns. His house has sold first which means he will get approx £130,000 which needs to be saved until our two houses are sold, and will then help to pay for the big house that they will own in part. The issue is whether, when they get this cash, their benefit will stop until the time it is paid over. In summary, we want to use the cash from one house they own as part payment for their next home - the issue is the delay in handing the money to the vendor of the new house.
Replies
You really should get trained advice for this ie, CAB.
It is not an unusual situation but the DWP will need to be informed, I don't think that benefits will be stopped as the money is held to purchase the new property, but there is a time limit to do so
CR
Welcome to the community.
Based on what you've told us the answer will lie in the following guidance.
DMG Chapter 52- Capital 52535 page 102 states:
Money from the sale of premises which were lived in as the home is disregarded to give a person time to buy other premises if the person is going to
1. use the money to buy premises and
2. live in those premises as the home.
The period of disregard is 26 weeks or longer if it is reasonable from the date of sale.
If you need further information please let me know.
Best wishes
Debbie
TK
DMG stands for Decision Maker's Guidance and if you click the underlined text in the post above it will take you straight to the document. Please let me know if the link doesn't work.
Best wishes
Debbie
CR
CR
Sorry to hijack this post but I have a similar query.
My husband is a recipient of Income-Related ESA, Support Group and Physical Independence Payment, whilst I receive Carer Allowance. My husband is a veteran and we have been undergoing a 2 year campaign to have his Armed Forces pension increased and we are dependent upon state benefits until this is sorted out.....it takes a while with the MOD.
I have sold our house and moved into rented accommodation while we await the completion of our purchase. I informed the DWP of our change of circumstance and they immediately switched my husband's ESA from Income-Related to Contribution-Based resulting in a significant reduction in weekly payments.
I was under the impression that I had 26 weeks to complete the sale/purchase before the benefits were reduced but the DWP customer service rep was insistent that proceeds from the house sale constituted funds and thus my husband did not qualify for IR-ESA.
Our house was sold on 13 December 2017 and I hope to complete the purchase in the coming weeks; the sale price and purchase price are within a couple of thousand pounds and so we have not released any funds from the house sale.
Is this correct?
Any advice and guidance would be much appreciated.
Regards,
ACS
This doesn't sound right at all. In the above posts there is a link to the decision maker's guidance which states quite clearly that proceeds from the sale of the home can be disregarded for 26 weeks possibly longer if it's reasonable.
Get back in touch with the DWP and inform them of this and ask them to look into this for you.
Let us know if you manage to sort this out.
Best wishes
Debbie
Thank you for your response and advice, I shall engage with the DWP and let you know,
Many thanks,
Amelia
Try this link
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/755825/dmgch52.pdf
I'm not sure why the other one doesn't work but hopefully this one will.
Best wishes
Debbie
There is no issue or deprivation if the capital fell to be disregarded anyway and notional capital has nothing to do with having more than £16k.
kInd regards
I have tried to find out but its not very clear on what the rules are if you’re left with money after selling your house. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
BB1 x
You can usually use the proceeds of a sale to put on a deposit of a new house you intend to live in but I would strongly suggest getting some face-to-face or telephone advice from a welfare agency such as CAB or Welfare Rights. You can find what's available in your area here at Advicelocal.
Scope
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