inheritance deductions

alibongo51

hi there,hoping somebody may have an answer as to why dwp have suddenly decided to disregard capital from my benefits? i find it very strange.i had £9000 inheritance and declared to dwp(sent bank statements etc..£12a week was deducted...these payment were only deducted for a month n have now stopped,so contacted dwp and apparently payments have been disregarded for 12months..the guy couldnt say why though,just that probably will be reviewed in a year.does anyone know why they would do this?, thanks

poppy123456

Hi,

Inheritance isn't usually disregarded for 12 months, only backdated money from a benefits claim is normally disregarded for this length of time.

alibongo51

hi poppy,hope your well.thank you for quick response i dont understand your answer sorry((im a bit thick ha)i was of understanding that anything over 6000is capital and will be calculated as such from benefits(in my case 12a week...what do you mean backdated money?

poppy123456

If someone is owed benefits money from DWP then this is disregarded for 52 weeks.

Inheritance money is not disregarded, unless the money is going to be used to purchase a house then it's possible to disregard it for 26 weeks but not 52 weeks.

alibongo51

oh ok,maybe im due some money i dont know about then,its all confusing is this .wish i had enough to purchase a house lol .i suppose its better in a way then as i certainly wont have 9000 in a year as learning to drive n buy a car(obviously within reason) so i assume my deductions will be less than what they were. thank you for help poppy xx

poppy123456

I never said you were due money you didn't know about. You're misunderstanding what i'm saying here.

An inheritance isn't disregarded for 52 weeks and i'm unsure why you've been told this. You need to ring DWP to find out what's going on.

alibongo51

i did misunderstand,apologies..rang them again after your message n lady didnt know either,just said it could be backdated money from my aunty or something.the lady who made decision had gone home so a note has been left for her to call me tomorrow to explain everything to me

alibongo51

hi poppy,well only a few hours left for dwp to call me back.no one bothered to the other day like i was promised,so nt holding breath tht anyone will call me today either..ive rang a few times but still nobody can tell me why.its so frustrating!i realy dont want to just take their word that payments have been disregarded,then a year down line to say ive deprived myself of capitalif moneys spent  sorry just needed a rant,take care 

littleminx72

If the dwp freeze your account due to an inheritance payment will they still make payments into your frozen account?? And if so would that not take you over the upper limit of £16.000? Also how long will your account be frozen and what happens to your direct debit payments,  I don't want to fall into arrears with my bills & rent 

poppy123456

littleminx72 said:

If the dwp freeze your account due to an inheritance payment will they still make payments into your frozen account?? And if so would that not take you over the upper limit of £16.000? Also how long will your account be frozen and what happens to your direct debit payments,  I don't want to fall into arrears with my bills & rent 

It would be better to start your own thread with your questions rather than ask on the end of different threads that are 5 years old. It also gets very confusing when asking questions on multiple different threads.

I don't know what you mean by "freeze an account" If you mean freeze a bank account then they can't do that.

In another thread you mention an inheritance that has taken your savings to a total amount of £14,000, have you reported the changes to ESA and your local authority, if you're claiming help with any rent and council tax reduction? With that amount of savings there will be a deduction in your benefits as advised previously.