Beneficial ownership

Peter99
Peter99 Online Community Member Posts: 65 Connected
in Benefits and income
Is this person entitled to a means-tested benefit?  Under duress, he invested a significant amounts of money to pay back someone he owed and the investment account is in his name 

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  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,456 Championing
    HI,

    Based on that extremely limited information it's impossible to answer your question and you'll need to give a lot more information. If you're asking on behalf of someone else then i'd advise them to get a full benefits check from an agency near them.
  • newborn
    newborn Online Community Member Posts: 828 Trailblazing
    In answer to a different  but similar question, experts replied that repaying debt is not acceptable unless ordered by court.  Depriving oneself of assets to claim benefits would possibly  be viewed as criminal. It wouldn't  make a difference, in that case, whose name it is in.  As your own heading suggests,  beneficial ownership would be assumed.  
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,456 Championing
    edited August 2020
    newborn said:
    In answer to a different  but similar question, experts replied that repaying debt is not acceptable unless ordered by court.  Depriving oneself of assets to claim benefits would possibly  be viewed as criminal. It wouldn't  make a difference, in that case, whose name it is in.  As your own heading suggests,  beneficial ownership would be assumed.  
    Not for Universal Credit purposes it's not. For legacy benefits such as Income Related ESA/JSA etc it is deprivation of capital but most defitinitely not for UC. You can pay off debt and still claim UC, it will make no difference at all to the amount you're entitled to. This is one good thing about UC.

  • Peter99
    Peter99 Online Community Member Posts: 65 Connected
    @newborn I think the key word here is the "duress"

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