owning your own house out right

DFDone
DFDone Online Community Member Posts: 43 Connected
edited March 13 in Universal Credit (UC)

How is it ive used a calculator to calculate my benefits and found my house i own worked for all my life affects my benefits, when i dont earn anything from it.

Advice please

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Comments

  • Kimi87
    Kimi87 Online Community Member Posts: 4,260 Championing

    The home you live in is not included when calculating the amount of capital you have.

    If you have a second property it can only be disregarded in certain circumstances.

    https://www.uceplus.co.uk/disregarded-capital

  • DFDone
    DFDone Online Community Member Posts: 43 Connected

    Thanks @kimmy87, just struggling sorting all thus out.

  • teuchterlass
    teuchterlass Online Community Member Posts: 59 Empowering
    edited March 12

    If you don't bother attempting to buy a house, live in rented, use your money for holidays, cars, entertainment etc you get all the benefits

    You have been careful with money, paying a mortgage, be careful with money for holidays, little if any available for entertainment.

    If you have to go into care and own your home, have savings, if nobody lives with you - the house is sold and these funds used to pay care fees. 😡

    If you haven't saved, spent your money care gets paid by government

    What is the point of saving, buying a house, you get same care as person who has spent it as they have earned.

    The money you done without and saved to hopefully leave for perhaps family gets used by government to pay for care.

    This is hard to watch when people have earned the same but have chosen to spend it differently.

    I was careful and saved, bought house etc - have sold house, now I am hopefully going to spend all my hard saved money before I require care😳🤣 doing things I could not afford before as too busy paying mortgage to have anything left for frivolities.

  • DFDone
    DFDone Online Community Member Posts: 43 Connected

    TOTALLY with you hear. My cousin spent his money this way (over 100k a year) now hes skint no work ill and is allowed to claim is unrel.

    Unfair

  • silmarillion
    silmarillion Online Community Member Posts: 29 Contributor

    I’ve owned my own home for years and worked for years. My conditions no longer allow me to work and I was medically retired. I have to pay my mortgage out of my benefits now as I’m on a legacy benefit. There must be millions of disabled people , unable to work struggling with a mortgage in this country. Now they’re gonna cut our benefits……if I hadn’t worked or paid NI or scrimped and saved my pitiful nurses wages to buy a house, I’d have my house paid for. It’s ok for the govt to pay landlords buy to let mortgages, though not people who have serious health problems. Just a wee bit of help and consideration would be helpful

  • anisty
    anisty Online Community Member Posts: 660 Trailblazing

    Yes, i hear you too. Recently my son's UC was stopped and I looked into starting a private pension for him but i ran it by our solicitor as he is under a welfare guardianship which means he is deemed to lack capacity to buy financial products.

    And we have no financial powers.

    The solicitor advised she didn't think starting a pension for our son (we can't anyway) was a good idea anyway as if he moves into local authority accomodation at any point in future, he will lose money that he's saved.

    I just cannot plan for him to have a life on benefits. It seems very risky. We already changed our will so he will get the proceeds of our house when we pass.

    But, ideally, we would like to see him get more able, move out of benefits and get saving.

    It is a very tricky one as it seems he would be more financially secure by not making progress and having nothing.

    But it doesn't seem right. We have always saved. And this is why his UC has stopped - too much saving, not enough spending!

  • DFDone
    DFDone Online Community Member Posts: 43 Connected

    Ive worked in those places, as a contractor, totally agree with you but its also the same if you have a home in some cases..

  • DFDone
    DFDone Online Community Member Posts: 43 Connected

    Its terrible

  • DFDone
    DFDone Online Community Member Posts: 43 Connected
  • Ranald
    Ranald Online Community Member Posts: 801 Championing
    edited March 13
  • DFDone
    DFDone Online Community Member Posts: 43 Connected

    @Ranald it is unfortunately a very good point raise by that reply to the post, so please dont think its a negative view but a statement made for those who own there own home. But not against anyone who rents.

  • Ranald
    Ranald Online Community Member Posts: 801 Championing

    Fine, but alot of "home owners" forget that they are not the owner until the bank has it's money back; and are certainly no better than anyone else.

  • DFDone
    DFDone Online Community Member Posts: 43 Connected

    That statement is so accurate. Had problems paying the mortgage many times, banks dont care at all, just as some landlords. Hope no one looses there benefits or homes.

  • silmarillion
    silmarillion Online Community Member Posts: 29 Contributor

    legacy benefits are contribution based esa, income support and tax credits. They’re trying to phase them out.

  • MW123
    MW123 Scope Member Posts: 980 Championing

    I understand your frustration and concern about your son's financial future. If your son lacks capacity to manage his own finances and you currently have welfare guardianship, have you considered applying to the Court of Protection to become a Deputy for his financial affairs? This would allow you to make decisions on his behalf, including managing his money, paying bills, and making financial choices.

    I understand you've already updated your will to ensure he will inherit the proceeds from your house when the time comes. Again, not knowing your son's exact situation, but if you haven't already, I would consider setting up a Disability Trust for when he inherits. This way, you can appoint a trustee, whether it's a family member or your solicitor, to manage the trust and funds on his behalf. Your son wouldn't have direct access to the funds, but the trust would be structured in a way that helps protect him, pay for his needs, and can prevent money and property from being counted in means testing for benefits or social care, including supported living.

    This could be a helpful way to plan ahead and ensure that his financial needs are met without affecting his eligibility for welfare benefits. Your solicitor may be able to advise you on this, but given the complexity of this area of law, I would recommend finding a solicitor with expertise in disability trusts and welfare benefits. I wish you and your son all the best.

  • luvpink
    luvpink Online Community Member Posts: 1,567 Championing

    Where did you hear that?

    Nothing official has been said about trying to "phase them out".

  • Kimi87
    Kimi87 Online Community Member Posts: 4,260 Championing

    The legacy benefits ending are:

    Housing Benefit*

    income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

    income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)

    Income Support

    Child Tax Credits (CTC)

    Working Tax Credits (WTC)

    *HB can still be claimed in a few specific circumstances.

  • MW123
    MW123 Scope Member Posts: 980 Championing
    edited March 13

    I’d like to emphasise that while I own my home, I’ve never looked down on anyone. Some of my closest friends rent their homes, work just as hard as everyone else, with some holding down two jobs. They pay the same taxes and National Insurance contributions as homeowners, use their salaries to cover the council tax and full rent on their properties.

    One of my friends is currently renting a one-bedroom flat that costs over a thousand pounds a month, which I suspect is more expensive than some monthly mortgages. Why some people have the impression that renters want something for nothing or have it easy is beyond me.

    Personally, I’ve never believed that happiness or status is measured by the size of our houses or the cars we drive. If I could not afford to live in my home I’d sell up and rent. At the end of the day, you can’t take any of it with you!

  • anisty
    anisty Online Community Member Posts: 660 Trailblazing
    edited March 13

    Thanks @MW123 - we are in Scotland so the equivalent of the Court of Protection is Guardianship here. Welfare and financial.

    We can apply for financial powers but have been advised to do that next year, when the welfare guardianship comes up for renewal.

    Reason being that financial guardianships do not qualify for legal aid whereas welfare guardianships do. So it will be cheaper next year as the welfare guardianship can have a variation to allow financial powers.

    OR - he might have sufficient capacity next year to appoint PofA.

    This is the difficulty with our son - he falls in that middle ground of being not disabled enough for us to know he will always qualify for disability benefits and not able enough for us to know he will be able to earn a living.

    He does have capacity for lots of things - he is verbal. He can catch a bus to town and has a few paid hours supported employment. He has just recently learned how to use their coffee machine and can take orders in the cafe he's at. He is slow at the moment but he does tend to speed up with practice - another 5 years could see him full time in Costa! We just don't know what he will achieve which is why it seems more sensible to us to focus on his strengths.

    We were very worried though, that if anything happens to us in the near future, he will be given a flat in amongst people who would abuse him. He is so vulnerable and would be a prime target for cuckooing.

    So - yes, it is a trust that has been set up. All done properly through a solicitor. There will be enough money from the sale of our house to buy him a little flat where he won't get any bother. He does have 4 siblings to check on him.

    He doesn't qualify for cluster housing in our area as he has no night needs. We were gutted about that as we hoped to see him move out of our house in our lifetimes. The best they can offer is a normal tenancy with care package but he's nowhere near that level of ability yet. He might get there though🤞