Terms & Conditions

[Jan Canfield]

My question is, when is it NOT taken into account?

I have a claimant who is on income support and in private rented accommodation. She has inherited £140,000, received her cheque last week. She has told us she has not cashed it yet and wants to use it to buy a property ( or part of a property )
She says ( vehemently, I may add ) that the DWP have told her that they will disregard it for 6 months while she buys a place, so her income support will continue. I want to stop her benefit!

Can anyone tell me if they have had a similar circumstance, or point me in the direction of the Reg I need to look at?

[jezwilkinson]

Depends where the money came from.

Was the £140000 a cash inheritence?
If so and she has not cashed the cheque, can be treated as notional capital as it is available on application, i.e. presenting the cheque to her bank, and reason she has not cashed it is to continue to qualify for HB/CTB.

Was the £140000 received from the sale of a home she inherited?
Assuming she is under 60, could be disregarded for 26 weeks as long as it is inteded for the purchase of another home.

[Jan Canfield]

Good question.
I rang her.

The money is from her parents estate ( and included sale of a flat ) and includes everything they owned ( her brother sold everything off and has given her her share )
When I asked her about it she said the DWP had asked her nothing of where it had come from, it was the fact that it was an inheritance and that she intended it to use to buy a property that they have said it can be disregared for 26 weeks.

[gerryg]

I was under the impression that it should only be disregarded for 26 weeks if the money was the proceeds of the sale of a property formerly occupied as the claimant’s home and which was intended for the purchase of a new property.

Both the HB and IS regs say the same thing.

[andyrichards]

Gerry is correct. It is Schedule 6 Para 2. The premises that were sold would need to have been occupied by the claimant as their home.

But all capital of a person on IS is disregarded, of course…….

[gerryg]

Perish the thought, but does this mean that the DWP have made an erroneous decision?

[Author]

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