Terms & Conditions

[alant]

We have a claimant who has a serious medical condition. He can't get treatment in this country but he can get it abroad for £20,000.

There is a website called GoFundMe which apparantly anyone can use to try and obtain voluntary donations from "good samaritans". So far this website has raised approx £16,000 for our claimant. As I understand it he can withdraw this money at any time.

Is there a way in which we can disregard this capital for HB purposes?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am not aware that there is anything within the legislation which would allow for the disregard of such capital.

[alant]

Thanks Paul. This is what we thought. If anyone else knows of anyway in which this capital can be disregarded please let me know.

[Anonymous]

Could the donors "undonate"?  If so could it be argued that it's still their money not your claimants?

[alant]

I don't think the donors can undonate. Once they make a donation the money sits "somewhere" (presumably a bank account or similar), but the claimant can withdraw it online it at any time. He can either withdraw it in dribs and drabs or wait until he reaches his target figure and then withdraw it all at once.

In this case the donations have already gone up by another £1,000 since I posted the original question (3 days ago). He is now only about £3,000 away from his target. We have suggested that he pay for his medical treatment asap so that he has spent the majoirty of the money. It just seems a shame that money raised for such a worthy purpose has to be counted and therefore lose him his HB.

[mairir]

Could this be treated as money from an unofficial trust?  It seems like he isn't been giving the money to use for just anything but is being given it only for the purposes of funding his medical treatment?

[joannepeters]

Hi,

I have a customer with a go fund me account for donations to do activities with her family as she has been diagnosed with cancer.  Can we disregard this as charitable donations?

Thanks

Jo

[alant]

Hi,

I was the one who raised the original question. I think you can disregard these payments as income as they are charitable donations. However, in my original case the claimant was saving the money up to pay for an operation, and the go fund me page had reached over £16,000 in capital.

 

 

 

[joannepeters]

Hi Alan,

Thank you, I was hoping this would be the case.

Jo

[pbirks]

but you cant disregard them as capital though!

if she has the money avaiable to draw on, then it counts as capital unless it specifcally falls into one of the disregarded catergories

Pretty sure asking for donations for family holidays/etc isnt one of them, regardeless of the health of a family member

 

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