Is there a way to gift money and it not be deprivation for UC ?

[Bethemoralone]

DM is going to disinherit DB. I have told her what I think of this to which she replied ‘well share yours then but I’m NOT doing it that way’ . I get UC - if when she passes I were to split my inheritance will they see it as deprivation or can we somehow do it legally where it isn’t seen as that ?

Is she likely to die soon?

If the money is received in to your account and only you were named in the will and you gave your brother a large share then that could be seen a deprivation of capital. I’m not sure what you could as a work around.

She’s in very poor health and late 70s so it’s very possible.

Executors can change the terms of the will as long as everyone agrees, I believe.

So your DM could leave everything to you, but you could alter the will to send half of it to your DB, which would not be deprivation as it never came to you.

Thankyou I wasn’t aware of this

Google “deed of variation”. You could use this to gift your share or part of it.

I know I am vaguely right, as this recently happened to a family I know, but IANAL. But I'm pretty certain it can be done.

put your share in a discretionary trust in the will your mum needs to take proper advice

I don’t believe executors can change the terms of a will - thats not their role. But a beneficiary can gift any unwanted inheritance (their share) via a deed of variation. Othe beneficiaries if they are adversely affected have to agree.

You need legal advice....

That sounds like it! The beneficiary in my friend's family wanted the money to be split more evenly. So it was hers to give away, but it never went to her. IYSWIM.

You can vary the will prior to money being distributed. That way you don’t gift it to him, he inherits directly.

It’s just a deed of variation and if simple wouldn’t cost more than a few hundred

Varying the will through a deed of variation so that you receive less than you originally would have received can also be considered deprivation of capital. The test used to establish deprivation is whether there was an
intention behind reducing your assets in order to continue to receive UC, and ultimately it’s situation dependent and nobody can tell you with perfect certainty whether a decision would be found in your favour.

How much money are we talking about here? If your brother is aware that you don’t agree with him being disinherited and would like him to have something, but knows you are on UC and can’t just give away half, would he simply be happy with a token amount?

Deed of variation doesn't stop it being deprivation of capital.

We had a situation a couple of years ago where even though we could prove the D.O.V. was done in line with the deceaseds wishes and was simply correcting an error (her will said she wanted to leave a set amount to all of her x number of grandchildren, then named them, but one was missed) it caused weeks of stress for one of the beneficiaries as they were on benefits and lowering their share could be seen as deprivation of capital.

The DWP accepted that it was correcting an error and not done deliberately to lower their amount.

Giving half to a person the deceased has deliberately disinherited could be hard to argue.

Deed of variation doesn't stop it being deprivation of capital.

Quite.