Sad for my friends £125k lottery win.

[Sogfree]

£125k win on the postcode lottery.

Single mum to 3 children (all primary age). Works as a TA, so receiving benefits to top up her income.

She would like to use her winnings for a deposit on a house. But due to the benefits rules not being allowed to pay a mortgage, she can't buy a property.

So she's going to spaff the entire lot as quick as she can, and the government will continue to pay rent to a multi property owner and make them richer.

The only asset she'll get to keep is a newer car - not anything fancy as she knows she won't be able to afford the insurance/fuel once the winnings run out.

Her one chance of breaking free of a life on benefits and she's got to throw it away. It feels wrong.

If you win £125k, you don’t need benefits. Why was she even bothering to play the lottery if she didn’t think you could keep it? She could get a shared ownership place.

i was waiting for a negative comment. I meant her way of thinking.

I don’t disagree. But unless it’s social housing then that is exactly what is happening with most private rentals that are priced significantly more than social housing stock rents for

ODFOD.

Exactly. I'm beginning to think I've just imagined the countless articles and threads about graduates who can't currently get a job. 125k likely isn't going to help much in terms of asset ownership either though. People are suggesting she should buy a flat and rent it out. I'm not sure the rent from this cheap flat (minus expenses) will match her UC and related benefits. Not to mention, whereas she might then own a property, she would have little no funds for repairs/keeping it livable which would be problematic. So many people accusing the winner and OP of being short sighted but I just wonder how deep they've thought about their solutions, I'm sure the winner is just trying to figure out a way to keep things the most stable for her kids.

but "spaffing" it away is also not an option - she can't be seen to deliberately waste it - I agree she should look at the part ownerships even though they are generally leases they maintain value same way as the rest of the market if bought in the right place.

Depriving yourself of capital is the worst thing the OPs friend could do

1. I would use a bit of the money to pay childminder to look after kids.
2. Go work full time.
3. Get a mortgage with around downpayment of 80-70k.
4. Now keep working and gov will top up childcare and few other bits

She can get a mortgage while on benefits, as long as she can afford it. She's choosing to piss the money away, so 'no' I don't feel sorry for her.

Love that you are declaring one persons thoughts as ‘what’s wrong with this country’ but I’m the negative one 😅

I totally agree TAs are underpaid. It's ridiculous how poorly they are paid. But she now has more in the bank than many people that earn more than her and have no entitlement to benefits. So she must live on that and her salary rather than benefits because she no longer needs benefits with that much in the bank.

You’ve also had lots of good replies. Seems like you enjoyed getting that off your chest though.

I totally agree that TA’s are woefully underpaid.

But the fact of the matter is that she now has £125k in the bank. She no longer needs benefits to top up her wage.

She now has more money in the bank than a lot of taxpayers do (she has £124k more than me for a start!) so she doesn’t need taxpayers money for the forseeable.

to be fair no one asked her to save the council money by looking after her mom. She could have left this to the council and worked on her education and career

Yes some of the suggestions are a bit ridiculous, e.g. buying a house and renting it out 🙄 if she had wanted to do a degree she could of done so already, the help is out there to do so and in my experience she as actually far easier doing it as a single parent these days due to the eligibility for assistance with childcare etc than as a couple. People don’t seem to have a clue how the benefits system works though, you have to earn a lot to out earn benefits and as you say there’s not even a guarantee of high paying job at the end of it anyway. Buying a primary residence would be the best long term use of the money (either using the 125 as a large deposit or shared ownership). rather than trying to wrangle how she can be left with the most disposable income in the here and now. Clearly a lot of people on here who have never privately rented in recent times and experienced all the insecurity it brings with it

I don’t really understand what your point is or what you are saying?

I now think the ‘friend’ is you.

There are many examples of means tested benefits not being ‘fair’. For example, someone can save up for years for a deposit on a house, then get made redundant. They will be entitled to very little as they have over £16k in the bank. On the other side, someone could live in a property worth £1m they earn outright, but be entitled to benefits if they don’t have £16k in the bank. Benefits are there to ensure you can eat and keep a roof over your head if you don’t have the savings to do so yourself.

Your ‘friend’ is in a better position than many with that sort of money, and plus it’s from a win, not saved from years and years of hard work. She’s extremely lucky.

A financial advice may be able to suggest a good way to use the money, but I don’t think the reason should be to get entitlement to benefits.

I also wonder why your ‘friend’ bothered to enter the Postcode lottery in the first place if a win is so dreadful. Surely your ‘friend’ knew she would lose benefits if she had capital?

No one said she was being diddled. A lot of posters were trying to make out like having 125k in the bank would massively benefit her personal circumstances day to day (or benefit her kids futures by putting all the money in trust for them). Thing is though, as others have said, that particular suggestion might mean she loses the ability to support her family because it would stop her benefits (they're in trust at that point remember, so she can't use them to live off). Sure she can keep the winnings and use it to live on. She just needs to be careful and spend it at the same rate she usually spends until it's gone. So it likely won't feel like she's won anything really as she doesn't benefit. She's ultimately just saving the government some benefits for a short while. It's not the end of the world but not the big celebration a lot would have if they won 125k. I thought that was the point that OP was trying to make.

Congratulations on your lottery win though OP! 😁

Wow. No one called you a scrounger. Why on earth would they? This thread was about your friend yes?

But that would be the same for anyone on benefits if they won money. If you win £20k you would lose your benefits.

What’s the alternative, that DWP introduces a rule that lottery winnings won’t count as capital towards a benefit claim?

I retrained in 3 and a half years with an Ou degree. No qualifications needed.

I think it’s fairly obviously now there is no friend.

I've reported your horrible post telling people to scrape themselves off the floor OP. You are bang out of order. How absolutely dare you talk to people like that