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.

Tell her if she spaffs it all then they will stop paying benefits as it's deprivation of assets. She can buy a small BTL property and supplement her income with rent while her asset appreciates.

I can't believe her one goal is "how can I ensure I remain eligible for benefits" rather than "how can I make life more comfortable long term".

Is this real, or a goady benefits bashing thread? I think I just got sucked in

You can't get benefits to pay the mortgage, quite rightly, so you have to pay it yourself and can only get benefits for the living costs element.
She sounds like a fucking tool to be honest. Who chooses a life on benefits because they don't want some short term belt tightening to get to the place where they can own a property? Ridiculous

She doesn't need to throw it away. She is choosing to 'spaff the entire lot' and stay on benefits instead of try to get a better job and come off benefits and buy a house.

Yeah that's the point. She's planning on spending it as fast as possible so she can get her benefits eligibility back. Except she won't, because they will see she's had a big windfall and she won't be entitled to benefits because she's deprived herself of assets. So she'll be poor and fucked.

What a load of shite. Don’t get sucked in.

Anything over 16k immediately stops benefits, and then you have to show proof you haven’t left yourself without means when you go back onto to benefits so if she spends it on crap they will refuse to pay benefits.
anyway this post is clearly a wind up.

What a silly post.
She could do so much to improve her situation with that kind of money. I’d be looking to get educated. May be do some qualifications so she can get a job that pays a decent wage - learn how to cook, catering, hairdressing, chiropody, chiropractor, brain surgeon- she can pay to go to university . . . . The list is endless.
To reduce how to spend £125k to whether to have a house or a car is very short sighted.

Hmmmm thats a fairly poor life choice.

She could do much better things....

With 125k she could do all of these...

Pay it into JISAs and JSIPPs for her 3 children (across 1 tax year that's £38k across 2 (we are end of tax year do if across 2 thats £76k)
She could pay remainder into into a pension.
Take the kids on one big holiday (Asia, Disney or similar)
Buy a decent 2nd hand family car
Put 10k in savings for emergencies

She could also move and buy somewhere small outright.

This wholly inaccurate.
If she spends the entire lot on random stuff she wont be entitled to her benefits anyway.
She can do shared ownership, or she can still get a mortgage, and just not get the rent allowance from UC, but her work allowance would be higher meaning she could earn more before money is deducted from her UC.

There is nothing that says you cannot claim UC with a mortgage, you can have one asset (a house) and as long as you still qualify on other parts you will still get your income topped up.

On the other hand, if she splashes £125k of winnings to bring her under the savings threshold (think its 15k) then it will be seen as deprivation of capital and she won't be able to claim anything.

Hopefully she goes and gets some proper advice, and doesn't listen to you!

You can buy a house on benefits. She's either been fed incorrect information or this is a rage bait thread.

Hmmmm thats a fairly poor life choice.

She could do much better things....

With 125k she could do all of these...

Pay it into JISAs and JSIPPs for her 3 children (across 1 tax year that's £38k across 2 (we are end of tax year do if across 2 thats £76k)
She could pay remainder into into a pension.
Take the kids on one big holiday (Asia, Disney or similar)
Buy a decent 2nd hand family car
Put 10k-15k in savings for emergencies

She could also move and buy somewhere small outright.

So she wants to stay living on benefits? She could choose to use the money to get herself off them. Zero sympathy here.

She no longer needs the benefits if she has that money. Why should the tax payer continue to pay benefits for someone who has more money in the bank than the majority of us?

She is basically thinking “how can I not lose my benefits but still use this money how I’d like?”

🙄

I'll advise her to talk to a financial advisor.

I'm just going by what she said. Not living on benefits myself, I only know the basics of the maximum amount of savings allowed and not being able to own property.

And people wonder why the country is in the mess it's in. So entitled

You can have a mortgage (own a house) on UC.
They wont pay towards mortgage, but work allowance is higher.

If she spends it willy nilly she will be entitled to nothing. Its called deprivation of capital. Putting it into a property is the best way, for security for her and her kids

She could train as a teacher then she won't need benefits?
Or do what a lot of TAs I know do and work a second job?

I was a single mum and worked full time all year round (and did overtime) so I don't see why benefits should ever be funding someone's lifestyle, let alone when they have £125k in the bank

It she wanted to she could absolutely work hard and use this to transform their lives

She can put it into savings for her kids. Pay upfront for a degree and retraining and use it to fund her living while she is unemployed.

she seems a bit daft. Or is pretending because she is obviously irresponsible

I work in a solicitors and the amount of people who try to turn down their inheritance or ‘give’ it to someone else (ie put it in their parents/siblings name but still have access to it) so they can still claim benefits is shocking, we’re always sending letters warning about deprivation of assets and explaining to people they’ll just have to live off their inheritance until it runs out and they can claim benefits again. It makes me so angry that I’m paying tax to fund these scroungers.

She can use it to buy a private pension, as far as I'm aware there aren't limits (or generous ones if there are) for pension investments whilst on benefits.

Not worth wasting your words offering financial advice here, on another thinly-disguised benefits bashing thread. This post was just designed to piss people off and give the impression that people on benefits are stupid and greedy, and that the system rewards such behaviour.

What a load of nonsense!
I own my house with a mortgage, earn and get universal credit.
Yeah, they will be a period in between where she loses benefits but once the money in invested in property, it's no longer savings is it?
I'm guessing this is rage bait.

No your not going off what she said, you just fancied a benefit bash post.