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.

It is like the National Lottery, except instead of 6 numbers being drawn, it is a postcode. I think it costs £12.50pm to play.

Oh, I get it. It’s another lottery game.
Fair enough! She will waste the money…

But postcode lottery also means what i thought, too? Doesn’t it, originally?

Yes, that meaning applies too.

Yes but the OP clearly said their friend won 125k on the postcode lottery

What do you mean she can't use it to buy a house? As long as she can pay the mortgage.
As for spending it as quickly as possible I wouldn't advise it. She will be deemed as intentionally depriving herself of capital and treated as though she still has it and then she really will be in trouble

How does the fact that she won it mean she will waste the money?

What formula do the DWP use in these situations or for things like inheritance to calculate how long a lump sum should last before you can reclaim UC? Do they look at your award per assessment period , average it for over a year maybe and then say you can spend that + a percentage (10%) then work out what month/year you can reclaim ?

OP said she’s planning to “spaff it away”

Asked because I was curious. I’ve never heard of the lottery game with same name. We find out new things every day, don’t we?

She will lose her too up. If she spaffs it they will claim deprecation of assets and still cut her money. Bad move on her part

Yes, the name of the lottery is a pun based on the older phrase - which was a comment on availability of certain nhs treatment depending on where you lived.

Sadly this person would have stayed better off if she hadn't won the lottery.
This win will have repercussions for her whatever she does with it. Lesson to be learnt is don't do lotteries if you're on benefits!!...

She could give it all to The Cats Protection.

Still deprivation of capital

Not quite. She's allowed to buy a property

No, she can't. Her benefits will stop due to this money. So she will need to use it to pay her rent and other costs her wages don't cover. I guess thats what OP means. Rather than being able to use the win to buy a home of her own she will have to use it to pay her landlords mortgage.

She can buy a home. It's not against the rules

No, but as OP has explained, she can't get a mortgage. So unless she can buy a suitable home with £125k, she can't buy a home.

She can do shared ownership as other people have said. And in some parts of the UK you can buy a home outright for 100k plus. Why are people going over and over the same old ground?

Good luck to her trying to reclaim benefits. It would be deprivation of capital.

All the posts about buying a flat with £125,000 are totally unrealistic.

But it’s a pity that you can get housing benefit to pay rent but can’t get the same sum for mortgage payments.

Perhaps her point is she doesn’t have a high enough income to be approved for a mortgage once she loses her income from benefits . She’ll have to use the winnings to rent somewhere until it runs out . Then when it’s gone she’s in the same position again with an income too low to support herself and children so back on to benefits .

Love this! So thoughtful. I really hope someone has started a go fund me, if not maybe l should sort it? It’s not as if she has been given £125k. Or everyone needs to work at getting qualifications and work experience

I don't know what the rules are these days but back in the day they would only pay the interest, rather than pay off any of the capital.