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.

Plus, of course, government money is taxpayers' money, most of whom have had no lottery wins.

Sadly I , like others, come across a lot of people like this in my work

Surely her benefits will stop anyway while she has the money? She would have to declare it? Then if she burns through it, does it come under deprevation of assets so she can still claim benefits. I’m all for the benefit system helping those in need and on low income. I’ve never had much money myself. But this doesn’t sit right.

If she’s “spaffs @ it alway in order to reclaim benefits she is in for a nasty shock

its deprivation of money / assets in order to stay on benefits
she can do it but the dwp will want to know exactly what she’s spent it on
and if they thinks she’s done it deliberately they can refuse her claim

Yes this - this is exactly the sort of person SO was made for.

Her other option might be to buy a small flat (depending on where she lives) and rent it out. This would obviously affect her benefits and rightly so but it would be alternative income she might not need the benefits anymore and it’s an investment for the future.

I'll tell her to look into this too.

Ignoring all the accusations of starting a benefits bashing thread. I've got better things to do with my time.

Thank you to those with useful ideas to pass onto my friend. I wasn't expecting those, but I'm glad to hear she has options.

£125,000 - £16,000 = £109,000 = £36.333 fkr each of the three children, invested in children's bonds and used to help them later. Tax free gifts providing your friends survives for seven years.

She sounds like a complete nit.

Surely this is an opportunity to moveher life forward, to learn to support herself rather than assume she can live off benefits indefinitely?

How much does someone need to win to let go of benefits?

Fucking ridiculous.

Woman's a fool. This amount, used properly could set her up for life.

"A fool and her money..." as they say,

You didn't think winning a tax-free, lump sum of £125,000 gives her a number of excellent options? The mind boggles.

Well I get Universal Credit top up and have a mortgage! No they don’t pay my mortgage, but I do out of my wages and UC top up. With that amount of money, unless you live somewhere really expensive, that’s a cracking deposit for a small mortgage!

Did you seriously think that the only option for a person who has £125k in the bank was to piss it up the wall and keep claiming? Seriously?

Our country is a joke. A person with that much in the bank shouldn't be entitled to a penny.

@Sogfree are you for real? Sad for her? If she has money she doesn't need benefits. Whether she uses it to secure a home for the future or supplement her earnings until it runs out is her choice. If she does squander it I hope DWP find out and stop her benefits for deprivation of assets. This attitude of entitlement to free public money honestly makes me sick.

She works as a teaching assistant and gets universal credit top up.

Shared ownership with a housing association is ideal. She would have more security than in a privately rented house, but no mortgage, just a comparatively small rent.

Personally I wouldn’t recommend she gifts the money to her children. They are growing up in an environment that is not encouraging self improvement and pushing forward. You do read threads here on mumsnet about kids reaching 18 and making really stupid decisions when they suddenly hace access to all that money.

She needs to find a way to make those funds grow and take herself away from relying on benefits. That’s the best gift she can give her children.

Don't the Postcode lottery people have financial advisers, like the national lottery have?

I assume you are referring to it being that she can’t claim housing benefit on UC for a mortgaged property

If so she is being utterly ridiculous. Depending on the area she is in, she could very well pay outright for a property

I sold my mortgaged property because at the time it was at risk of repossession (I was a single parent and had huge debts that swallowed my income) but had I been given £125k I would have found any house I could have owned outright

😂

Probably not for people who win relatively small sums of money. I mean, £125k is a lot - don't get me wrong - but not when compared with a million or more.

If this is a genuine situation then I'm not sure what shocks me most, the entitlement or the sheer stupidity.

Completely agree.

But no, she can’t give the money away to her children, ignore any posts saying she can. It would be seen as deprivation of assets. If it was me, I’d use it for a hefty deposit. Yes she’ll get less UC, but her work allowance will be higher and she’s securing something she can eventually leave to her children (if she wants). Tell her to see a mortgage advisor …. Or move to the North East where you can get a 3 bedroom house in a nice area for about £150k.

She needs some proper advice.
it’s a really tricky one isn’t it, ultimately there should be a way it benefits her, her children and means she doesn’t need to claim so much on benefits. just falling off a cliff and then being eaten up in rent isn’t helpful to anyone (the tax payer) included.

If she can use it to help her children with education cost (training or uni) or a house deposit, they are less likely to need tax payer support when they are older.

the people who go “why should I help her keep that money, I didn’t get any help” are also absolutely valid in their thoughts too, but there’s some sensible bigger picture, common sense inbetween.

You feel sad that your friend has won £125k on the Postcode Lottery? Apart from the state pension and some disability benefits, people are entitled to benefits because they are unemployed or in low-paying full-time or part-time jobs so don't earn enough to meet their and their children's basic needs.

With a £125k lottery win, your friend has enough money to meet those needs without the help of benefits but is looking for ways to remain on the same amount of benefits. 'Spaffing' the money up the wall might be considered to be deliberate 'deprivation of assets' which could make her ineligible for benefits anyway.

It is behaviour like your friend's that fuels the huge amount of benefit bashing in the UK and leads to the abuse of claimants who aren't able to work through no fault of their own.