My olive groves stop me from claiming benefits

[hettyGreek]

Hello,

I've lost my job after many years of full employment. I'm a single mum to two children (5 and 7) and rent a 3 bed flat.

I have savings of about £3'000.00 and the only other asset I have is an olive grove in Greece that was my grandparents and has been in the family for over 100 years. It generates no income due to location, current state and actually costs me money to maintain it. On my forms I used the valuation when I received it of about $25'000.00, but this valuation was before the downturn and it is probably only worth a fraction of this.

Even though it does not generate any income what so ever and I'm unable to change anything in order to make an income for me. The benefits office have decided that it generates an income of 50 pounds a week.

All this has been confirmed from various sources including Money Saving Expert and CAB so I'm not looking for advice on the benefits.

I'm looking on advice as to if this is fair and if it is worth me writing to my MP / doing things to try to change the system. I'm going through the process to try to get an up to date valuation, but with the location this is not so straightforward getting it valued from a source they will respect but this is in progress. Until this is sorted I get nothing bar CBJSA.

It would be difficult to sell, and I would rather not as its been in the family for a long time and has been left to me with the intention to pass it on. If I was left a piece of jewellery this would be exempt and I wouldn't need to sell it, so I think the same should happen with this.

Do I have a point about this and jewellery? Most people on Petty Gripes think I'm being treated unfairly but this is a small sample. People on MSE mostly think this is fair.

Thanks for your time

To be fair howabout you can have savings/assets you're not living in to the value of 6k and still be eligible for full income based benefits. They don't take everything. I take the wider point that they take a lot more of your everything if it happens not to be something you're currently living in or wearing, but 6k is still a lot more than many people have.

I thought it was no- one declaring their income and paying tax which caused the Greek problem? That and their economy being incompatible with the rest of the Eurozone and all the macroeconommic manipulation that went on to make the figures work.

I do think you have a point howaboit.

The benefits system does encourage people not to save or prepare for a rainy day.

My mother has a pension thwt she worked hard for. She knows other people who didn't bother with one and are now better off with housing benefit, council tax benefit and pension credits. That's not right.

PercyPigTheSecond seriously?? I had over a decade of work experience but still spent few months out of work!( before being signed off with a serious illness so who knows how much longer) It is not bloody easy with experience!

How can they be better off, holdon? I know the taper systems for all benefits are absolutely crap - there's always a segment who actually become worse off through improving their income. But if your mum's retired and in a borderline situation, I'm fairly sure she has options. Has she checked this over with the CAB and/or Age UK's advisors?

She might be paying a mortgage still?

Why would you save when the state will take what little you have no matter how much tax and NI you have contributed should you ever need support?

That's bull shit. If you really fall on hard times then you're not likely to have more £6,000 in the bank (£16,000 if your past a certain age). You can keep assets such as your large "posh" home, nice car, nice furniture, etc.

The only things you can't keep, without effecting entitlement, is vast amounts of savings in the bank or any assets that do not affect your living circumstances (so not things like your home, car, furniture) and should be able to make you money/can give you large sums of money if you sell them.

As others have pointed out you can also get 6months of contributory based JSA - you could technically be a millionaire and claim this if you became unemployed.

No they are much better off. My mum had an endowment mortgage that didn't cover it so she still has a small mortgage. Additionally the people that didn't bother to save for a pension get new bathrooms, kitchen, garden work done etc while my mum can't even fix the leek in the roof. Someone she knew did spend lots of her money on jewelry that she can sell off when she needs the money for something expensive (like a new car) and still has housing benefit, council benefit and pension credits.

Just goes to show there is no point nothing to make hay while the sun is shining.

My benefits have finally been sorted, just as I start a new job on 18th April! Talk about timing.

Not even worth me trying to get them backdated.

Oh well it's good news, better to have both than neither :)

Congratulations :)

Well done :)