To think it's outrageous that a poor pensioner is charged money because she saved

[MummyChelleKent]

I'm so upset with the mail story. A very poor pensioner on a pension of 150 a week saved a bit every month. After a while she saved up 22k to help with her funeral costs and now she's being told she can't have housing benefit and will have to give them all of her savings!

[Thewheelsarefallingoff]

YABU

[JoxerGoesToStuttgart]

She’d have been far better saving a bit at a time and then blowing it on a cruise or something then starting her savings again.

[adaline]

With 22k in the bank she has no need for benefits.

[HarryElephante]

YABU for reading the Daily Mail.

[GimmieTheCoffeeAndNooneDies]

Daily Mail are stating learning difficulties. The family appealed against the overpayment.

it is a shame there were not so proactive when it came to help her complete the original claim and the subsequent renewals, because then none of this would have happened as they would know to declare the savings.

[LIVVI1234]

If shes had to pay all that money back (28k) then surely she now has minimal savings and should be in receipt of benefit again - why haven't they restarted paying it?

[bobsyourauntie]

YABU. She’s not repaying savings, she is repaying the benefitstgat she wasn’t entitled to. It might seem harsh, but it’s been that level for years. You can’t claim certain benefits if you have over £16K.

As soon as she went over that level she should have stopped claiming.

I know it seems hard on her but the rules are the same for everyone and someone with that much money doesn’t need benefits.

[maddiemookins16mum]

It basically says you’re better off having little savings.

[mumwon]

she had a learning disability & cant read - they havecompletely stopped her hb - the point is that they have been disproportionately attacking pensioners & as stated in the newspapers this figure is quite low - stripping her of her savings & stopping hb - perhaps if they had at least shown some understanding of her circumstances & made her pay back over time & stopped her hb

[Schuyler]

YABU. She claimed housing benefit and council tax benefit fraudulently! She was above the savings threshold.

[formerbabe]

I couldn't give a shit

And

All the lolz at this she saved up 22k to help with her funeral costs

[formerbabe]

I couldn't give a shit

And

All the lolz at this she saved up 22k to help with her funeral costs

[WhenOneFacePalmDoesntCutIt]

it's the law.

It still sound awfully unfair in her case, but the sad thing is that people like her are paying for the ones who play the system very well.

The whole benefit system needs to be reviewed urgently, those who need it - like this woman who has care to pay on top of that - get penalised, those who shouldn't get it are laughing.

[Tallgreenbottle]

This is why gold bars are a good investment!

[BarbaraofSeville]

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story eh? While there was a lot of handwringing a few weeks ago about 'poor' pensioners having to, shock horror, pay for their own TV licences, the fact is that a single pensioner with an income of a few hundred quid a month, and no housing or travel costs isn't poor, especially if they keep building up savings.

Why should taxpayers pay for someone to build up savings?

But then again, she could have spent a lot of it, like others do. My DM has paid for her funeral (nowhere near £22k mind you), given a few k to all her DC, paid for all sorts of home improvements etc, to make sure she stays below the savings limits.

Friend and her DSis has a big holiday paid for by her DM every few years to make sure her DMs savings don't go above the limit.

Daily Mail pandering to their preferred demographic. If the woman had been a 25 YO single mother of overseas heritage, she would have been torn apart as a 'greedy benefit cheating scrounger'.

[formerbabe]

Oh ffs totally missed the part about the learning disability

However, I'm still perplexed at 22k towards funeral costs implies a funeral costs more, which is nonsense

[Schuyler]

I wonder if the articles will have been written with the same amount of sympathy if it were a young disabled person who’d saved above the threshold and not informed the DWP?

[missbattenburg]

I would consider "very poor" and savings of 22k to be mutually exclusive...

[Zaphodsotherhead]

22k for funeral costs?

Has she not SEEN daytime television? You pay a little bit every month and it pays for your funeral! And also doesn't count as savings...

[RubbingHimSourly]

She's not a benefit cheat, she also has learning difficulties and can't read. She may not have even understood the.form.

Personally I think a but of common sense should be applied and a lady who has saved so diligently should have been given the opportunity to offload some of the money ie by paying for her funeral which would have brought her back under the threshold.

[formerbabe]

I would consider "very poor" and savings of 22k to be mutually exclusive...

Agreed

[HeadintheiClouds]

Why do you think someone with £22k in the bank is entitled to housing benefit? People have become so comfortable with their “entitlements” to benefits in this country that they’ve literally forgotten what their actual purpose are.

[Schuyler]

Articles say she’s got a learning difficulty and saved £32k by January 2018.

[Cheeserton]

Breaking news: those with substantial savings don't get benefits.

[pointythings]

OK, so some allowance should be made for her learning difficulty. She could pay back in instalments, for instance. However, she isn't poor and a funeral doesn't cost £22k. My H's funeral last year cost £4.5k and it was beautiful.

Someone with that much money in the back isn't 'very poor'.