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!

I once worked with a couple with learning disabilities who were told to spend 5 grand pronto or find themselves in the same position.
They really didnt understand money. They had a key card for their electricity with so much credit on it it wouldnt accept any more. They had always been told to be careful and put money away.
And so they did.
It was a nightmare trying to get them to spend it. in the end most of it went into a safe in their house and I'm pretty sure the neighbour helped himself to most of it. They had been on benefits all their life and didnt understand what was happening.
Not their fault but those are the rules

I imagine that a lot of people living on benefits would like to have £22k in the bank.

I don't understand how she was able to make the claim. Was it multiple accounts?

She's not poor if she has 22k in the bank. What sort of funeral would cost that kind of money?!

Her real mistake was in not keeping it in a relative's name, we did this for my mother, not as much money as this but enough to lose her the tiny amount of rent assistance she received.

So her real mistake was not committing fraud then?

@HelenaDove Thank you re pension credit info but I meant they could have been claiming HB and CTB for 25 years.

Sorry I cannot feel sympathy with this woman. I don't care if she is a pensioner, and if she is being DRAGGED through the court while they CLAW BACK the money!' (As that news item says on the link given!) Fact is, she has exceeded the savings amount, and has actually saved £32K, not £22K as was first stated!

As a few posters have said, something does not add up.

DH used to have a friend (an ex colleague) who gave up work ten years ago, at 56, and went onto ESA and DLA. (She had anxiety and depression.) Divorced woman, 2 adult children in their 30s. She had her rent paid, and council tax etc...

For a good 5 years, she went on holiday (abroad) every 5-6 months, every time we saw her she had a new outfit/handbag/shoes/hairdo, she got a 3 year old car (on finance, but still £200 a month,) and she had her house PACKED with new tech: a £2000 telly, a £750 hi-fi, a £400 mobile phone, and SHIT loads of goods from a shopping channel and various catalogues and online shops. Like 100s of pounds a month.

We struggled to fathom how she could afford it all. Then all of a sudden, 5 years after she gave up work (at DH's place,) and started the benefits, she was hauled into court. Apparently, she had been working 3 days a week in a little shop in her market town, (since 6 months after she finished working at DH's place,) whilst claiming the full benefits, and she also had £36K in a savings account in a building society.

She was charged with defrauding benefits, and owed over FORTY FIVE THOUSAND POUNDS in overpaid housing benefit, council tax benefits, and ESA. I don't think the DLA was/is means-tested, so that was not included.

She got a 2 year suspended sentence, and was ordered to pay the £36K she had in the building society, and the remaining £9K had to be paid in instalments. AND all her benefits were stopped! This was one and a half years ago, and she still owes £7K, and all she has done on the few occasions we see her since, is continually moan about how 'poor' she is now. She has even asked friends, family, and acquaintances for money on a number of occasions.

She asked me and DH back in April, if we could loan her £500 for car repairs. I said we are brassick, and have no extra cash, and she asked if we could take it off our credit card to lend her.

Cheek of it! We have avoided her since.

I am not saying this woman (that the OP is about,) has defrauded anything/anyone, but it is as suspicious as fuck!

You'd have to be saving £100 a month for almost 20 years... (or £200 a month for 10 years....)

she did save it over 30 years! She’s been saving since she retired in 1989!

The whole story is weird though!

Why is it suspicious as fuck? She’s saved the money over 30 years.

I am slightly peeved that everyone is referring to this lady as being on benefits - she is in receipt of a pension! Totally different

It's not suspicious. Some pensioners spend very little money, don't buy anything new, don't go out anywhere, don't put the heating on etc.

So she expects the taxpayer to pay her rent while she saves for a rainy day? Doesn’t work like that.
Change pensioner to single parent and how the atitudes would change.

£22k for ‘funeral costs’. Fucking too right she doesn’t need HB with that much savings.

Mydogmylife - she was also getting housing benefit.

And doesn’t the government class pension as a benefit as it falls under social security.

@Mydogmylife She was in receipt of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit as well as receiving a state pension. Have you even read the thread?

@Mydogmylife this has nothing to do with her pension. The issue is she has claimed too much housing benefit, which is entirely separate from a pension.

Wasn't she also getting Council Tax Benefit? Or was she just not paying her CT?

If I have £22k in savings would I really be considered a very poor pensioner?

£22k is a lot for a funeral! It's not unreasonable for a ceiling to be put on savings when someone is claiming housing benefit. £16k seems fair to me .

(If a claimant has any more they can hide cash somewhere that's safe and burglar proof.)

And yet we constantly have threads on here from Mners saying that 80k is nothing.

Wow, I would love to see that funeral! You could probably afford to get Hugh Laurie to do the eulogy, and then have Rick Astley play at the buffet

But the £80k is to support an entire family and pay a mortgage in an expensive area of the country Helena.

Not pay the bills and feed/entertain a single pensioner who has no housing costs.

What does that mean, £80k is nothing? Do people claim they should be entitled to housing benefit because their earned income of £80k is nothing? I don’t think so.

Im not saying what she did isnt wrong It is. Surely she has an appointee who should have known the facts

Nest egg for what? She's 86, £600pmth disposable income after state paid HB/CT. Plenty of working couples with kids have much less than that to budget with. I'd hazard a guess the 'nest egg' was being expected by her son as inheritance vs put to one side to pay for her funeral or potential care costs.

This idea that she saved hard and is being poorly treatd is nonsense.

She didn't pay council tax.
She has housing benefit paying her accommodation.
She saved over £20k from gov benefits, and didn't declare being over the 16k savings threshold despite it being a clear rule for everyone.

She retired from a cleaning job in 1989.

I'm sorry but when I look at what the retirement I'll have looks like, I don't have much sympathy for this particular benefit cheat. Why is she wanting special treatment because she's old?!