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!

Get up to date @MadameButterface

Or at least up to two years ago

speye.wordpress.com/2017/03/14/tories-confirms-pensioner-back-door-bedroom-tax-of-1500-per-year/

@Rachealover40 hiding money to claim benefits is fraudulent and your suggestion would land anyone that does so in trouble for stealing our moneyt

Excellent post @DennisMailerWasHere

Her appointee if she had one should have stayed on top of things

But i dont like the way this is being used to bash all pensioners.

If there was a story in the paper about any other person doing the same thing would it be okay to bash everyone in that group too. If it was a single parent for instance.

All she has to do is draw out £6,000 and spend it, give it away or hide it.

£80k is a lot of money for one person to have. If a couple had an £80 pa income, two children, a car and a mortgage, there wouldn't be much left over, if any, especially in London. Older people with no mortgage and children grown up and flown the nest would be quite comfortable on that. It's also a reasonable sum to have in savings, there are always house and car expenses. All depends on individual circumstances.

@DennisMailerWasHere has managed to post without bashing all pensioners OR spouting things which are untrue.

Sorry also another yabu from me! I have been in the position where I have had to go without food and barely managed to provide my children with the necessities, this was after escaping a very abusive relationship and I had to start over completely. And when someone who cannot physically afford to live (after many many years of working hard and paying my taxes) having to go through what feels like hell, only more humiliating to get minimal help, then how is it fair that someone who could probably get by for 6-12 months without another penny coming in during that period, be afforded benefits? They are there as a last resort to keep desperate people afloat, and it's people mistreating that system that makes people in genuine need have to jump through hoops like a dog. It certainly doesn't help the stigma that people who are claiming benefits either, people assume everyone is taking the proverbial living a cushty life raking in all that free money 🙄.

Sorry if a little ranty, it's already been a long week!

The lady is not a poor pensioner, she is a comfortable pensioner. If you don't spend too much, the money soon mounts up. She probably didn't intend to have more than £16,000. So now her benefit will be reduced; if her savings go down to the accepted limited, she can claim again.

I'm a pensioner, 70 this year, husband is 70 and a pensioner but he still works part time at the moment. We have a good income, not that much in savings but some investments and we pay tax. We wouldn't qualify for benefits, I don't consider us 'poor pensioners' because of that, we don't need benefits! Others do, young and old. It's good that there is a safety net for those in need; if we lost everything we could go cap in hand :-) and the Benefits Agency would help us. I can't see that happening but you never know.

Benefit fraud is benefit fraud.

No @Onthebrink87 its down to media propaganda and ideology.

her appointee should be answering some questions

@LadyRannaldini

Ah. So you colluded with your mother so that she could also commit benefit fraud?

Jeez.

Sorry I missed the part where I mentioned this being the cause of the stigma. I thought I had mentioned it not helping. My mistake. I do beg your pardon.

It's quite a puzzling story. Not least because the council involved TWICE made errors in working out what Mrs Morley owed - suggesting that either the figures are not as straightforward as they seem, or the council are indeed the "inept bunch of tossers" a previous poster described.

people mistreating that system that makes people in genuine need have to jump through hoops like a dog

disability benefit fraud and error is 0.5%

which council is it?

It's Huntingdon District Council.

According to the MSN article Belenus linked above, in the last 5 years this council has found 27 people, all on low incomes, whose savings should have disqualified them from HB. Their average age "was 97 in 2014, and 80 last year". So maybe there are several older fraudsters in the area, OR several confused older people who have lost track of their savings and inadvertently claimed HB/CTC? Or maybe the council hasn't been contacting them frequently enough to check if circumstances have changed, e.g. if their savings have crossed the £16k threshold?

Change pensioner to single parent and how the atitudes would change.

Exactly. The stinking hypocrisy from the Mail is obscene. If she was 36 rather than 86, the story would have been about yet another benefit cheat defrauding the system and how she deserved everything she got. For some reason, because she’s a pensioner, she’s just a poor victim of the evil council (the council who the Fail would have lauded as heroes for taking back overpayments from a younger person who was Stealing From The Taxpayers).

To the OP and everyone else agreeing with the Fail: you need to ask yourself if you have the same double standards, or if you’d genuinely be as outraged if this happened to a 30-something single mother or immigrant.

It’s a sad story that shows how the complex system fails vulnerable people who might not be aware they’re breaking the law. But it’s not sadder just because she’s been alive for longer than others in the same situation.

Some of course have plenty of money because they may have a good job, or they have money from inheritance or have owned their own home. Then they can't get pension credit or care home fees paid until they reach the magic £23,250 level when it gets complicated.

This is my mum's situation. She lives with her son and has no rent or mortgage but pays bills. As she receives state pension and pension credit, and has few expenses (doesn't drink, smoke etc) she can save money pretty quickly. I think she would be able to save £22k within a few years.

She is aware of a £16k limit but I don't think she would reach this figure because whilst she's frugal with things for herself, she gives alot of money to charity.

I've had to encourage her to spend the money over the years. For example she wanted me to regularly clean the house for her and I had to insist that that she pay for cleaner. It did meet with resistance as it was 'wasteful' but I had to explain that it wasn't fair for me to do it just so she could save money. She now also pays a gardener.

I've explained that it's better for her to spend her money and enjoy a better quality of life rather than let her money build up in the bank and lose her pension credit.

I can see how it has happened over a lifetime of benefits. I save £50/mth and rarely touch the money. Save that over 50 years and there is £30,000 saved.

She committed benefit fraud. Also if you have £32k in savings you don’t need benefits. They are there for those who need them to pay for essentials such as food and housing. They are not there to enable people to save. The thought of hard working people who are struggling to save themselves paying taxes so that The people getting free hand outs can save is awful!

The stinking hypocrisy from the Mail is obscene. If she was 36 rather than 86, the story would have been about yet another benefit cheat defrauding the system

I haven't read the actual article, but can't you see that a 36 year old should be at work and able to finance themselves, whilst an 86 year old is not going to get a job tomorrow, is she.

It's the 36 years old, in full working age that should be targeted! There should be some ways to apply the law for the 86 year old but with some leeway. Unlikely to happen, but it should.

@Sootyandsweep2019, she had 400k liquid assets. Instead of buying a cheaper house and leaving herself a nest egg to live on she bought a house for the full amount and left herself no money at all. Then instantly applied for benefits in order to pay her bills.

I don’t agree that that is ok. In my mind she could have bought a much cheaper house, although not in the style to which she was accustomed and used the rest of her money to support the family until she started work again. She choose to spend all her money on a house she could never afford to run each month and then applied for benefits to pay her bills.

OneRing.......she wasn't on benefits. She'd previously worked as a.chambermaid. this money has been saved from her state pension. Personally I think we.should.just.leave her be. It just goes to show it's possible for everyone to save a.little if.they really want to.

I hate the poor pensioners rhetoric. You'd be amazed how many pensioners plead poverty and refuse to turn the heating on whilst squirrelling away thousands upon thousands of pounds.