To be gutted at losing my benefit

[Clappingforjoy]

I am going to inherit some money from sale of parents house and have told universal credit to close my claim but I'm gutted about it.
I have always struggled never had 2 Penny's to rub together and it just so happens I will go over the 16000 mark with this money and know i must sound greedy but my income is very low and i am scared this money will all go on living costs.

Some families who have family members that receive benefits, often disability benefits, but it can be be any benefits set up a discretionary trust for their family member. If inheritance is held in a discretionary trust the current law means state benefits are not affected. This is legal and what families do for family members who can’t work full time or at all due to illness.

Many people don’t do this as they are not aware of this but had OP’s parents left her inheritance in a discretionary trust she would be perfectly entitled to keep her benefits and receive money from the trust when required.

Another thing about pensions, you actually get a further boost if paying into one while on UC or TC. The contribution reduces the amount of your earnings that they take into account, so you would actually get more UC, while also getting the tax relief when paying it into a pension.

If you already have a Help to Save account, you can keep using it.

YANBU in being gutted. It's a big change of situation and there is little guidance out there out how to handle it. Personally, I'm not entirely against a cap, but I do think with situations like this that makes a sudden major shift in someone's circumstance, then there should be a transitional time. I mean, we're often told not to make plans with inheritance money until it's there, but people need time to get advice, make plans, and put things in place for different life situations. Also, UC isn't just the money, but a gateway to certain services. To just be cut off without any transition time doesn't seem right to me, even less when dealing with someone's death.

I have actually just applied to go on UC Because I am a single parent, am unemployed and money is tight. … I am unlikely to be able to find work as I am VI and the number of people with VI out of work is roughly 85%. But I am required to speak to a job coach, required to commit to taking any work which comes up

Have you applied for PIP (which is non-mean tested afaik), AlternativePerspective ?

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip

[quote rockhopper20]@Mycastle - I am not against landlords. But the changes in the rules on social housing etc has effectively meant that the government is subsidizing private landlords' investments. Now that I find more irritating than the OP's case

The choice of not building social housing is the government's choice. The decision of giving money to private landlords rather than providing secure and long term tenancies in social housing is for me the problem as a tax payer.

Similarly, the UK's low wage economy means that in practice the government is subsidizing large companies who pay such low wages but still have such high revenues.

In the past, people claiming benefits were unemployed but today most of the people claiming benefits are in work but get paid so little that they cant live on it. However, rather than increasing the minimum wage i.e. forcing companies to share out their profits, the government tops it up i.e. effectively giving large companies a free pass to pay people little but get large profits. That's what am against[/quote]
👏👏👏

Put it in your childs account

Isn't that fraud ?

[quote rockhopper20]@Mycastle - I am not against landlords. But the changes in the rules on social housing etc has effectively meant that the government is subsidizing private landlords' investments. Now that I find more irritating than the OP's case

The choice of not building social housing is the government's choice. The decision of giving money to private landlords rather than providing secure and long term tenancies in social housing is for me the problem as a tax payer.

Similarly, the UK's low wage economy means that in practice the government is subsidizing large companies who pay such low wages but still have such high revenues.

In the past, people claiming benefits were unemployed but today most of the people claiming benefits are in work but get paid so little that they cant live on it. However, rather than increasing the minimum wage i.e. forcing companies to share out their profits, the government tops it up i.e. effectively giving large companies a free pass to pay people little but get large profits. That's what am against[/quote]
In full agreement.

Like many I earn too much to get UC but most of my earnings go on bills having paid a huge chunk in taxes etc before it hits my bank. I certainly am not in a position to save anywhere close to 26k or to even have 16k in my bank would be a shock and thats as someone who is frugal, buys almost everything secondhand and doesnt have yearly holidays etc so I dont think that it is unfair to expect people with savings to use them to support themselves. Im sorry but I just cant be supportive of someone getting UC when they've got more than most peoples annual salary sat in their bank account.

Haven’t RTFT, but I wonder if you could use the money to set up a small business or side hustle. Something like a beach hut to rent out, depending on prices near you. A candy floss stall? Something where you keep the initial asset and generate an income from it? Or any other business, really?

Benefits are a choice to me. If I forced myself, I could probably work. I have a degree. Finding a job is another matter entirely but it would be incredibly detrimental to my physical and mental wellbeing to try and work. Capitalism as it is right now is goddamn stupid and anybody who thinks OP is selfish clearly knows nothing about being broke or about the countless amounts of selfish people sat on billions of pounds they'll never use in ten lifetimes.

Mosul is right - about discretionary trusts. They are often lawfully set up to help those who have disabilities and the like. That is why with a lot at stake paying a solicitor for an hour of advice can be a good idea - it can be life changing, best money ever spent in some cases.

@PenguinIce trouble is as soon as min wage goes up so do the supermarket prices and house prices
Houses should never of been able to increase like they did in the early 2000's the high cost meant many were stuck renting and rents rised with houses
Many people one wage goes on rent or mortgage
More social housing or cheaper buy to rent houses would help
Ha don't even give out lifetime tenancies now and they are so strict what you can of can't do that they aren't the secure home like a council house used to be

Absolutely YANBU. It’s very different to receiving any kind of new steady money. This is a one off chance to better your living situation and it should be treated as such. Especially as Universal Credit is supposed to mirror a real working scenario. Your salary wouldn’t drop for a few months if you inherited even a ginormous sum. Or you wouldn’t be asked to pay 100% tax on your salary because you suddenly can afford to.

@GlitterandBalloons

Like many I earn too much to get UC but most of my earnings go on bills having paid a huge chunk in taxes etc before it hits my bank. I certainly am not in a position to save anywhere close to 26k or to even have 16k in my bank would be a shock and thats as someone who is frugal, buys almost everything secondhand and doesnt have yearly holidays etc so I dont think that it is unfair to expect people with savings to use them to support themselves. Im sorry but I just cant be supportive of someone getting UC when they've got more than most peoples annual salary sat in their bank account.

Completely agree

@timeforanewstart actually that's not automatically true. Now thats clearly what both the government and multinationals would like you to think so that we are too scared of raising the minimum wage. But over the last twenty year we have had the biggest increase in the assets owned by the 1% and the deepest impoverishment of the working people. This was not even the case in the 1990s so it's not ancient history.

Over the last two decades, we have had an unprecedented transfer of capital from the public purse (i.e. your taxes) into private hands. I.e. taxe payers are now subsidizing the rich rather than the poor from housing to wages to health care to nursing care etc.

@suzy2b

Put it in your childs account

Criminal.

Op this might be a daft suggestion and it very much depends on the situation your siblings are in.
You say that the money is from your parents house. I assume that the other shares are going to your siblings.

Would they be willing and able to keep their share invested in the house with you living in it, you paying the maintenance costs?

It might be worth a discussion and hopefully give you some long term security.

Benefits should never be a lifestyle choice. Ever.

OP, please don't take comments like this to heart.
Plenty of people choose benefits as a lifestyle choice - it's just re-labelled as another, more acceptable name.

Lords who claim £305 'daily allowance' just for turning up to the House of Lords,
The richest landowners who claim a farming 'subsidy' totalling £2.4 billion a year for just owning or renting land, - the richer they are, the more they can claim - one in five of the 100 largest payments under the EU’s direct subsidy system went to people on the Sunday Times Rich List (2017) according to the governments own data...and the government has promised this will continue even when we leave the EU until at least 2028.
The top 10% of earners (all earning over £54K) enjoy 50% of the country's tax relief benefits.
Private schools - having charitable status, hence tax relief benefits.
I could go on (but don't want to derail your thread).

Only the poor are castigated for relying on benefits.

and the reason why people can save even while working is not that people like the OP get a freebie but as I said because taxes now go to subsidize the rich. And am not a crazy leftie - plenty of mainstream economists agree with that.

But people have retained this idea that the reason why they dont have more cash is because of some other poor bloke who is getting something they are not. No the reason why working people dont have cash is because they are subsidizing the rich which is indeed quite an expensive pursuit

cant save

Personally I'd feel too guilty to claim benefits when I had money in the bank and didn't really need it but hey ho who am i to judge I've only spent the last 8 years working full time saving up for a house deposit on my own, i'm a second class citizen

Can everyone please stop giving advice on how to break the law. I've flagged it with MN as I think it should be against talk guidelines.

@CoronaIsWatching

Personally I'd feel too guilty to claim benefits when I had money in the bank and didn't really need it but hey ho who am i to judge I've only spent the last 8 years working full time saving up for a house deposit on my own, i'm a second class citizen

That isn't OP's fault, though. It's not yours either. How much do your managers earn, the CEO of your company?