Saving/providing for disabled adult.

[tangledyarn]

I'd welcome any ideas advice,
My sister has LD/autism/epilepsy, is in her 30s will never be able to work and needs a lot of support. Has always lived with my parents and receives PIP/ESA.
My parents are now in their 70s.
The long term plan broadly is for her to move to the city I live and live in her own place with support. This is going to be complex and we are not there yet.

Parents are not well off but own their own home and have a small amount of savings. They have a will which would mean their estate would be split between my sister, me and my brother.
A couple of questions: They want to start some savings for my sister but we dont want this to affect her benefits entitlement as she is always going to be reliant on benefits unfortunately..does anyone have ideas of the best way of doing this? We were thinking of a LISA?
In terms of potential inheritance (obviously this could still be non existent we dont know what will happen with my parents yet) is there a way of us managing this better for my sister?
Currently my mum is her appointee and manages all of her money, I will take over this role at some point as will need to manage money/care etc.

Sorry realise this is a broad question, but just wondering if anyone has been in a similar position?

I have sent you a PM.

@biglittlecat thanks so much

I think I have replied to your PM but not sure if it's worked so let me know if not and I'll try again!

I have a friend with a severely disabled son who lives in sheltered accommodation with carers. He cannot go out unaccompanied. She took legal advice and if she were to leave her estate equally to both dc his benefits would cease until there was no money left. If she leaves all her estate to the other child the status quo will be maintained.

My friend is a very bright woman and spends 6-8 hours a week sorting out care issues and being his advocate. When she had to reapply for his PIP (may have terminology wrong) she had to take two days off work due to complexity of the paperwork. Her other child will take this on when she can no longer do it.

She felt very compromised over this but it was the best decision for the whole family.

I'd suggest a disabled discretionary trust. Lifetime gifts and inheritance can be made to the trust and won't affect means tested benefits.

Thanks! Disabled discretionary fund sounds like a really good idea. I think they were given bad advice as from memory when they did their wills they did leave more to me and my brother but the solicitor advised them that there was only so much leeway with this as it could be challenged which I think is accurate but they didn't mention the fund so I'll talk to them about that instead.

Yes, irrc if the parents leave all their estate to their "normal" children and nothing to the disabled child, then the LA will challenge the will.

Mencap are supposed to have a list of solicitors, with expertise in this field.

You need specialist legal advice. I looked into this for someone and was told that local authorities are increasingly aggressive and willing to take legal action to secure money for care fees so whatever is secure now may not be secure in future. So specialist advice and regular reviews are very important.

My will is set so DS1 will go into Trust and DS2 will get his. A mumsnetter set it up @mumblechums

Sorry @mumblechum

Great advice, thanks fir doing this thread

Thanks everyone will definitely look into getting some advice re a trust..its good to have something concrete to look into