Nothing to my name bar inheritance help

[AnotherNaCha]

So, I’m late 40s, one child. Through a series of bad choice and bad luck too complicated to go into, I have no job at the moment, no pension, no other assets house etc.

However my mother left me 40k and i have another 20k I am living off (was more).

My question is, it seems I need to whittle this down to less than £16k to be entitled to any gov help? Whereas someone with a pension and a house is able to access them if no savings?!

Can I put the majority of this into a pension and then start claiming help until I can properly work again?

Yes, if you have savings you must use them first. Benefits are supposed to be a safety net not a lifestyle choice. DWP can view bank accounts now.

It’s because your cash is accessible. People who have their money tied up in a house can’t just spend it, they would have to remortgage or sell the house causing them further hardship and this would cost the state more in the long run.

You can’t just stick it all in a pension as this would be seen as deprivation of assets. As would just spending it and claiming benefits. You couldn’t spend thousands on holidays and designers clothes etc and claim benefits because they would want to know where it has gone. If you did spend it fast they would want to know it had gone on something justifiable.

Can you not work due to disability? PIP is non means tested as it is an access benefit. Get applying for this if you don’t claim it already. If it is your child who is disabled then you can claim carers allowance as they don’t taking savings into consideration for this either.

If you can work getting a job and using that money as a deposit for a mortgage would be a good start. My bank wanted my contract and proof I had been working at my job for at least 3 months to get the ball rolling on my mortgage. Just so you know if you get UC they won’t give you housing benefit to cover your mortgage. You’re usually expected to cover that yourself.

You’ll be expected to use the money you have to survive off until it gets below the benefit threshold. Which seems like a massive waste of a lump sum of cash but if you can’t avoid it because you can’t work due to sickness or being a carer then there’s not much you can do about it. Are you able to work at all? Is there anything you could do from home? Some of that money could be good to invest in starting up business if there is.

@AnotherNaCha it looks as though you explaianed a health condition but the post was deleted.

Can you add anything now?

The taxpayer doesn't owe you anything, by your own admission your circumstances are in part due to your own bad choices and you still wound up with 60k. I was made redundant, by the end of that week I had a job in both a shop and a pub until I could get another career type job. I had little in the bank and didn't own a house back then, I wasn't looking for benefits.
If you are unable to work due to your health many health related benefits are not means tested.

If you have no relevant UK earnings you can only put £2880 net, into a pension, so a moot point.

As would just spending it and claiming benefits.

It's not that simple if spending is reasonable and was not for the purpose of acquiring title to benefit, or more benefit, then one is fine.

When DWP are looking at whether people have deprived themselves of money the issue is intent.

A former colleague who was an expert on this stuff said that a compulsive gambler who lost their fortune in the Casino or an alcoholic who spaffed it against a wall as a consequence of their illness would be OK.

How do you, and all the others posting in the same vein, think it is an any way helpful?

So you have £60k but you think just because you don't want to spend it, the taxpayer should find you?

No. Absolutely ridiculous.

The OP posted saying how unfair it is she had to spend her 60k , it's really not. Some of us have faced actual hardship and worked ourselves out of it.

Having £60k in the bank is your idea of hardship? 🤣

No!! That's my point!!!

There's always work around for people who can work. But as some of us have pointed out, OP has later indicated she can't work so if she claims PIP and is successful, she can keep her £60K. I think a lot of posters have been helpful as well as being polite (which is not what OP has been in some of her posts).

Thanks for pointing that out. That doesn’t make me feel better. At all. Unusual but lots of shit can happen in life

Absolutely ridiculous sense of entitlement. So many people work full time, and barely have enough to make it to the end of the month and claim no benefits, and you are looking for a loophole to claim benefits while you have 60k in the bank and don't work! Why should you benefit from everyone else's hard work and not contribute when you have the money sitting in the bank? You need to live off your savings, or get a job and retain them in the bank.

Perfect. Than li you so much - this is exactly what I was after. Hence posting in finance, not AIBU.

Thank you again

So OP could just go to the casino and put it all on red. Win: get lots more money. Lose: no worse off as now eligible for benefits? Not that I'm suggesting doing that of course...

You could get a shared ownership place as others have said, you'd have enough for the deposit (buy your share outright) and the fees but you'd need to check about only having benefits as an income. You can go on SharetoBuy website and check it out. Also book an advice session (1:1) with EntitledTo or one of the charity benefits websites. Get some information and get empowered, with that little bit of money you could buy some freedom for yourself and your DC.

This

Honestly, type hotelcare in your google and go to work

That's because your cash is instantly available.

A house is an asset, yes, but it would have to be sold which takes time.
How would one support themselves until the house was sold? How would they find somewhere to live if fallen on hard times because of job loss or illness?
Plus a 100 other questions and considerations.

The careers service would advise you. The DwP isn't funded to help job seekers who aren't on benefits.

Why can't you go and get a job?

Why should thr taxpayer fund you whilst you have 60k in the bank.

Well the person I saw at the Jobcentre told me I couldn't get advice. End of. He told me I could try appealing if I wanted to but I was moving out of the area. Then COVID happened. This advice was given by a voluntary organisation based at the Jobcentre. If it was incorrect or incomplete advice, that makes it worse. All I wanted was half an hour's advice on which websites to use and what my options were.I didn't even get that. I'd worked full time, without a break, for 35 years. So here I am, economically inactive when I should have been working.

OP has said they have health problems but they've drip fed stuff in what's now a long thread.

Much easier to respond with relevant advice if people get the whole story on the screen at get go.

I think there are two forms of advice that could help OP.

Firstly she seems to be looking for ways to shield the money she has whilst claiming benefits. She has already been advised that this isn't really possible from a practical perspective and has ethical issues.

Secondly, people are giving her advise on her mindset and attitude towards the money. She seems to viewing the money as an asset that belongs to her that she should be able to keep instead of viewing the money as a springboard that she can use to put herself in a better long term position. She can retrain or start a business with this money or even take on quite a lowly paid job that she finds manageable and use the money to supplement this income. She simply isn't in a position at 40 years old and with a lot of life to live, to try and preserve this money in the way that an old aged pensioner might.