Could I be charged with fraud?

[BiscoffCheesecakes]

My dad died a few years ago & he left his estate to me & my brother. My db asked me to look after his share of money. At the time he told me it was because he wasn't very responsible with money & I knew more about where to invest etc. So I've had all the money in my name in various accounts & just transferred him money if he needed it for holidays etc.

I'm not particularly close to him & didn't know much about his work situation. He's always been a bit cagey about it so i don't ask. I now know he is on benefits & after seeing a post on here recently, I realised he wanted me to look after his money so he could carry on receiving benefits.

If there are investigations in the future could I just say that I wasn't aware of his benefit situation? Or will I or he be charged with fraud?

Because her mum gave her a gift of £10k and she asked her mum to keep it in her own account, so she didn’t have to declare it to UC.

That is fraud. They ask if anyone else is holding money for you and you are required to tell them. This is benefit fraud.

If her mum chose to randomly gift her small amounts or make a payment of £300 a month or something then that would be absolutely fine. It wouldn’t count as income, and would be spend before it got saved up to over £6000 probably. So no issue to have gifts from family. The issue is when that gift is over £6k. And this was. The OP asked her mum to just buy her stuff as and when so that the money never went into an account in her own name. That’s benefit fraud. And she knows she has a few grand sitting in an account which belongs to her and she can access anytime she wants by asking her mum, and she hasn’t told UC. Benefit fraud.

Sure. It was absolutely nothing to do with hiding the money. Everyone else as given a full £10k but you weren’t. You just get stuff bought for you - no money sitting in an account for you to affect your benefits. Nice play of the system there.

Transfer it to him.

So you've been paying the tax on your brothers money? Why on earth would you do this? Its costing you money.

Plus its benefit fraud

Your fine
your mum can give you gifts
if you weren’t named as a beneficiary in the will then it’s not an issue

"Same as if she handed you £10k in cash and you kept it under your mattress and didn’t tell UC."

But if she bought the poster stuff of that value or a car that would be fine because DWP only ask about cash and money in the bank. You could have paintings and jewellery worth thousands and that's apparently OK.

My mum is allowed to buy me stuff. When the £10000 runs out then she wont any more. It is her money though. I was never given it.
I dont have access to it. She wont give me money just things I need.

It was agreed that I would keep most if not all of the interest on the savings as I was paying the tax. I'm not stupid!

How much was it? What dwp think about it would depend on how much it was

She wasn’t given a gift legally and that’s all that matters
she wasn’t a beneficiary of anyone’s will
and her mum is allowed to give her daughter cash gifts

I dont have cash. I needed a new bed so she got me one. A couple of years ago I needed a new fridge. I now need some new trainers so I pick them and she gets them sent to me.

It’s fine to refuse an inheritance the money would go to other beneficiaries
it’s fine to gift your brother some of the money you inherited
it’s not fine to refuse inheritance to claim benefits. Your brother could be done for benefit fraud.

How is your brother intending ever to access this money?

If he’s on benefits long term he will not be able to access that money. In order to access it without DWP investigation he would have to come off benefits first.

But he would then have to do a tax return flagging the source to HMRC otherwise he’d have to pay income tax on it. Then they would see the year his father died and infer he’d been hiding capital from DWP. The DWP will at the very least want their benefit overpayments back.

Has he thought this through at all?

Ok fair enough. I thought that if it's not in his name how can it be classed as his legally?

Either way I'm not condoning fraud. Sorry if my post came across like that!

But I still don't think OP would be in trouble over it would they?

Interest on savings counts as income for benefit purposes.

Given you are obviously only going to answer the odd question on here that fits what you want to hear I’ll say this - you need to get proper advice as it sounds like a large amount has been hidden.

DWP don’t always go down the route of aiding fraud, but the times they do it’s often when they don’t have any chance of getting back what they are owed from the person on benefits as it can then be claimed from the person who aided.

If you are talking about a large amount you should get yourself proper decent legal advice. Your brother has put you in a very difficult, and potentially vulnerable, position

It was in his name in the will so he should have had it paid into his account. Just because he opted to put it into his sister’s account doesn’t stop it being his money. It’s legally his money.

The OP being in trouble would depend on how much we’re talking about and if the DWP (and courts) believe she knew she was assuring him fiddling benefits.

Also not distributing the estate properly could get her in bother as an executor.

Totally agree. Legal advice asap.

OP is effectively implicated in benefit fraud and whether the DWP would believe she didn’t know DB was on benefits is hard to say.

You’ll not get in trouble because the paperwork trail won’t ever show you have 10k.

However, even you yourself have said that 10k is yours. Gifted from your mum, but hidden so as not to affect your benefits. So, technically you should have reported it and had your benefits adjusted.

It won’t cause you legal issues as it’s too difficult to prove, but not putting it in your account to protect your benefits eligibility is technically fraud.

Because the Mum has said that she wanted to give each child £10000 and the poster specifically asked her not to give her it directly to avoid the impact on benefits. It's deemed deliberate deprivation of capital. Especially so because the poster says that her Mum has kept it for her and if she needs anything she 'spends it out of that, and I've got a lot left.' which shows that it's being ringfenced for her.

Especially as it sounds like there is a lot of money involved

Legally there is no trace of the money to her. And it isn't hers as she can't take it when she wants or spend it on whatever she likes. It was up to her mum to decide what to do and she has gifted two other siblings and not her. That's the legal position and so there is no fraud there.

I didnot ask her to do that at all. It was her idea. I struggle with budgeting and I would have spent it all in weeks. Where did i say I asked her to keep it?

HE has committed benefit fraud by hiding his ££.

You haven't executed your duties correctly.

Ok thank you.
But if the person basically refused the money from the will so all went to sister surely it was never in his possession?

That is how i see it too. Thank you. I was not given the money. Instead my mum will buy me what I need . Legally i have no access or right to it.