Inheritance while on Universal Credit: what are my options?

[Stressedmum6761]

Hi everyone! 👋 I'm currently losing my marbles and need to speak to anyone who's been in the same boat.

My nanny passed away nearly 2 years ago now and it's taken a while for her things to be settled and sold etc. My family passed me a letter today addressed to me from my sweet, beautiful nan and a cheque for nearly £12K. I've been in absolute bits all day I keep bursting into tears. I've never had this much in my life and never ever expected anything from my nan at all and it's absolutely thrown me.

The thing is I know I should be absolutely THRILLED with this money, I'm on my own with DD who's 6 now. We've just moved into a council house 2 months ago and I'm on UC top up which also covers my rent, my job doesn't pay well but it's a school job and I get my holidays off with DD. I'm panicking more than anything because I know that as soon as I cash this cheque UC are going to deduct money each month (about £120 if my maths is correct).

My family said they know nan wanted me to put a deposit down on a house, which again I know if I get a mortgage my UC stops and I'm financially liable for the payments and any repairs etc if anything goes Pete Tong.

I'm thinking about just putting most of it in a LISA for now and potentially in the future buying a house...maybe a once in a lifetime holiday with the rest. I'm just torn because if I buy a house, I'll be so much worse off than I am now getting help from UC with rent payments etc. I've just moved into this house and started decorating and making it my own. I'm worried about the money sitting there and me being so scared to spend anything while also having money deducted from my monthly payments. Again, I'm absolutely ecstatic I've got this chunk of money for security but the fact that it's going to effect me whether I spend it or not is flapping me to the core.

What do I do? Has anyone had experience with coming into money while also being on benefits? Thank youuu from a very emotional and stressed mum.

You're really smashing that copy and paste tonight you've said the same thing about 20 times 🤣 you've tuckered yourself out now my love, catch up on some Z's for another day of being miserable tomorrow 👋

Why are you calling it a F all nothing job?! She works at a school, she’s doing a massively valuable job that isn’t well paid by the local government/school that employ her.

as I said I’m a different person, a woman with young kids, who works and pays for people like you. your thread appeared in mumsnet trending. You can’t even stand on your own two feet without taxpayer and you mock people who work and pay your UC? That’s disgusting.

Honestly it's just a troll with nothing better to do than trawl advice forums 😂 very strange person.

She could be a PA or TA given that she’s low paid which let’s face is not very valuable or skilled

I’d forget the holiday and use that money to train for a better paying job so you can pay a mortgage and associated bills in the future (and holidays if you can afford them. They’re a luxury really aren’t they?).

Hey Op
what a lovely gift from your nan 🥰
are you sure you would be worse off with a mortgage, as your work allowance will increase with no rent element. Also are you getting your full rent paid or do you only get lha?
worth doing a comparison, happy to help work one out for you if you like?

alternatively savings under £6,000 have no deductions, so you could stay renting and spend £6000 on sensible purchases

no hard and fast rules on what is or isn’t reasonable for deprivation of capital but a regular holiday, regular used car, furniture etc are all usually considered reasonable expenses.

also, sorry people are being shits.

Hopefully you never need to claim UC and will therefore “be unable to stand on your own two feet without the taxpayer.” That’s a really horrible POV.

Even if you are a different person (doubtful 🤣) you're another one who can't read. I work full time in a job that gives YOUR kids an education. Be mad at the government for not paying us enough to do so.

Full time nurses get UC top ups.

The people who deliver your parcels get top ups. The people who look after your kids in school do, and the people who wipe your nan's arse do too.

But they "can't be fucked to stand on their own two feet"

They need to be paid more, not told to do better.

Wow. Didnt take too long for you to confirm you’re a nasty person, did it?

Not valuable or skilled 😂 let's see what happens to your kids schools when they all walk out on strike 🤔

Yeah they are another poster not worth responding to. 😂 I wasted my time engaging really.

I had planned to ignore the trolls but I was just shocked at how unkind that post was. I used to work in education as well as social services - and I know school staff make such a massive and positive impact on the lives of many kids.

And yes TAs do important work! Many of the kids are actually more positively impacted by TAs because they can work with kids on a 1:1 basis more.

Haha, so lets take all the PAs and TAs away because they are " not valuable".

What happens?

They are low paid. So are carers. Lets just sack them all too.
What is your job? Does it actually contribute anything meaningful to people that makes a difference to their lives? Or is it just making money?

OP you really need to look into this; it could be the answer, particularly as you have a job (albeit lower paying by the sounds of it). There's a Facebook group for people wanting advice on shared ownership, many people there on UC and specialist mortgage advisers you can approach.

Yes I hope so too and I’m making every effort not to need it. But if I will, I won’t be sniggering at people who “work themselves to an early grave” as opposed to her

My job pays so much in taxes that it allows couple of teachers or nurses to draw salary from my taxes alone. Where do you think all this money is coming from? Magic money tree?

@BlackRowan that's really out of line. You are job shaming the OP now. A TA is actually a very skilled job, that many people could not do. Your DC are likely benefitting from having one their school, so maybe think about that before you throw mud.

So you are a TA then 😂

But term time only is not the same as full time (I say this as someone who also teaches in term time only as my main job). 5 days a week for just some of the year is part (of the) time.

That doesn't make all this vitriol you're getting ok. But the point is there's scope to try and get some more work (in the holidays), which wouldn't be possible if you genuinely worked full time all year round.

You've repeated lots of times that you work full time but I think that's because you are defining "full time" differently to the pps you're replying to

Why would she need more for a deposit? That 12k would cover a 10% deposit, many high street lenders also give 95% mortgages.

I hope your important well paid job doesn’t require reading comprehension, because that’s not at all what OP said.

”Making every effort not to need” UC is a bit daft and suggests claiming it is a choice. As I said upthread, we’re all just a lost job, a missed mortgage payment or an accident away from
needing to claim it ourselves. If you’ve figured out how to guarantee avoiding those things forever then maybe you’re not as stupid as your posts imply!

What happens if you sack all the non net-contributors (because that is what you are getting at)?

You will be fucked

Did no one learn anything during Covid?

I was in this position a year ago. I’m on UC as I became disabled and can’t leave the house alone, let alone go back to work.
Anyway.
The first 6K is discounted, so you only need to do the maths for 6K. They might take a lot less from you than you think. I was given mine in instalments as there were issues, and they didn’t take much at all for each instalment.

I spent a huge chunk on clearing my debts, because I knew that once I did that I’d have more money at the end and help my credit score for things I really needed but couldn’t afford outright. UC wanted to see bank statements over a three month period but it took them a while to ask for it (about a month and a half). Aside from that, it was all fine.

Not sure why people are giving you such a hard time - it’s not exactly a massive sum of money and it can go very quickly, so it’s smart to think of your options. I had 10.5k and live in a council property - getting a mortgage or private renting wasn’t going to be an option long term, so I understand your worries.

Hope this helped and it all works out for you, OP.

Where my reaction started is OP laughing at someone’s attitude towards work as working towards an early grave. Maybe she should be more appreciative of these stupid working to an early grave people who pay both her salary and her UC