General Chat

The 16k plus is her savings

Surely some of that 16K is council tax.

I have standing orders set up for my rent, council tax, gas. electricity, tv/telephone/broadband package, and funeral plan, my pension hits the bank and the bank release my standing orders, what's left is mine ;-)

wisechild we are the same pension comes in and direct debits come out and what's left over is all our own , not much as you say, but all bills paid for and accounted for, like you we don't like spending our savings but splashed out today for new windows...oh how I hate seeing the money go but they were needed :-(

Like most pensioners, I have to watch my spending, so I follow my grans example.
When I get my pension, I put aside the money I need for the rent & bills & only spend what´s left.......& it´s not much, I can tell you.
Like this lady, I have savings, but try very hard not to draw on them because I don´t know how much I will need to see me through my old age.
After all I´m in my late 60s. I could live another 20 years, but I know I wont be as physically (or possibly mentally) able as I am at the moment & the way things are going, we will be expected to at least part fund our own care in the future.

Nolls from Harrogate - hopefully there is someone with commonsense at the local authority and that they will take a charging order for the debt plus interest on the debt against her house, that way when she dies they will get paid from the proceeds of the sale of the house.

As she owns her own house, why doesn't she sell it and move into private rental and live off the proceeds....after all she hasn't got any kids to leave it to...not that it should be an excuse anyway

OFTG I agree with you completely was just meaning if they are going to wait till after she died and she had spent her money then Council would have a bit of a deficit in their accounts and would they know if she had spent her money before she died?

Nolls from Harrogate - it is a very difficult area and depends on what the money was spent on.

In your our sister in laws case, and I am so sorry to hear she never got the chance to take that holiday, I am sure had she took that holiday, because she was terminally ill it would not have been counted as depriving herself of capital.

As to this lady if she did spend her money she would need to show what she spent it on and why she needed to spend it, if the local authority did not consider the expenditure as being necessary they could say sorry you have deliberately deprived yourself of your capital so no benefits and this would probably result in appeal after appeal after appeal to benefit tribunals.

Why does she think she's special? Why shouldn't she pay? I have to.

Pensioner or not, she should pay back the person who paid her bill last time, then pay her bill now.

If she needs to get benefits after that, she can.

We go without to pay bills, why should someone with a large amount of savings get away with it.

xx

Ohh Ta!...Hang on a minute...No George :-( :-(

You sure can Nolls, you sound as happy as I am, so get packing :-D

Sue, The Caribbean Villa is only available for Sharron's Fred, it's his for the rest of the summer and autumn ! You wouldn't be disappointed with Tuscany though, you could live in a shed there and it'd be perfect. :-D

Booking opens for Tuscany, once George Clooney's finished with it, and when that is, who knows, you know what he's like once he gets his feet under the table ;-)

Oh do shut up Lynda :-P I haven't had my invitation to holiday for free at your Caribbean villa yet, I don't want another disappointment in Tuscany :-( :-D

Lynda Can I come with you too :-D

OFTG about 4 years ago my SIL was terminally ill and as she too had just over £16k she got no benefits and the nurses suggested she go for a nice holiday to reduce her account and it would do her some good as it was she never got to do that. I can see what your saying but we understood as long as she had receipts it was OK after all she was entitled to spend her money legally and they would have a hard time trying to prove she had spent money to get benefits. :-S

I can't get uptight about what others get/don't get, so I've bought myself the Tuscany Villa, and booked a world cruise :-D

Nolls from Harrogate - If you deprive yourself of capital in order to get benefit, the authorities can treat you as still having that capital, they call this - notional capital

Yep thats right.... Ya don't necessarily have to "spend" it though ,do you. There are other alternatives ;-)

And what's to stop her spending all her money now and having holidays of a life-time hmmm me thinks she is on to a good thing here :-S Also (do correct me if I'm wrong which no doubt you all will :-D) but if she spends her savings to under £16k then (provided she only has her pension) she would get CT rebated ...Yes?? :-S