Capital disregard when client has received inheritance

Hello all

Any and all advice/thoughts appreciated - client has received inheritance in excess of £16K and is in the process of selling existing shared ownership property to purchase another property more suitable to their health issues.

If client uses the inheritance to pay off existing mortgage they are restricted as to when they can sell the property again possibly for at least another year so client asked DWP to consider disregarding the capital given the intent to purchase another residence.

DWP have refused to disregard the inherited capital and we are now awaiting a copy of the decision but would appreciate your advice/thoughts as to whether DWP can disregard such capital in these circumstances?

I’ve gone through sec.4 of chapter 17 of WBH 2015/16 and I can’t see that this situation is covered by any of the current disregards I’m afraid. All of the disregards related to purchase and sale of property at p.357/8 deal with circumstances where the capital is held in, or has arisen from, properties themselves, so I can’t see how to argue for an inheritance that is intended to be used to purchase a property as being applicable here.

I’ve also checked Sweet and Maxwell and R(IS) 15/96 would appear to support a position where the capital resource should be taken into account as it is an asset that is currently available to the client.

Any other debts, credit cards etc?