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Hi there
I have a client over 75 on SRP, Occ.Pension and regular monthly payment from a bank (as per mother's will). With this income, my client is entitled to partial HB, CTB but not PC.
My client's brother is also a trustee to another family trust, left by the deceased mother. It is a discretionary trust, and again my client has no rights to the capital.
The brother administers a proportion of the income for his "brother's benefit". The original intention of the income was to mainly fund things like holidays, large expenses (e.g. furniture, white goods, decorating etc), as well as clothing from time to time.
However, over the last few years the brother has used about a quarter of the money to pay the council tax and water rates outright. This is because his brother was unable to budget (probably because he should have been claiming HB and CTB) and invariably there were insufficient funds to honour direct debit arrangements. This led to him incurring bank charges etc.
My questions (at last) are:
1.If the brother ceased to make these payments and revert back to the original intention of the trust, would this be deemed as deprivation of income? HB Reg 35(2)(a) excludes income available from discretionary trusts, but only in so far as the claimant has yet to make an application.
2. Given the original intention of the trust would HB Reg35(2)(a) apply anyway?
Thanks
... Andi
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