I have a case here were a 71 yr old man was found to have a Capital assett (property ) which is jointly owned by him and his ex wife .
The half share of his property is valued by the valuation office as being worth £23,000 and as a result the PS have notified the local authority whom have cancelled his HB/CTB due to his Capital exceeding £16k no guranteed credit is paid to the gentleman .

The covenants of the divorce made in court in August 2005 , was the property could not be sold unless prior written consent of both parties or further order or if his ex wife dies or remarries , his ex wife is currently residing in the property rent free . therefore he is unable to realise his half share of the property . There is now a conflict between the legal firm who handled the divorce and the local MP who has accused the legal firm of ill advising their client . I have advised my client to write to his ex wife to tell her he wishes to sell his share , she will not agree but at least he has evidence if she writes back that he has taken reasoanble steps to realise his Capaital Asset .

My client has accruing rent arrears of over £1,000 plus overpaid supporting people subsidy of £600 , to add to his bad luck his Attendance Allowance claim was declined which was my plan B , as he would of then been eligible to a Severe Disability Premium and thus entitled to guaranteed credit which Capital limits do not apply

My arguement was he was unable to realise his capital asset due to the above covenants and a tribunal date awaits .

any views advice would be greatly appreciated

Colin Hannon
Welfare Benefits Officer
Helena housing
01744 671425

only that i agree that this shouldn't have been taken into account....

I think your client stands a good chance at Tribunal - you might even strike lucky and get a family lawyer in the chair.

Claire- I know solicitors work hellish hours but what on earth are you doing on this site at 6.30 in the morning? That's a time that doesn't exist!

Cheers Ardiane 2 , fingers crossed we do get a family lawyer and a chairperson who is Human .

many thanks

Colin

Thanks Claire for the encouragement at least someone now agrees with me .

cheers

PS testament to your passion if you reply at 6.30 in a morning

The times aren't right. There was a bit of a discussion about this last week. Come on Shawn or Ken.

here to help ... !

... forum clock is now set to remain accurate within a few tenths of a millisecond ......

(although it is set to GMT so will continue to be an hour out until the end of the month .....)

You're always such a star

Completely tangential, but if you like clocks, try this:

http://www.solinas.com/clock.html

I'm plesed the forum clock has finally been put right - i'd been wondering about all the poeple who apparently were at work at very uncivilised hours, and hasten to say they don't include me (even though it is 0800.....and I am at work ....)

and ariadne - after the end of this month, 0530 is a time that will exist for me after the lie in I get all summer ...

I love the clock on the Solinas site

Hi Colin - i've got a similar case where the DWP have assessed my client's interest in the former matrimonial home as +£45K. As a housing advisor i've been dealing with the HB and rent arrears.

Under the old HB General Regs '87 i have previously sucessfully argued that the value of a client's interest in the former home, with a resident former spouse, is practically nil and therefore capital does not exceed the HB limit.

In this case the local authority have come back and relied on the new s27 (1) HB (Persons attained age for pension credit) 2006 which states that the local authority must use the DWP assessment which resulted in the +£45K assessment.

I've been trying to find out if there is any scope for challenging the DWP assessment and applying the same rational for actual value of the interest in the same way as the old HB reg???

Has the DWP assessment been appealed - is it in the context of pension credit? There is of course no upper limit for pension credit, so people can still soemtimes get benefit even with loads of capital. If the assessment was less than 13 months ago, it may not be too late to appeal (with leave, of course).