My client is an elderly Jewish lady who lost her family in WWII. She came to England before the war and escaped persecution. The German Government now pays her around £1,000 pcm in compensation and pension payments, solely due to her loss (and original German nationality).

I can't see that this can be disregarded for means-tested benefits or LA charging for care. Am I right ?

Dont know about care charging, but there are provisions to disregard such payments in mtb's

HB pensioner regs for example

SCHEDULE 5 Regulation 33(9)
Amounts to be disregarded in the calculation of income other than earnings

g) a pension paid to victims of National Socialist persecution under any special provision made by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany, or any part of it, or of the Republic of Austria.

Or are you thinking that as she was not personally a victim of persecution, this would not apply? That would be a harsh piece of decision making.

Hi,
for charging purposes try Charging Residential Accommodation Guidelines (CRAG) 8.021 which advises there is a £10 disregard on 'Payments to victims of National Socialist persecution (paid under German or Austrian law) Schedule 3 para.11.

If its non-residential under Fairer Charging guidance it will depend upon your local policy and whether or not that uses CRAG disregards or something else.

Thanks - I belatedly found this as well - should have posted it. Our LA does indeed follow CRAG for FC, so £10 pw it is.

Jim

Hello Jim,

A colleague has just flagged up your post to me because I am working with a number of Jewish charities in London on this issue.

The situation for Pension Credit is a little complex.

The starting point is that if the payments are "A pension paid to victims of national socialist persecution under any special provision made by the law of Germany, or any part of it, ir the Republic of Austria", then the payments are treated as income with only a £10 per week disregard (SPC Regs, reg 15(5)(b) and schedule IV, para (f)).

I have just represented someone in a FTT appeal, in London, in which Tribunal Judge Wright accepted that the particular type of Holocaust payments my client receives did not fall within thts definition (and were therefore disregarded completed), and it might be possible to run a similar argument in your client's case.

In addition, there are Human Rights Act and Race Relations Act discrimination arguments because it is only Holocaust reparations that are treated as income under reg 15(5)(b) - periodic payments of compensation for all other human rights abuses are disregarded completely. (And, although I have not looked into it, if the care charging rules mirror the Pension Credit rules then the same arguments might apply).

I've spent quite a bit of time on this issue and I am quite keen to find other people who are affected by these rules as we are lobbying the Secretary of State to amend them. If you or your client wanted to get in touch please do, my contact details are on our website: www.pierceglynn.co.uk.

(As for HB, the receipt of State Guarantee Pension Credit would in of itself lead to full HB, so the receipt of these payments by your client would, in those circumstances, be irrelevant - i.e. it is not necessary to look at the HB disregard rules.)