Beneficial interest in capital

Hi, my client, who is disabled but has full capacity, claims IR and CB ESA, PIP ER DL and Mob, HB, and CTS.  Her capital is about £4,000.  Her half-sister received an inheritance from a mutual relative but my client was cut out of the will and didn’t get any inheritance (that’s another story).  Her half-sister apparently made a verbal agreement with the relative before he died to place £80,000 of the inheritance in a new account in the half-sister’s name only, about 10 years ago, which was done.  The half-sister gave my client a bank card (in the half-sister’s name) and said the client could make withdrawals from the account for any essential expenses, which she has done on occasion (max £150 each time).  The card has now expired so my client has no access to that account and doesn’t know how much is in there.  My query is, would the DWP consider my client as having any beneficial interest in that account and should it be declared as capital?  Or could the withdrawals she made just be considered ‘gifts’ from her half-sister?  She hasn’t declared any of these ‘gifts’ to the DWP (but they wouldn’t have taken her capital above £6,000).  The half-sister has taken out about a quarter of the amount in the account for her own use.

I don’t think the client has or had a beneficial interest in this account. There was no explicit trust. It is clear that the relative intended that the client did not have any interest in his estate. The account was set up in the half-sister’s name and she has used it for herself. The client had no control over the account, other than to use a card lent to her. If it could be seen as in some way a discretionary trust the value could not be attributed to the client under the notional capital provisions because assets in discretionary trusts are excluded - ESA Reg 115(2)(a). In any event the value of the client’s share must be zero because there is nothing she can sell or could have sold - the right of access to the fund was solely for the purpose of her essential expenses, not a purchaser’s expenses.

Perhaps I am being dense but I wasn’t sure I caught your meaning in saying “Her half-sister apparently made a verbal agreement with the relative before he died to place £80,000 of the inheritance in a new account in the half-sister’s name only, about 10 years ago, which was done”

Do you mean that the deceased, whilst still alive, paid the £80k to the half-sister into a bank account in her name only?
Or was this some sort of instruction for the half-sister in relation to how she dealt with the £80k after the relative’s death?