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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Work capability issues and ESA  →  Thread

IR ESA. Buying home with a loan in partner’s name. Any issues with capital/savings?

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ClairemHodgson
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Solicitor, SC Law, Harrow

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JAS1 - 17 July 2017 11:15 AM

That’s ridiculous. It’s often hard to give a client a confident yes or no answer when they ask if something is likely to happen/not happen when it comes to DWP. So much of what DWP does is totally beyond logic and also at times against their own guidelines and they always surprise me with a new silly decision.

true

my recollection (this WAS a few years ago) is that it was all started by the DWP fraud team, who never do quite “get” the law; and also afflicted by their general ideas that someone with a boyfriend is ipso facto living with them/dependent on them .. and so on and so forth

i was particularly hacked off about having to go to UT with one of them ....

anyway, it’s a common problem.

stevenmcavoy
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Welfare rights officer - Enable Scotland

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WROTricia - 17 July 2017 03:32 PM

Sorry this isn’t strictly in answer to your query I just wanted to ask if the deprivation of capital would be a major issue in cases like this where buying the property outright means no further entitlement to HB, no mortgage interest, surely if you deprive yourself of capital and end up with a lower benefit income as a result then the argument that you did so to access benefits is null and void? Just wondering if the DWP would look sensibly at issues like this or am I being wildly optimistic….

seen it happen once.

client used inherited capital to buy the house so no hb and deprivation decision made….and overturned at tribunal.

I suppose there is an argument you might buy the house to keep your ESA/iIS and retain an assett that still holds value and that doing that might be an operative purpose in your decision.

Mike Hughes
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Senior welfare rights officer - Salford City Council Welfare Rights Service

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DWP wouldn’t necessarily look at it so logically but, once brought to their attention, it’s an unavoidable conclusion. I don’t see deprivation being an issue here. The issue is more likely to be a suspension or ending of ESA pending a look at deprivation. Avoided by laying cards on the table at the outset.