NI credits

Gordon, I’ve been given variations of ‘facts’ by other benefits advisors on the ‘deprivation of capital’ rule, so I’d really like your answer, please:

I am spending per month the rough equivalent of what my 3 means-tested benefits totalled before they were stopped when my capital increased above £16,000. Are we allowed to spend our capital on additional costs (that would take our monthly expenditure above the equivalent of what our means-tested benefits totalled) like:
Treatment
Care
Broken appliances & equipment that need replacing?

I’ve started a spreadsheet of out-of-the-ordinary expenses that fit into the above categories, along with receipts, in case they are ever needed.

And just thinking logically, surely the ‘deprivation of capital’ rule has a time-limit on it? Surely, ESA/HB are not going to track our expenditure longer than say 2 years – eg if our capital depletes to £16,000 in 1.5 years when in theory it should’ve lasted us 2 years? Or eg it depletes to £16,000 in 2.5 years when in theory it should’ve lasted us 3 years? After a certain lengthy period of time has passed of us living off our capital when it’s still above £16,000, and then we contact them saying our capital has now depleted to £16,000, surely they’ll just make us start a new claim and not ask us for receipts for what we’ve spending our money on for the last 2 or 3 or 4 years? – any idea of what that lengthy period of time is?

How do ESA/HB calculate anyway when is the length of time our capital should last us until? Will they really go through the hassle of taking note of each year’s ESA rates, and local Council Tax Reduction figures, and adjust their calculation each new financial year of how much we should be spending per month and therefore how long our capital should last us…so as to not find us guilty of ‘deprivation of capital’?

Gordon, often when I’ve written ESA/HB in my questions, you only used the name DWP when answering but I’ve assumed the facts were also applying to HB? I’ve written before that when the DWP/local Council make us jump through relentless hoops, it can make us start questioning whether we do know the facts…whether we are right. My Council are playing dirty with backdating the date of when their HB payments should have started again – not when they did restart. And every time they reply to my letters they write incorrect things and won’t budge so that every time I write back repeating the same evidence it escalates my case through their appeal process – instead of the original person doing their job properly. It’s unfair because I may run out of appeal options – and it takes so long to get a reply once in their appeal process, not to mention the cruelty of making ill claimants jump through unnecessary hoops. I’m now at their Independent Tribunal stage, before they submit my case to HMCTS.

I’m sorry to bother checking this with you again but as I said I’m wondering if I have bizarrely got the wrong facts:
1) HB are not allowed to include my DLA as capital?
2) HB should make no adjustment to take account of my benefit payments or expenditure; HB should use the last agreed figure for my savings and assets until a new agreed figure is available and then they should use that? (In even plainer English) HB should not alter the agreed amount just because I have received new benefit payments or because I have spent some or all of the money?

Please could you provide me with links (like you did for the Deprivation of Capital guidelines) of the facts for these 2 above points – perhaps it will help my case if the Council are forced to read government evidence saying the same thing as my own language?

I didn’t realise you didn’t advise on HB so thank you…although I guess it’s difficult separating it when eg in my instance my ESA issues are so closely linked to it.

Because you wrote that LAs could implement HB differently, I phoned a local benefits advisor who said she’s always understood that capital IS taken into account for HB, and that the £16,000 threshold is the same for all LAs. No local advisors were able to direct me to HB legislation/regulations, but I eventually found it on Shelter Legal’s website – if any other claimants reading this thread should need it too:
Shelter Legal – benefits – housing benefit – calculation of housing benefit – capital and income
Shelter Legal – benefits – housing benefit – appealing housing benefit decisions.