Not amused by the council, because i have over 23k saved (for my daughters education) it puts me over the threshold for council funded care, what am i meant to do?, not have savings for my daughters education?, she will be 4 in March.
Doesn’t seem to pay anyone to struggle to work and save!
Hi, yes I know, we`re penalised for being prudent! We have no savings left, as we spent so much on adapting the house, van and buying equipment ourselves. Now we do ask for funding and have had help from the MS local branch for major things like a ceiling hoist.
luv Pollx
I’m going to go out on a limb here and hope that it doesn’t p*ss too many people off.
Means tested benefits are for the very poorest in our society. If you are on Income Support, JSA or minimum wage no amount of careful saving would allow you to amass £23K . Yorkshire has the highest rate of unemployment in the country. People here are not on benefit because they are feckless but because the jobs are simply not there. These are the ones means tested benefits were designed for. Help, for example to make sure they have a roof over their heads because you can’t pay rent and council tax on £111.45 a week (for a couple)
I know that everyone feels the pinch when MS prevents us from working but I reiterate that £111.45 is not very much to pay for fuel and groceries for 2 people. Without means tested benefits we would see many more cardboard cities.
A possible way around this is to put it into trust until they are 18. I have done this with my life insurance so it is not a tax liability
Well said Wendels. Your post didn’t p*ss me off but the OP’s certainly did. It sounds like they are saving to have their daughter privately educated, well that’s their choice and in my opinion they have a bliddy cheek to expect it to be subsidised by benefits.
I assume OP means other person and therefore me, in answer, the school in question is at the end of my road 2mins away, if it was a state school i wld still use it. The school has class sizes of max 10-15, lots of teachers and assistants, they have a walking bus and are going to give my daughter support if anything happens to me and the also w’chairs can get into the school, in others here they can’t. I worked until after my daughters birth and want to make her life easier, she is my daughter not my carer.
I hear what you are saying Anon and I sympathise about your worries regarding the future, we all have them, but the welfare system is there to support the poorest in society and not for the reasons you have stated. OP means original poster .
I forgot to say, I worked in a school for many years and I know that they all have to comply with the DDA and make the buildings accessible for disabled pupils and for wheelchair users by supplying portable ramps, or even installing a lift as happened in my school.
Can you not ringfence the money you have saved in some kind of pot where only your daughter has access when she reaches 18? That would mean you have no access to it, regardless of whose name its in.
I would also get advice maybe from the benefits & works website, although you have to pay to be a member to access it.
It seems ironic that any savings which are intended for future educational costs are taken into account when care costs are calculated. We are damned if we do, and damned if we dont.
I do hope you find a solution. What about an insurance policy where it earns extra monies or a trust fund?
bren
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