If you currently receive state-funded benefits, such as Universal Credit or similar, making a claim for personal injury compensation could impact your benefits entitlement and the amount of benefit payments you receive.
Below we’ll explain the potential impacts, the thresholds you need to be aware of, and strategies to protect your benefits while still pursuing fair compensation.
How Compensation Can Affect Benefits
Understanding the potential impact of a compensation settlement on your benefits is important for making informed decisions about your claim and financial future. The relationship between compensation and benefits is complex and depends on various factors, including the type of benefits you receive and the amount of compensation awarded.
Universal Credit and Other Means-Tested Benefits
Compensation settlements can affect means-tested benefits, which include:
- Universal Credit
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Income Support
- Housing Benefit
- Council Tax Support
Current Thresholds
As of 2023, the key thresholds to be aware of are:
- £6,000: If your savings (including compensation) exceed this amount, it may affect the amount of benefits you receive.
- £16,000: If your savings exceed this amount, you may lose entitlement to means-tested benefits altogether.
Non-Means-Tested Benefits
Some benefits are not affected by compensation settlements, including:
- Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
- Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
- Attendance Allowance
- Child Benefit
Understanding the Impact
If you receive a compensation settlement exceeding the £6,000 threshold, you must declare it as savings. However, it’s impossible to determine if your benefits claim would be affected until you know how much compensation you’ll receive.
Compensation Under £6,000
If your compensation settlement is less than £6,000, it generally won’t affect your benefits. For example, a minor whiplash claim settling within 6-8 weeks would typically fall below this threshold.
Compensation Between £6,000 and £16,000
Settlements in this range may reduce your benefit entitlements. The DWP assumes you have an income of £1 per week for every £250 of savings between £6,000 and £16,000.
Compensation Over £16,000
If your settlement exceeds £16,000, you may lose entitlement to means-tested benefits until your savings fall below this threshold.
Should You Claim Compensation if it Reduces Your Benefits?
In most cases, anyone injured in a non-fault accident should pursue their legal right to seek compensation regardless of any benefits they receive.
If you had a huge settlement of millions, it wouldn’t really matter if you lose your benefits. Where it is a problem is when people receive smaller settlements of, say, £10k or £20k. While it’s a lot of money, it’s not life changing and won’t last forever. Therefore, losing a chunk of or all of your benefits would be a real blow.
However, there are ways of mitigating the risk of a settlement affecting your benefits, and here at Direct2Compensation we can help you understand how to do this. You shouldn’t let concerns about losing benefits entitlements stop you from making your claim for compensation.
Strategies to Protect Your Benefits
It pays to be smart with your claim. Our solicitors will help you to ensure that any existing benefits are unaffected unless the law requires them to be. There are several strategies that can employed:
1. Personal Injury Trusts
A personal injury trust is a legal arrangement that can protect your compensation from being considered as savings for benefits purposes. Key points:
- The compensation is held separately from your personal finances
- Trustees control how the money is spent
- The funds in the trust don’t count towards the savings threshold for benefits
- You can be a trustee of your own trust, along with other appointed trustees
Often our solicitors will advise that if you win your claim for compensation, you should agree to take a small settlement immediately (one that would not go above the maximum savings threshold) and that the rest should be placed in to a personal injury trust fund.
2. Spend-Down Strategy
In some cases, it may be appropriate to use your compensation to pay off debts or make necessary purchases before it affects your benefits. However, this should be done carefully and with professional advice.
3. Staged Payments
For larger settlements, it may be possible to arrange for the compensation to be paid in stages, keeping the amount you receive at any one time below the relevant thresholds.
The Importance of Professional Advice
Given the complexities involved, it’s worth seeking professional advice if you’re concerned about how a compensation settlement might affect your benefits. Consider:
- Consulting with a welfare rights advisor
- Discussing options with your personal injury solicitor
- Seeking advice from a financial planner experienced in personal injury trusts
Our specialist solicitors can ensure that any compensation settlements have minimal impact on your existing or long-term benefits entitlements. In cases of larger settlement values, we can link you with specialist financial advisers to handle the compensation in the most tax-efficient way possible, such as creating a personal injury trust.
Reporting Your Compensation
Remember, you have a legal obligation to inform the relevant benefits authorities about any change in your financial circumstances, including receiving a compensation settlement. Failure to do so could be considered benefit fraud.
Let Us Help You Start a Claim
While receiving a compensation settlement can potentially impact your benefits, there are strategies available to protect both your compensation and your benefits entitlement. The key is to plan ahead and seek expert advice to ensure you make informed decisions about your finances and your future.
If you would like to find out a little more about how you could claim compensation after an accident and not lose your benefits entitlement, just drop us a line on 01225 430285, or if you prefer, . We’ve been helping claimants win compensation for over 28 years. We’re happy to discuss your circumstances in confidence and help you to better understand whether claiming compensation could have any undue effect on your existing benefits claim.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ideally, you should set up the trust as soon as possible, preferably before receiving the settlement. However, you generally have 52 weeks from receipt of the compensation to set up a trust.
Yes, funds from the trust can be used for any purpose, but all expenditures must be approved by the trustees.
No, the state pension is not a means-tested benefit and won’t be affected by compensation payments.
Interim payments are treated the same way as final settlements. If they exceed the relevant thresholds, they could affect your benefits unless protected in a trust.
Yes, personal injury trusts can be set up for claims involving children, with parents or guardians typically acting as trustees until the child reaches 18.
No, you do not have to pay back Personal Independence Payment (PIP) after receiving a compensation settlement. PIP is not a means-tested benefit and is based on your care and mobility needs, not your financial situation. Your compensation settlement should not affect your entitlement to PIP.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) cannot directly take your compensation. However, if you receive means-tested benefits, your compensation could affect your entitlement to these benefits if it’s not protected (for example, in a personal injury trust). The DWP may reduce or stop certain benefits if your savings, including compensation, exceed the relevant thresholds. It’s important to note that the DWP cannot access your compensation to recover any overpaid benefits, but they may adjust your future benefit payments based on your new financial situation.
178 questions have been answered on this subject - ask us your question