A Personal Injury Trust is a place where money received as compensation for personal injury is placed in order to exclude the compensation from being taken into account as savings (capital) from the means-testing of state benefits.
Some benefits such as Universal Credit, Income Support, Housing Benefit and other benefits will be affected by the amount of money you have in savings such as in a bank or building society account, or investments in shares.
If you or your partner have £6,000 (£10,000 if you are over state pension age) or less in savings then this will not affect your claim for means-tested benefits.
However, if you or your partner have £16,000 or more in savings, you will not be entitled to any means-tested benefits.
The position is different if you or your partner have savings or investments of between £6,000 and £16,000, where the first £6,000 is disregarded.
The difference is treated as if it provides for a monthly income and calculated so that there will be a reduction in the amount of benefits that you receive.
This is where a Personal Injury Trust protects your means-tested benefits.
By law, the amount of money in the Trust fund and the value of the right to receive any payment under that Trust is not taken into account as capital (savings) when considering whether a person is entitled to means-tested benefits.
This means that putting the compensation you receive for your personal injury claim into a Personal Injury Trust should protect your right to means-tested benefits.
We can review the benefits that you receive, consider your savings and what impact any compensation payment will have upon your savings and means-tested benefits in order to advise you upon the best method of protecting your means-tested benefits.
We can draft the document to prepare the Personal Injury Trust and advise you upon the Trustees.
Our fees vary depending upon the amount of the compensation and issues involved.
For further information, submit an enquiry form here or request a callback from the form below, and a member of our Personal Injury Trust Department will contact you for a free initial consultation.