Inherenting money whilst on ESA

Not sure if I qualify as a 'new style ESA claimant' as I've been on it since it took over from Incapacity Benefit. Can't remember how long it's been to be honest.

The advice I was given regarding Universal Credit and trusts:
if the Trust is correctly set up in the will before the person dies then it may be ignored - but it depends very much on exactly how the Trust is written. Regular income from a discretionary trust is deducted from UC, the capital may be ignored.
BUT if the trust is set up by a deed of variation after the person has died the money in the trust will be treated as deprivation of capital.

I believe that is what my nephew has been told. It's causing him a lot of problems.

It is a shame when the will was being written, these complications weren't taken into consideration. Mind you it took years of persuasion for my aunt to finally write a will, she was almost 90 when she did it!

Hi
The info he was given was correct, as noted here. It has to be done before the person passes away, and included in the will.

HOWEVER...You say you are on ESA. Are you 100% certain it is all income based? They won't tell you if there is a contributory part (if you had contributed two years before you became unwell and had to claim). If you are getting this then you will continue to get it...about 7,500. If you are in the support group then that will be ongoing. Only the income related part will be stopped, about 5,000. So then you would need to ensure you don't spend your inheritance on anything not considered reasonable, so stay within the amount you would have had otherwise. In other words 5000 a year to cover what you have lost. Keep records...receipts of anything big you need to spend. If you then need to go back onto the income related part again in the future, you can. You may be able to make it to pension age, given you will also have interest on the amount. Or if you also get pip and don't need to spend any then you might decide to keep it for security etc.
Hope this makes sense