Capital Disregard ESA

It's been suggested that I try and claim ESA as I am now unable to work due to pain following spinal surgery. A consequence of my surgery was that I was ill health retired from my job and as such received a small monthly pension and a reduced lump sum. After discussion with a financial advisor the lump sum has been placed in Life assurance bonds. I have been told that because they are life assurance bonds the lump sum will be disregarded in any benefit means testing and so will not be taken into consideration if I apply for ESA.
Can anybody tell me if this is correct please? The only benefit I currently receive is PIP (care standard rate and mobility at the higher rate) which I was told isn't means tested anyway so it wasn't an issue I had to consider when I applied for it.
Thank you

Hi Gordon,
Thank you for your reply. I was lead to believe that it was the fact that the bonds were specifically Life Assurance bonds was what made the difference for them to fit the Capital Disregard criteria but to be honest I'm clueless on the matter!!
I'll take your advice and contact a trained advisor for a face to face, thanks again.
Kathy

I've found this on line refering to residential care cost means testing but I don't know if it would apply for other benefit means testing?

Investment bonds

One asset that is listed as being disregarded is the surrender value of any life insurance policy (or annuity), although paragraph 53 of Annexe B of the guidance encourages local authorities to obtain legal advice with regard to the treatment of investment bonds.

53.

The treatment of investment bonds is currently complex. This is in part because of the differing products that are on offer. As such, local authorities may wish to seek advice from their legal departments.


However, the subsequent paragraph 54 says that they must be disregarded if they include one or more element of life insurance. So a capital redemption bond would not be disregarded.

54.

Where an investment bond includes one or more element of life insurance policies that contain cashing-in rights by way of options for total or partial surrender, then the value of those rights must be disregarded as a capital asset in the financial assessment.