Personal injury trusts – how I can help

My aim is to help you decide if a personal injury trust is right for you. I deal with most clients by telephone, email and letter and a meeting is rarely necessary. I will:

• Help you decide if a trust for your compensation is right for you.
• Agree a fixed fee so you know the cost – £480 including VAT – correct at March 2023.
• Gather information and documents.
• Prepare a trust deed.
• Guide you through signature and witnessing of the deed.
• Guide trustees to open a bank or building society account.
• Give notice to the agencies handling your benefits claim.
• Explain how the trust should operate.

“You really have helped us as we had absolutely no idea what we had to do and you have not only made it easy but removed a very very large amount of worry and made us feel better and that things have been dealt with correctly.”

Continue reading “Personal injury trusts and how I will help you”

Setting up a personal injury trust does not have to be complicated or expensive. I offer a fixed fee in most cases of £480 including VAT.

A personal injury trust is a trust which holds personal injury compensation. Benefit regulations allow personal injury compensation to be ignored, provided the compensation is held separate from your personal funds in a trust. A personal trust is perfectly legitimate.

I have set out all the points you must think about and the information I will need to help you.

The answer to the needs of compensated people in receipt of benefits or care is a bare trust to hold personal injury compensation. This is the simplest form of trust. It is easy to manage, has no tax complications and allows the compensated person to retain a level of control. Provided you follow a few simple rules, you can use the trust fund with freedom.

Continue reading “How to set up a personal injury trust”

A personal injury trust is a positive thing, not a problem.

A trust is created by a legal document, called a trust deed. Trustees are appointed and hold the trust fund separate from your personal money. The trust is an arrangement to allow trustees to hold and use your money for your benefit. Benefit regulations allow you to keep receiving means tested benefits and hold and use your compensation. What’s not to like?

Use your benefits for the basic expenses, then use your compensation direct from the trust as you wish. All you have to do is keep the compensation in the trust separate from your own money. In return for keeping your benefits, which seems fair enough.

Continue reading “A personal injury trust is a positive thing”

What does it cost to set up a personal injury trust?

Continue reading “What is the cost of a personal injury trust?”

Do I need a personal injury trust fund?

Will I lose my benefits when personal injury compensation is received? This question is asked by people settling personal injury compensation claims, worried they may lose their means tested benefits.

You will be relieved to know you can legitimately keep your benefits and the compensation. This is allowed by the benefit regulations themselves. What you must do is set up a trust to hold the compensation and keep it separate from your personal funds.

Continue reading “Personal injury trust fund to protect means tested benefits”

Do I need a personal injury trust?

Receiving means-tested benefits depends on the money held by you and those included in your claim. The usual barrier to a claim is holding £16,000, but if you hold more than £6,000, your benefits will be reduced.

When you receive a sum of money you must inform your benefits agency, which will decide if your entitlement to benefits should change. If you have received personal injury compensation, are there options?

Continue reading “I have received personal injury compensation and claim means-tested benefits”

Is there a time limit of 52 weeks for setting up a personal injury trust?

There is no time limit within which a trust to protect compensation must be set up.

The best approach is to set up a trust to protect your compensation as soon as you receive the compensation. Continue reading “52 weeks to create a personal injury trust?”

Compensation protection trust

Compensation protection trust is one of the names given to a trust designed to ensure that personal injury compensation is not taken into account if you claim means-tested benefits or need local authority support for residential care.

The term compensation trust is just a name given to this type of trust, others being personal injury trust and special needs trust. A special needs trust is something quite different but I include it here as it is often thought to be a trust for protecting compensation. Continue reading “Compensation protection trust”

I remember a call from a lady who had just received a cheque for £20,000 compensation from a personal injury claim. Neither she nor anyone in her family were claiming means-tested benefits; but she intended to save the money for the future. Her compensation solicitors advised a personal injury trust was not necessary. Were they right or wrong?

Wrong is the answer, I am afraid.

The advice was wrong because the circumstances of the family were only looked at over the short term. Continue reading “If I do not claim benefits do I need a personal injury trust?”

Personal injury trust for those with personal injury compensation in Northern Ireland

Those living in Northern Ireland can set up a trust for personal injury compensation. I can prepare the trust for you. All information on this website applies to those in Northern Ireland and to the UK generally.

Continue reading “Personal injury trust for Northern Ireland”

A personal injury trust can be a very good idea even if you are not receiving State means-tested benefits or local authority care. You must consider your situation today,  your situation in the future, and do exactly the same for those you claim benefits with.

A local authority must provide accommodation for vulnerable adults who fall outside the responsibility of the National Health Service. But the local authority can charge for the service if a person’s capital is between £14,250 and the upper capital limit which currently is £23,250.

If you need care and have received compensation for a personal injury, that compensation can be ignored in this capital assessment if it is protected by a personal injury trust. Setting up a personal injury trust is an obvious step if you are already receiving care. A trust can be just as necessary if you do not require care today, but may need it in the future. Continue reading “Personal injury trusts and the cost of long term care”

To help you make your decision, I have set out the pros and cons of setting up a personal injury trust. For this comparison I will deal only with a bare trust.

Pros:

• Compensation ignored when assessing your entitlement to means-tested benefits.
• Compensation ignored when assessing your entitlement to local authority funded care.
• Compensated person can retain a level of control.
• Compensation can be spent from the trust with few restrictions.

Cons:

• Compensated person must not have personal access to trust fund.
• Trust must have a separate bank or building society account.
• The trust must have at least two trustees.
• Trust bank account requires signature or approval of at least two trustees.
• There is a cost in setting up the trust (not as much as you think).

Continue reading “What are the pros and cons of a personal injury trust”

Compensation received under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme can reduce or stop entitlement to means-tested benefits. The answer is to set up a trust for what is personal injury compensation. Continue reading “Protect Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments with a trust”

A personal injury trust can protect most payments made in consequence of a personal injury

The regulations which govern entitlement to means-tested benefits tell us what sums are taken into account and which are ignored. Among those ignored are “any payment made to the claimant or the claimant’s partner in consequence of any personal injury to the claimant or, as the case may be, the claimant’s partner.”

The injury can be physical, psychological or psychiatric and need not be caused by a single physical incident. Continue reading “Which payments can be protected by a personal injury trust?”

You can see from the questions I am asked there is a shortage of clear advice about compensation protection trusts, or personal injury trusts as they are better known. The banks and building societies often lack experience of opening accounts for trustees. This tells me that trusts are not being used where they are necessary. Continue reading “Why aren’t there more personal injury trusts?”

Mark Thompson explains how to properly protect a claimant’s compensation

Your client is currently in receipt of means-tested benefits and is to receive an interim payment of £5,000. What should you advise?

Some might say that £5,000 is below the £6,000 allowed by most means-tested benefit tests, so protecting benefit receipt with a trust is not necessary. If this was your answer, please read on. Continue reading “A message for solicitors on personal injury trusts”

Personal injury trust bank account use

This page is to help you set up and operate a joint current bank account for the trustees of a personal injury trust. It is along similar lines to the information provided to clients of Mark Thompson Law for the creation of a trust for personal injury compensation. If your trust has not been drawn up by this practice, do not assume all of the information applies to you.

This page will answer most questions and help you and your trustees to set up and operate your trust.

Continue reading “How to set up and operate a trust bank account”

This is the question most often asked.

You must not have personal access the trust fund. Do not worry, I will explain.

Continue reading “Can I access my personal injury trust bank account?”