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I am always interested to discuss your case so please do contact me without obligation. I look forward to hearing from you.
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Hi Mark
I have a personal injury trust already set up, I have my funds in a bank account
looking at the way things are I need to think seriously and quickly to protect it,
is it possible to open a trading investment account in the name of the trust?
The answer lies within your trust document. See what investment powers the trustees have.
I am sure you will not be limited to holding all funds in a single trustee current account.
Do make sure the trustees hold the investment, not you personally.
Thanks very much Mark. However, assuming that I will never require future care, is there any advantage at all in me setting up a trust? Will my ongoing (future) disability payments be affected, given that I will be receiving compensation for becoming disabled? The reason I am asking is because the compensation I will be receiving, is going to be subject to deductions for PIP payments already received. Thank you again.
You are talking about two quite separate concepts.
A trust for personal injury compensation is designed to protect your ability to seek means tested benefits and financial support for care.
The other concept is called recoupment. Recoupment is the process through which the government recovers benefits paid as a result of a party’s negligence. When compenation is paid, the party paying compensation is liable to repay relevent benefits to the government. You must give credit for some benefits against certain parts of the comp[ensation yuu seek. You can read about recoupment by clicking here.
Dear Mark, I will be receiving more than £6,000 in a court settlement for personal injury. I only receive disability payments from the state, which is not means tested. Would you advise me to set up a trust? Thank you. p.s. I also have a private pension. Does that make a difference?
You have not provided figures, but if you receive a private pension, it is unlikely you will ever be entitled to means tested benefits. Do check my assumption at https://www.entitledto.co.uk/
You should then look at the possibility of requiring care, as personal injury compensation held in a trust will be ignored in the local authority financial assessment.
Hi i have been offered a settlement of £17,000 which my lawyer said about the trust costing 1,029 to set up. It was a nasty fall and i broke my shoulder on the railing. Do you get the deed for 480 or what excatly is it you do to get the deed i am on universal credit and it took a long time to get awarded unfit for work as i also suffer from mental health issues i live in Strathclyde but was told if i was spending the compensation to below 6.000 then that thanks lynn
I write trust s for personal injury compensation at a fixed fee of £480 including VAT. I prepare the trust deed, coach the trustees through the bank account opening process and then I give written notice of the compensation and trust to benefit agencies. You can read more here.
It is nonsense to suggest you can spend the compensation down to £6,000. You will fall foul of the notional capital rules. The benefit regulations respect the compensation is paid to get you back on your feet financially, so why would you be encouraged to blow the money in 52 weeks?
Ask your solicitors to include the cost of the trust within your compensation claim. Had it not been for the accident a trust would not have been necessary, so it is a cost related to your accident.
I claim Housing Benefit, Child Tax Credits and Carers Allowance -I am a Carer for my Daughter and I work part-time. I have been awarded £5,475 in Compensation for an Injury. I am aware that I have to inform the DWP of this, I havthat as th read that as the award is under £6,000 my benefits would not be affected – is this correct?
My other question is – I intended to pay off debts with the money – can I do this as I have seen comments about how you spend the money within 52 weeks being investigated?
I do not have any savings at all but am apprehensive about accepting this as I couldn’t cope if any benefits were to be reduced.
If total savings are below £6,000, you receive your full benefit entitlement.
I understand your concern, as with just less than £6,000, your total funds might go above that £6,000 line.
Payment of debts is complicated, as not all debts, particularly if money is due to friends and family, are accepted by benefit agencies.
You compensation is protected in the 52 weeks from first receipt of compensation, so tell benefit agencies which debts you intend to repay and see what they say.
Blowing the money in the 52 week period does not work. If expenditure is not accepted as reasonable for someone receiving benefits, you are treated as still having the money. It is then called notional capital. You can read more here.
Thankyou for answering – slightly confused. If you say that because the compensation in under £6,000 my benefits would not be affected and I understand that I have to inform DWP – why then does the 52 week rule come into affect as to how I spend the compensation?
If you have less than £6,000, that will not reduce your benefit entitlement.
Having just less than £6,000 can mean your funds will sometimes be above £6,000, when payments are made to your account.
In the first £52 weeks, the compensation is ignored. I suggest you tell the benefit agency how you intend to spend the money. If they agree that expenditure is reasonable, once you have spent the money, your funds will drop way below £6,000. If the expenditure is not considered reasonable, you will be treated as still having the compensation amount, so your funds will sometimes be above the £6,000 line and your benefit entitlement will be reduced.
If the planned expenditure, or a good part of it, is not accepted as reasonable, then you will need a trust to avoid slipping above the £6,0000 every now and then.
My guess is that at least some of your expenditure will be accepted as reasonable, so ask the question while you have the protection of the 52 week disregard.
Hi Mark, i am going into Barclays this morning to have my compensation paid into a joint account ( that we are opening today). On your advice I have asked for a private banker. My deeds read My name the Personal Injury Settlement. Is this another name used instead of trust?
The term “settlement” is the establishment of the trust. You, as the “Settlor” settle, or place, your money in a trust.
So the Mark Thompson Settlement would mean the same thing as the Mark Thompson trust.
Hi mark.I’ve settled my personal injury claim on the 24th of July 2018. I will be receiving 20 thousand pounds and I receive means tested benefits and been advised to set up a trust ideally through yourself in understand you charge a fee of around £480 to set it up is there any annual fee’s or withdraw fee’s? ? Is the £480 all I will ever pay? Thanks
I am often asked if there are ongoing fees. The answer is no.
I am not sure where this idea of ongoing fees comes from. If you had a professional trustee, fees would be charged. If you had a financial adviser helping with investment, then fees would be charged.
My current charge is £400 plus VAT, a total of £480, with absolutely no further charge.
I am in the process of starting court proceedings for a personal injury case. So far there has been one court date to discuss the costings of the case. I want to change my solicitor as it has come to light that she hasn’t done a lot of the work asked of her. She also doesn’t have the expertise needed to handle this case as it’s a bit specialist. The solicitor is happy to hand over the file but not the costings schedule that I paid the barrister £2000 to do. Can she refuse to pass that on to me? I can’t move the case without it.
The solicitor’s file is yours, once the solicitor has been paid. If your solicitor is willing to wait until the end of the case to be paid, they will hand the complete file to a replacement solicitor.
I think you are talking about a costs budget. That is a document which will be passed to new solicitors with the file.
The costs budget must be approved by the court. It sets an upper limit on the costs which can be recovered. Quite sensibly the replacement solicitor wants to know what work they can be paid for.
I do not see the solicitor can refuse to provide you with the budget and the order made by the court as to the budget and the future processing of the case. In fact, I think the budget should have been agreed with you, as it is you who are liable to pay the fees.
Find a constructive way to obtain the budget and the court order, as solicitors simply cannot say no.
Hi
Just read your article on Tracing Employers liability insurance.
We are a small company which traded as builders / joiners throughout the 1950’s, 1960’s and 70’s and currently we have a claim against us for a deceased employee who died of Mesothelioma.The defendants Solicitors have traced one EL policy covering 1954-1961 (the deceased employment was from 1961-1972) but we have no record of any company insurance policies for the later period.Have you any suggestions on tracing companies policies as we are certain that they would have been in force (The only link I can find is to an Insurance Broker in 1966 but they are no longer trading)
In absence of any proof of EL the Liabilities Company is seeking contributions to an out of Court settlement.
Your thoughts on this matter would be greatly welcomed.
Kind regards.
If one employers’ liability insurer has been found it is likely the others should be found. Your solicitors will have access to the ELTO database. The database is not comprehensive as it has to be populated and inevitably has gaps.
One thought is your broker was probably taken over rather than just stopped trading. Questions asked of those involved in the same business may bear fruit.
Hi, we will be receiving a personal injury compensation amount of £50k but we need to spend £16k on debts so would have £34k to put in trust. We have been advised by out solicitor to set up a trust through one of their other departments but their costs seem a bit excessive to set up (£500) and administration costs of £500 per year as long as we make no withdrawals, if we do withdraw any funds then admin costs will rise with each withdrawal. Both of these figure do not include VAT, the interest on the trust fund will not cover the costs to keep the trust fund open so we feel that our solicitors are trying to slowly steal our money from us as this trust fund will eventually diminish to nothing. We know that these people charge silly hourly rates but we really think that their annual charge for doing practically nothing if we do not withdraw any money from the trust fund is extremely excessive. Our question is, can you help us to set up a trust fund and at what cost ? and can we administer it ourselves? Regards, Martin.
The first thing you should do is set up a trust and a separate account for the trustees and pay all compensation into that account. You can then pay off the debts from the trust account, the benefit being your expenditure from the trust account is not any business of the benefit agencies.
I think you want a trust prepared for you without a professional trustee or ongoing expense. I will prepare that trust for you for a one-off fixed fee.
Hi. I have got Personal Injury compensation and want to put it into the Trust bank account. But I can’t find the bank who can open a Trust account. Can you help me with this matter?
You cannot just place compensation in a bank account as that does not create a trust.
The first step is to have a document created to set up the trust. This document, or deed to give it the proper name, identifies the trustees and sets out how the trust will work. Once that document is signed you can take it a bank and most banks will know what to do.
Great to find a respected solicitor who deals with the side of motor law that we don’t. We only deal with the motoring offence itself, not the compensating and claims side of incidents
Hi
My son needs to set up a personal injury trust fund asap. He has received interim payments but we don’t know the full value of his claim, just that it’s,a high value claim.
How quick can thus be done and what is the cost.
Thank you
Samantha4′