adult son's money

Sometimes in the absense of tailored support elsewhere, you just have to find your own way. I found a course run by our local Autistic support centre, but it was tied into other skills so it seemed a bit pointless, especially when one of my boys had already done an ASDAN course.

The money management takes time in my experience. One of my boys has grasped it much sooner than the other, but still needs support.

I've witnessed a lot of money abuses in my time. It's really important to me that no matter what support my boys need to achieve independant living, they can manage their own money.

Sounds like you have given this a good deal of thought. I wish you luck

Coogybear

this is great advice, I like the idea of dividing up the money as you describe. I'll also try to track down the book. It's out of stock on the link. I need to look into trust funds, I had considered setting up an account in my name for him but that didnt seem quite right. Many thanks

In speaking with others i'm told that it's possible to put some in trust for his needs/care if you are no longer around. It maybe worth getting legal advice on this.

I divide my sons benefit up three ways, one for emergency support, one for his personal allowance, so he can learn how to manage money and one for bill paying based on a budget we worked through together. If you are hoping to help him, I can recommend the attached publication. In the absence of specific tailored support for independent living/money management, this was quite useful.

www.autism.org.uk/.../managing-money.aspx

Good Luck

Coogybear

Hi

thank you all for responding and for the advice. I agree about money handling and budgeting. When Joshua's DLA was awarded he started  paying for his phone and paying a small amt of board each week, its very small amount. He also pays for any incidental expenses himself. He has some savings that have accumulated over the years from Birthday and xmas so  it wont take long before his savings hit the lower permittted amount. He isnt saving for anything special and has never been a child or adult who has  wanted anything particularly expensive.

I guess at the heart of my dilemma is me feeling very uncomfortable about taking his money. But I do know you are right. 

Hi, as has already been mentioned, if he lives with you then he shd pay some rent, his  share of all the bills (gas, elec, council tax, food etc.)  He needs to be able to purchase things for himself, such a a new bed, phone, clothes, tv etc etc.  So that shd keep his savings down to some degree.  Also he needs money for holidays if he likes going on them + money to spend on any interests he may have.  

What does he want to do with his money? When do you want him to learn about managing money? If he is capable of doing unpaid employment then is he able to learn how to spend money?

what do you want him to save for exactly? If he has a nest egg, when you can no longer look after him, then won't he have an even more impossible problem of working out what to spend a lump sum on then?

These are the ideas that immediately come to my mind to help your son with his predicament:

# His ESA is a benefit that's intended to enable an adult to provide for their living costs; I distinct have an impression that your son isn't bearing any of those himself. The size of his disposable income (and therefore his predicament) would be slashed if he was to start paying for (a portion of) his "board & lodging". An arrangement between him and you could (and for legal reasons should) be informal and you wouldn't necessarily evict him if he couldn't pay for some reason! I don't know the current rates of ESA & DLA but I'd guess £75pw would make a dent in it.

# With the above in place, the rate at which he could save would be reduced and therefore he'd encounter the DWP's "lower savings limit" at a later future date. Until then, why shouldn't he accumulate savings upto the value that would prompt a DWP "income claw-back"? I suggest you research what that value is; he should then save upto £500 less than that. The reason for not exceeding "threshold-£500" is that - below that value - he won't be made to demonstrate (to DWP) his savings balance.

# A way he can save for the future in which the accumulated amount is ignored by the DWP for ESA purposes, is for him to save into a pension plan. It's especially lucrative for people with an income below the "(Income Tax) Personal Allowance" to do so, because their contributions are uplifted by a tax rebate at the Basic Rate of Income Tax (20%) like contributions by Basic Rate taxpayers i.e. a rebate of Income Tax is given that they've never paid! I recommend a "Stakeholder Pension" type scheme (http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/employers/about-stakeholder-pensions.aspx) because they're regulated to have low-ish charges. 

HTH.