Inheritance law and autistic grandchild

Agree (within reason). A will and expression of wish document is vital. Just make sure you have a copy in case it is "lost"

Good idea ! Will have a look

Ah I see now and they do like to charge for absolutely everything. I imagine many contested probate specialists probably also haven’t dealt with such a specific situation. Have you looked at the Martin Lewis forum at all? They have a section about wills and probate there may be some helpful threads there if no one here has had that situation happen to them

Thanks I Sperg. Yes that is the issue. All benefits are being claimed. However its a hard life. Very hard. We would really like to fight to preserve the amount left in the will for this. It feels so unfair that it will be used instead to enable someone to live in a theoretical and slightly more luxury care home. They have very good solicitors and even finding someone with experience of success in this narrow aspect has proven hard. (Indeed other beneficiaries have same for other aspects of the case but really need an independant expert). 

Thanks to you and all others who made comments. The poverty is caused by being unable to work, two children, husband unable to earn more than a tiny amount so household is benefits dependent. The part of the estate would enable repairs and then in the long term a specially designed room. Houehold budget relied on now deceased grandparent for some monthly bills and one off things. However the difference between what the court case would provide based on poverty or else being a carer of a disabled child is stark. Hence we are seeking someone who knows this specific area. Lots of solicitors are happy to research this for us - at a fiver figure cost before they can talk about it. Hence we need someone who has knowledge already.

If there is enough money involved that the bank will require a grant of probate to release it then I would apply for that via a local probate lawyer/ solicitor rather than doing it yourselves. But some banks don’t if there is less than 50k so be wary of who has access to the death certificate if there is a risk of it being withdrawn and spent before the situation is resolved. You can discuss all the issues with the lawyer first, maybe at  the firm that wrote and held the will? The probate office can be extremely particular about the will and they also have a massive backlog at the moment. They put my application on hold for 6 weeks (after it took 10 weeks to get to the top of the pile) because my uncle hadn’t written mine and my brother’s middle names on the will. I’m sure I don’t know all the details from your post but it may come down to whether the will was written before or after the step parent married into the family or if the money is in a joint account with them. Or whether the money was left to your sister or the child themself. Money left to children comes with all sorts of conditions, often that it can’t be accessed until they’re 18. I think the other thing to look at as someone else has mentioned is why your sister is struggling so much for money, is she claiming all the benefits she’s entitled to etc This could take weeks or months to resolve, a large chunk of my late uncle’s money wasn’t paid to me until 7-8 months after he died and all was straight forward

TLDR: ask the solicitor who wrote the will for advice if you haven’t already and make sure all possible benefits are being claimed in the meantime 

If there is enough money involved that the bank will require a grant of probate to release it then I would apply for that via a local probate lawyer/ solicitor rather than doing it yourselves. But some banks don’t if there is less than 50k so be wary of who has access to the death certificate if there is a risk of it being withdrawn and spent before the situation is resolved. You can discuss all the issues with the lawyer first, maybe at  the firm that wrote and held the will? The probate office can be extremely particular about the will and they also have a massive backlog at the moment. They put my application on hold for 6 weeks (after it took 10 weeks to get to the top of the pile) because my uncle hadn’t written mine and my brother’s middle names on the will. I’m sure I don’t know all the details from your post but it may come down to whether the will was written before or after the step parent married into the family. Or whether the money was left to your sister or the child themself. Money left to children comes with all sorts of conditions, often that it can’t be accessed until they’re 18. I think the other thing to look at as someone else has mentioned is why your sister is struggling so much for money, is she claiming all the benefits she’s entitled to etc This could take weeks or months to resolve, a large chunk of my late uncle’s money wasn’t paid to me until 7-8 months after he died and all was straight forward

I believe I see what you are asking, and believe I can see what the letter of the law is getting at.

To parpahrase: The law considers the poverty of the carer, soley on an individual basis, and makes no consideration of the consequential expenses of the carers decision to care for said child.

Which seems harsh.

But does there then not exist a separate individual pathway in the system to care for the childs economic needs, particularly as the child is Autistic? 

I hope this is useful in some way!

There is a legal heavyweight floating about here somewhere who might chime in. so it's worth me bumping this up, eh?

Relevant experience: I read a few lawbooks whilst my partner was getting her degree, and er, have had to excercise some legal finesse and understanding over the years to not be a victim of various predators. I'm normaly fairly good at figuring out how things really work. Particularly, "technically".

my own situation my mother hasnt written a will but she has told me whenever she dies she wants to be cremated and scatter her ashes in newquay probably fistral beach.~

i will obey that fully and refuse anyone getting in the way of that unless she tells me otherwise in between that time. if my sister wants her buried or have any other thing i will stop her. if it costs me my job due to going away to do it i will still do it. because that is what she wanted and i feel obliged to do whatever a loved one wanted when they are deceased to respect their memory and being and make them happy in whatever afterlife there is.

even if her final instruction was something crazy like to overthrow the government, i will do that or fail trying. to me the final wishes of a dead family member are absolute law above all human law on earth.

in my opinion.... the words of thw will are absolute... whatever the deceased wanted for the money and wrote in the will must be obeyed 100% otherwise i see it as a desecration of the deceased wishes. 

if a will is written it must be obeyed absolutely by anyone and respected because it is the will of a dead person who expected it to be respected and carried out. it is their last word and instruction, whatever the will says it must be abided by.