Our last post on the current situation with benefit reform left many people staggered. As regular readers may remember, the National Audit Office (NAO) recently released a report which stated that current benefit underpayments are “unacceptably high”. According to the reports that followed, Sir Amyas Morse, the Comptroller and Auditor General for the NAO, claimed that he could not sign off the accounts of the Department for Work and Pensions, as the level of fraud and error was still too high. The NAO also warned about the absence of up-to-date data; for example, disability living allowance accounted for £13.3 billion…
Over the past year, a lot of changes have been made to the legislation surrounding the UK benefits system, as the government aims to reform the processes in place, and simplify the current system by bringing in Universal Credits. We have written blog posts before about how these changes affect you, but today, we’d like to talk you through the recent reports that the government is responsible for incorrect welfare payments, which has resulted in £1.8billion being underpaid to families. We receive dozens of queries each day about benefits claims from people across the UK. Many of those are about…
For any couple or family, divorce is never an easy thing to deal with. Aside from the emotional strain and concerns about the dramatic changes it will make to your life, there’s a lot of financial uncertainty for both parties. We’ve written in previous posts about the kind of things you should consider when entering divorce proceedings, but what exactly are the benefits of having a solicitor? Gary Lineker has made headlines recently after claiming that there is simply none! He has scorned many family legal practitioners, lawyers and solicitors alike by claiming that they are no more than sharks…
Ever since the result of the referendum came through, we’ve had countless concerned phone calls and emails about what Brexit means for the many EU migrants in this country working for the NHS. What does the future hold for anyone wanting to come over and be a part of our healthcare industry? At Hylton Potts, we’re happy to take your queries all day long – as the experts, that’s what we’re here for. However, we thought we’d take some time in today’s blog post to go over a few of the essential facts, and allay any of those immediate worries…
At Hylton-Potts, we’ve come across hundreds of cases where members of the public have wrongly had their tax credits deducted or benefits stopped, due to clerical errors or other considerations which were not their fault. However, a different kind of headline has been making the news recently, and as your go-to reference point and expert on these matters, we thought we’d better bring it to your attention. Hopefully, if you find yourself in these strange circumstances, it will help to reassure you before you pick up the phone to us. As the saying goes, the two things that we can…
Recently, we published a post about the DWP Universal Credit report. While the system is still very much in its infancy, the statistics clearly indicated that changes needed to be made if it were to be rolled out on a national scale. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise to hear that Universal Credits has one again been spotted in the limelight, this time where tenants are concerned. According to a recent study referenced in an article by Inside Housing, tenants on Universal Credit owe, on average, £321.05. By comparison, all tenants in arrears owe a lower…
The decision to divorce can be a painful and distressing one for the whole family. Whether there’s only yourself and your spouse to consider though, or children in the mix as well, it’s completely natural for your thoughts to quickly move on to the family home. Do you sell it? Who lives there? What’s best for everyone concerned? With property prices at an all-time high, the property ladder has never been more counter-productive for a quick sale. Plus, affordability criteria have made it ever more difficult for couples who are planning to buy together, let alone for the newly-divorced who…
The voices of children will always be heard by family judges in care proceedings, but they are not always decisive and can be outweighed by other factors. In one case, a boy’s vociferous wish to live in England with his mother was overruled by a judge who found that his best interests lay in returning to Ireland to live with his paternal family. The boy was aged nine when his parents separated. Due to the mother’s chaotic lifestyle and mental health problems, a court directed that he should be cared for in Ireland by his father and paternal grandparents. However,…
Divorce cases involving the very rich are over-represented in court reports for the simple reason that where the family is very wealthy, the costs of arguing over the division of the assets are deemed to be worth incurring, which may not be the case for families with much more modest assets. However, the legal principles that apply are the same in all cases. In a recent case, a man’s ex-wife sought a divorce settlement of some £29 million against his offer of £8 million. The husband had brought very substantial inherited wealth into the marriage and it was agreed that…
The breakdown of a relationship is sadly often accompanied by dispute over the ownership of once shared possessions. However, one High Court case vividly shows why it is nearly always sensible to seek compromise with the benefit of legal advice, rather than resort to costly litigation. A wealthy same-sex couple had never formalised their 15-year relationship, but both viewed it as akin to marriage. Together they had achieved considerable financial success, establishing a substantial property portfolio and a lucrative chain of tanning salons. Following the acrimonious parting of their ways, however, they could not agree on who owned what. Title…
