Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any savings an individual has accrued as a result of saving and investing lump-sum payments they have received from the Macfarlane and Eileen Trust, Macfarlane Trust, Eileen Trust or Skipton Fund are taken into account when deciding their eligibility for employment and support allowance and other welfare benefits; and whether the transfer of such savings to a dependant or partner, affects that dependant or partner's entitlement to benefits.

Payments received from Government funded Trusts and Funds may be disregarded for benefit purposes. This includes payments from the following Trusts/Funds: Macfarlane, Eileen Trust and Skipton Fund.

Any capital resource which derives from a payment from these Trusts/Funds, such as interest, is also disregarded indefinitely.

Money which derives from the Trusts/Funds which is transferred to a partner is disregarded indefinitely in any benefit claim made by the couple. It is also disregarded indefinitely in any claim made by the partner after the sufferer’s death providing that the couple were not estranged or divorced at the time of the death. However, money derived from the Trusts/Funds which is transferred to a dependent child or young person is not disregarded in any subsequent claim made in later life by that person.