That's brilliant, thanks for that. These are obviously not the circumstances that I would choose to have some money given to me, I would much rather my relative could live longer. It looks as though all this money will do is give me even more things to think about. If I just simply pay my loans off, it will effect my benefits just like I still had the money. If I put the money in an account and arrange a direct debit so the loan is paid monthly from the account, I will actually have savings, so my benefits will be reduced exactly the same. So maybe I'll pay the loan off, receive reduced benefits but not pay interest on the remaining period of the loan so, in the long term, it won't cost me as much. As i am on IB and CB now, does that mean I can have savings now but when my CB stops and I am only on IB, any savings will reduce my ESA. If so and I pay the loan off now while I am on CB, in OCT when my when I go onto just IB will the DWP look back through my financial records, see that I have spent loads of money and treat it as though the money was actually still there. I always thought having a lot of money (Paul McCartney type money) would bring problems with it. In the grand scheme of things. I am not talking about that much, but it seems to be bringing problems/worries with it. Thanks for your help, Mick.

Hello. I got dismissed from my job, due to my disability, in Aug 2012. After 36 years unbroken service, but that is a whole other story. I had my ATOS medical, that's yet another story, and I am now on WRAG ESA. In their wisdom they have placed me on both IB and CB. I don't understand why, there must be some kind of benefit (to them I imagine), if someone can tell me the answer to this I would be grateful. But my real question is this, it is looking as though I may be receiving some inheritance in the next few months. I don'y know how much this will be, but I think it will be between 50 and 100 thousand pounds. When I look at what I have just written it seems like one hell of a lot of money. I know this will effect my ESA and I understand that, what I was wondering is, are there some things that I am allowed to spend some of that money on. For example, can I pay my mortgage or any loans off without the DWP penalizing me? What about a car, my present car was quite second hand when I bought it. If I replaced it with a better one, would that be OK, or would I be penalized, somehow for that? What if the car I bought was a new one, what would be an acceptable amount to spend? How about a holiday? would that be OK? Looking back through all of this, it looks as though I am being very greedy. Wanting to spend all of the money so the DWP can't get there hands on it. I am sorry if I give that impression, what I really want to know is, I will never have this much money in my bank account again, so I would like to get some enjoyment out of it. But if my benefits will be stopped, because I have "savings", and I have spent the money on various things, i'll be stuffed. So I would rather know now if I am not allowed to spend any of it, and invest it all to provide some kind of income, before I do something I will regret in the future. I will appreciate any advice on this, things that I want to hear and things I don't'. Don't pull any punches, tell me what you think. many thanks, Mick.

Thumper. I said in my original post, and I quote: He then appeared to take great pleasure in pointing out to us that the whole conversation was being recorded by his cctv equipment, which not only recorded video but audio as well. We were perfectly ok with this as we had not said anything that could be viewed as “out of order”. However, he had admitted that the contaminant was already in the car when he sold it. So that must mean that the car was sold as “unfit for use” So I assume that you mised that bit. Consumable? Really? We travelled less than 4 miles, that makes it an expensive car to run. Not really the aim of the whole operation. Thanks everyone for your quick response, I will follow surfer's advice and continue this in writing. many thanks, Mick.

Oh dear, another car dealer thread. I feel that this time it is a little different so please bear with me. On Saturday my daughter and her husband went to a car dealer in Torbay to test drive a Peugeot 307 that he had advertised for sale. They drove the car (with the salesman as a passenger) on a mixed route, town, B roads and a dualcarriageay and they liked it so left a deposit and agreed to return on Tuesday with the balance. They had arranged to pick the car up from the dealer after work, so I drove them to Torbay to get the car. The first thing they noticed was that the fuel gauge was showing empty, so they stopped at the first petrol station and put £70 worth of diesel in. After leaving the station and travelling around 100 metres the engine just stopped, my son in-law coasted over to the side of the road and tried to restart the car. The engine turned over fine, it almost started then stopped, and he tried again and got exactly the same result. His first thought was “I’m sure that it was diesel that I put in”, he rummaged through his wallet, found the receipt for the fuel. Although the receipt stated the amount of money that had been spent and that it was fuel that was bought, it did not say which type of fuel. So, he got out of the car, removed the filler cap and had a smell of the fumes and he could only smell diesel, which he was obviously relieved about. All of this occurred within 4 miles of the dealer’s premises. He then phoned the dealer to explain all that had happened, and was told that someone would be with him as soon as possible. Sure enough, within the hour the salesman arrived, had a quick look but admitted that there was not a lot that he could do. After looking he decided the best thing to do was arrange for the car to be “recovered”. He suggested that my daughter and son in-law continue their journey home with me and the boss would have the car looked at the next day and telephone as soon as he new what the problem was and discuss the options. The options were 1/ The fault would be something minor. It would be repaired and returned to my daughter that day. 2/ The fault would be bigger, or perhaps they would have to wait for parts. In which case they would supply a loner for the duration. 3/ If the worst happened my daughter and her husband would be offered a replacement car from the dealers stock or a refund. It turned out that there was water in the fuel system. There was no suggestion that the fuel my daughter had bought was contaminated, but that a customer had brought their car into the dealer’s workshop, the week previous, for a service and the Peugeot had been loaned to them as a courtesy car. The dealer then went on to say that this customer must have driven through some deep water, we did have a lot of rain last week, and the water had found its way into the air intake and then into the fuel system. He was now left with a car that needed a new engine and he would be “chasing” the customer for recompense. My daughter was offered a different car or a refund. None of his stock was acceptable, so a refund was agreed on. £1450 (the price of the car) in cash was handed over to my daughter. It was a shame about the car as it would have been ideal, but these things happen and up until this point the dealer had been fine. My daughter enquired about the £70 of diesel that she had put in the car. At this point the dealer’s helpful and considerate attitude that he had portrayed changed, he became very guarded and almost aggressive. He said that he had not told her to put fuel in the car and asked why she had put so much in? Surely 5 pounds would have been enough? He said that the fuel would now be contaminated with water and would be of no use to anyone there was no way that he would refund that as well. After a long conversation he suggested that we come to his workshop at the weekend and siphon the contaminated fuel out of the car and keep it. The fuel that he had already admitted was of no use to anyone. He then appeared to take great pleasure in pointing out to us that the whole conversation was being recorded by his cctv equipment, which not only recorded video but audio as well. We were perfectly ok with this as we had not said anything that could be viewed as “out of order”. However, he had admitted that the contaminant was already in the car when he sold it. So that must mean that the car was sold as “unfit for use” I am guessing here, but the dealer doesn’t seem to do very much advertising, there are no sign’s out side his house, although he claims to have 20 or so vehicles at any one time only three or four are visible to passing traffic and these do not “appear” to be for sale as they are not marked with a price or any kind of for sale sign, so it would seam that his reputation and word of mouth is good enough to provide him with the success that he obviously has. Surely, when a dealer has a quick turnover with this type of car he must be aware that one day something will not go to plan. I know that he can not cope with every one of his customers asking for a refund, his business could not stand it, but its not every one of them, only one. Dealers must prepare themselves for this kind of thing, customers don’t. My daughter cannot afford to lose this money, she feels that she might as well have put £70 in cash into an envelope and posted it through his letterbox, she could not have afforded that either. The whole point of buying this particular car was it was cheap to buy, cheap to insure, cheap to tax and cheap to run. If she had money coming out of her ears she would have bought a more expensive car. On this dealers web site they claim to pride themselves on providing a good quality service, they appeared to be a safe bet. Yet their car only covered less than 4 miles and lasted no more than 15 minutes before it broke. What I am asking you is; Under these circumstances is the dealer obliged to refund the £70? If not, is there a way that I might be able to convince him that it is not worth tarring his seemingly good reputation for £70? Any help or advice would be greatly received and appreciated. Many thanks, Mick.