Frequently Asked Questions

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Trust funds and income from them

Payments from a trust fund can be of two types: income paid regularly, or payments of lump sum capital amounts.

Where a trust arises from personal injury compensation any capital in the fund, and any income received from the trust, will usually be ignored.

The capital held in a discretionary trust, where the beneficiary has no right to either the capital or income, will also be ignored. However, if a relevant person has the beneficial ownership of the capital value of a trust then it should be counted as their capital.

Payments of income may therefore sometimes be taken into account, usually as either voluntary or charitable income depending on the type of trust, and, if so, the appropriate amount will be disregarded.

Capital payments will be disregarded if they are made from the McFarlane Trust, the independent living fund, or any other trust or fund set up to compensate sufferers from haemophilia or Creutzfeldt Jacob disease. Where a capital payment is taken into account it will simply be treated as part of the relevant person's overall capital.

For more information on this subject, see here.