If you are a special needs parent who has yet to set up a Special Needs Trust then please read on, as this is the most important article I have ever written on special needs entitlement, financial, legal and money.
Every parent who is in receipt of Domiciliary Care Allowance or Disability Allowance for their child must set up a Special Needs Trust.
Why? A Special Needs Trust will protect your child’s access to entitlements and give them the financial resources to maintain their quality of life after you have pass away.
As you are already aware, most government entitlements are means-tested and only available to your child if they meet the criteria. To complicate matters more any savings, assets, money or inheritance your child has outside of a Special Needs Trust will be means-tested.
If your child is above the low financial thresholds set by the government, then they will be expected to financially provide for themselves.
Entitlements such as Disability Allowance and Medical Card are both means tested and are critical resources that help to offset your child’s daily living expenses. If you jeopardise your child’s access to these basic entitlements then your child’s financial future can be severely restricted.
Even if your child has their full entitlements, it is still unlikely that your child will have a decent quality of life unless they have additional sources of income.
This again is why it is so important to set up and fund a Special Needs Trust. The larger the fund you can build up for your child the more disposable income they will have and the less reliant they will be on the government or other family members.
Parents often believe that they need to contribute to the trust from their own finances. The reality is that all parents need to do is put away a small percentage of their child’s Domiciliary Care Allowance or Disability Allowance for their future.
I have seen too many cases where a trust fund has not been set up and it is now too late to do anything that would make a difference. The special needs child (now an adult) is dependent on the government.
I have also had the privilege in been involved in many well-funded Special Needs Trusts that are providing the quality of life all parents dream of for their children.
If you want your child to have a decent standard of living after you have passed away then make sure to set up and fund a Special Needs Trust as early as possible. Avoids the numerous financial and legal pitfalls that all families eventually fall into.
For a free initial phone consultation to discuss your situation in private, contact Allan on 021 482 3635.
