I have a client who has just become incapable of work. Prior to this he was in FT employment and had saved £40K to purchase his council house.

Would the purchase of his home using the capital lead to a finding of deprivation.

Whilst the home would normally be disregarded could the conversion of one form of capital to another be caught by the deprivation rules?

The case law appears to be contradictory and the actual legislation fairly ambiguous.

Depending on his NI record, but surely he would be claiming contirbution based ESA and therefore issue of deprivation would not apply as not means tested. It would only be any top up means tested ESA and CTB when it could be an issue and then whether deprived himself of capital in order to claim means tested benefits.

Client has partner and would be entitled to ESA (IB) as well. There is also the issue of CTB.