§ Baroness Jegerasked Her Majesty's Government: In view of the fact that the deliberate abandonment of assets for the purpose of securing supplementary benefit or reducing the charge for Part III accommodation is not at present a criminal offence, what sanctions are applied to persons believed to have deliberately abandoned assets for the above purpose.
§ Lord TrefgarneThe sanction against a person who deliberately abandons his assets is that he may be treated as still possessing them. For supplementary benefit claimants that could mean loss of benefit, but for Part III residents it might result in an accumulating debt of unpaid charges. Although there is no centrally-held information, I understand that the powers to take into account abandoned assets are used only rarely.