Gifting a house to someone on Social Welfare.

I have a daughter in her early forties who is on social welfare (jobseekers) and in rented accomdation (with rent allowance).

She is anxious to have her own home but has no savings.

I am in my early eighties, own my own home and have enough disposable savings to buy her a starter home up to Euros 170000

Rather than waiting until I die I would prefer to gift this to my daughter now.

Any help with the following would be gratefully received:

1. Do I simply transfer this money to her account and let her buy the house or do I buy the house and gift it to her.
2. Would this have any adverse effect on her Social Welfare entitlements (dependence on social welfare is likely to continue)
3. Any other comments you feel might be helpful particularly in relation to taxes or other unforseeable expenses which may arise..

Many thanks

I am not sure if 170,000 will buy a starter home these days.
Any cash arriving into her bank account will not go down well with SW.
You are probably better off to gift her the home.
I am sure others with more experience with SW will be able add their comments.

JSA is means-tested. JSB is not means-tested.
It sounds like she is on JSA.

If she has 170k, her JSA payment would be cut.

If she receives a gift of a house, and then lives in the house, I think her JSA payment would not be affected, as a PPR is not included in the means-test.

Technically the cash in her bank account (even for a week) would reduce a means-tested payment to zero.

In practice DSP are unlikely to care about a large cash balance once it’s temporary and for a specific purpose like buying a house.

You could also transfer to her solicitor’s client account directly and there would be no doubt.