Man Sues To Get Life Savings Back After Getting Wrong Diagnosis

After 72-year-old, Andy Lees, was told he had terminal cancer he gave away his £12,000 savings and spent another £6,500 on his funeral. However, a year after his diagnosis, doctors discovered that he is suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung condition that causes a narrowing of the airways. Andy is very sick but he is not dying. Mr. Lees is now suing the local health authority for the misdiagnosis because he says the mistake has left him penniless. "I couldn't believe it. I gave away my life savings because I didn't think I would need them. We just presumed that the doctor would be right. Now I am broke," he said. On the positive side he won't have to walk five miles one-way to the gravel factory, seven days a week, for 16 hours straight with no break to get his money back.

Comments

Re:That's what they make wills for..

[petermgreen]

IIRC gifts in the UK are tax free provided they are made more than a certain period before death (I could be wrong on this though, I'm a uk citizen but i'm not an accountant, lawyer or millionair so I dunno what the situation is regarding huge sums of money). If they are made too close to death they are counted as part of the estate for inheritance tax purposes.

Inheritance tax doesn't kick in until you get to much higher figures (arround £300,000 iirc), so unless he has signifianct other assests (like a house in a high value area) it wouldn't have been an issue for him.

charitable donations get some tax incentives (the charity can claim back the income tax you paid on them) but the article made out that theese gifts were to friends and family anyway not to charity.