Little bit of back info....DH & I receive some FTB A & B. He works full time I work part time & DS gets CCB & CCR (hope Im getting the initials right lol)

So anyway, recently my MIL passed away ( but thats another story) so my DH and siblings are working thru the estate etc and it looks like a reasonable sum of money will be going to each child. My SIL instantly said......when you get your share hide it or spend it straight away, if centrelink finds out they will stop your payments!!!

Ok so SIL can tend towards drama queen lol but it did get me wondering, do I have to declare the money as "ïncome" and have my payments reduced or because its a "gift" does it not count??

Basically Im trying to figure out the best thing to do before we get it and how we should handle it!!

So has anyone else been in a similar situation??? With everything else going on I dont want to hold up the Centrelink phone lines for something like this until the money is closer if that makes sense.