Deceased Estate - Overpayment of Benefits from DWP

linnyhinny wrote: »

I am the Executor for my Father's estate who died aged 89 in October 2009. When probate was granted in March 2010 a letter shortly arrived after that from the DWP requesting information of capital at point of death which at the time was £10541 before funeral expenses, debts etc had been paid.

The DWP wanted Bank statements from Dec 1998 to Oct 2003 as apparently there was discrepancies as to capital held and what my Father was receiving in benefits. The Bank could only provide statements from July 2001 which I submitted to DWP. After further correspondence from them I have received a bill owing of £12562.98. (Income Support £2592.12 Dec 98-Oct 03 & Pension Credit £9970.86 Oct 03 to Oct 09

I have requested information from DWP asking how they arrive at this figure and all they have sent are complicated spreadsheet type statements. Apparently in 2001 he had approx. £37000 in the Bank (which was news to me as I didn't get involved in his finances until 2007 after ill health diagnosis).

I do know he bought a field in 2005 for £30000 (his hobby was horses & he wanted it for my daughter to keep her horse in and probably as an investment as well) then in June 2007 he bought a new car for £7400 so this would have brought his capital down considerably, though I don't think the DWP have considered this. Also in July 2007 a representative from the DWP visited my Dad to fill in new benefit forms after recommendation from his social worker and it turned out he was entitled to Attendance Allowance, an increase in Pension Credit and a disabled element of Pension to a total of £232.20 per week

I naturally want to appeal against this figure as the balance of monies in the Executor account is now approx £7800 which my two children are inheriting plus the house my Dad lived in. (I've been left the Field).

I have been in touch with Citizen's Advice who said I should fill in a GL24 Appeal Form.

I know my Father was not an educated man and like a lot of old people may not have disclosed all his savings when filling in the original application forms through no maliciousness as the majority of his savings had been in some kind of bonds which he probably thought at the time you didn't need to disclose.

The advice I would like from anyone else is has anyone successfully appealed in a similar circumstance and on what grounds? Can the DWP go back this far? as I want to be careful in what I write on the appeal form. My children are both students so cannot pay the difference in the shortfall & also I don't have that sort of spare money to lend them.

linnyhinny wrote: »

I appreciate all the replies though some concern me in that my Father deliberatively tried to defraud the DWP. As I mentioned before I didn’t get involved in his finances until 2007 and approx at that time he had about £10,000 which was under the £16K ceiling limit at that time for claiming Pension Credit and also after when a representative of the DWP came out to re-evaluate his benefits. When I received copies of his bank statements for the period of 2001-2003 it turned out that the majority of his savings were in bonds which is possible how when he filled in the forms he thought you only had to disclose actual money in the bank bearing in mind he would have been in his early 80’s and benefit forms are not the easiest forms to fill in.

Anyway I’m not trying to justify what he did just what probably happened. It’s possible that the £30k was in a bond due to mature and he thought it would be beneficial to buy a field that could possibly increase in value.

Getting back to what my Dad owes to the DWP which I know has to be paid my query is is that on the statements the DWP provided, they show that my Dad’s capital had always been £37K up to his death when in fact it reduced considerably after 2005 to £10,541 at date of death so the advice I am after is does anyone think I could appeal against what the DWP thought was in the accounts to actually was in the accounts and therefore rather than assuming he had received full benefits he would have been entitled to receive partial benefits, and hopefully the original bill of £12562.98 will be reduced in accordance to that.
I read plenty of stories about living people who defraud the benefits system maliciously and when found out rarely have to pay the whole lot back but usually get a fine, so does that ever happen in the case of a deceased person when they can’t prove whether it was a innocent mistake or not. I would also like to say that I am the Executor and not the beneficiary of my Dad’s money, so to me personally it makes no difference what happens, though obviously I don’t want my children to suffer financially if there are genuine errors. What ever happens I won’t be expected to sell the field as it was a gift to me as stated in the Will.

I really want advice as to how to go about appealing, and does anyone know if anyone has successfully reduced the bill of a deceased person and if so how did they go about it?