Life Assurance & Credit Card Debts

Tarty6

Hi. I'm new to all this but would really like some advice. My Dad died 2 days ago and whilst looking through his papers yesterday I found some credit card bills. It appears my Dad owes nearly £8000 on credit cards and doesn't have payment protection. I have phoned the companies concerned and they say no one is liable but it will come from his estate. The trouble is he has no estate as such, only the house he shared with Mum. Can my Mum be forced to sell up to pay off his debts?

The other problem is my Mum had a small life assurance policy for my Dad. It now appears that the payments on this were stopped 2 years ago. The payments were supposed to come from my Dad's account and he hasn't paid them. My Mum knew nothing of this and assumed the payments were up-to-date. Should the company not have notified my Mum that they could not collect the direct debit? Now my Mum has these debts and no money to pay off her mortgage. On top of all this we now need to find £2000 for funeral expenses. She has been told that she cannot claim funeral benefit as she works. Does anyone know if there is anywhere else I can try to get help for her?

Any help and advice will be appreciated. Thank you.

McKneff

Sorry about your dad, its all very raw at the moment.
Does your mum not have any savings.
Have you spoken to the insurance company, is there no payment due at all.

Not sure about the house, I'm pretty sure that your mum cannot be forced to sell it to pay debts. Maybe it would have to be a charging order which means that the debt would be paid out of the proceeds if the house was ever sold in years to come
I know very little about these things and hope at least i have given a little reassurance.

You dont say how old your mum is. Nothing is said about state pensions or anything so i presume she is relatively young in which case they will expect her to work and be responsible for herself and the funeral expenses. Looks like you will all have to dig deep into your pockets. (no pun intended)
She must be in bits at the moment, as you will be also. You seem like a person with a lot of inner strength, pass on some to your mum and God bless.

Tarty6

Thank you. Unfortunately my Mum doesn't have any savings, at least not enough to pay for the funeral and certainly not enough for the debts.

My Mum spoke to the insurance company yesterday and they say she is not entitled to anything! So the payments that were made for 10 years have been thrown away.

My Mum is in her mid 50s so is not entitled to her pension yet and will simply have to work. She already has 2 jobs and I'm concerned she may be forced to get another one to keep her home. I will help financially where I can but it seems wrong she has worked all her life and now has to struggle with no help from the government.

Obviously it is very upsetting that my Dad has died so suddenly and so young, but to be honest at the moment I am confused. I am angry with him for putting my Mum through all this on top of having to deal with him dying.

McKneff

I feel for you all,
Not all the money your dad paid was thrown away, if you think about it.
during the years he paid it, it was actually paying his life assurance so it was in fact actually paying for something. Unfortunately none of us has foresite and it was tragic that he died and the policy had unfortunately died two years earlier.

Was their any insurance regarding the mortgage, ie endowment mortgage or anything like that.

Does she have a personal pension that she could take, even though she is working. If so she could take a 24% lump sum and take the rest in pension.

If after all this there is nothing of any substance to pay the CCs with then i would speak to them and take some guidance from them and also go to the CAB who are very good at things like this. Like i say, dont worry about the house.
Again, after all this, give yourselves time to grieve, take the bull by the horns and say Well, it happened, we have to deal with it, so lets get together and get on with it. Lets sort something out and deal with it.
Your anger is understandable but try to remember the good times with your dad, Can you imagine how horrified he would feel knowing he has left you all in this mess, forgive him in time and you will be halfway to dealing with it.
Give your mum a hug from me, i cant imagine how she must be feeling, i am lucky enough to still have my OH after 41 years (Im not too old, i was a child bride) :rotfl: I have not quite got to pension age (just)
Ni' Night

McKneff

Have a look here about widows benefit,

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Bereaved/index.htm?cids=Google_PPC&cre=Money

Tarty6

Thank you for all your help. Will make a few phone calls on Monday.

McKneff

Dont forget to let us know how you get on.