Advice re repaying Pension Credit wrongly clamed by my late mother

Stefano_2

Sorry for long post!
My mother died 2 months ago leaving £24K to be divided equally between myself and my 2 sisters.
I’ve been granted Probate (I am the Executor) and I’ve distributed the Estate £8K to each of us.
So far so good,
But - I have just received a letter from DWP - Recovery from Estates Team asking for financial details of the estate and the letter implies there may have been an overpayment of pension/benefit that will have to be repaid from the Estate.
My mother was in receipt of State Pension, Pension Credit inc. some Savings Credit, Severely Disabled Allowance, Attendance Allowance and DLA - Higher Rate Mobility. My mother always handled her own affairs and I was aware she was in receipt of benefits (she was wheelchair bound) but not aware of the actual detail amounts. She also had the £24K cash which is what she had saved over the years.
I’ve now checked the Age Concern website Pension Credit calculator and I estimate my mother was being overpaid Pension Credit by £21 per week - probably because she failed to update the DWP as her savings increased.

So - thanks for reading so far! - here are the questions:

Will I have to pay the overpayments back if requested and how many years back will the DWP go?
The situation is made more difficult because one of my sisters has already disposed of her share as she was in some financial difficulty and used the money to clear some debts, she would be unable to repay anything now - am I , as Executor, legally responsible?
I would stress that I intend to co-operate with the DWP and repay as far as I’m able - I’ll certainly repay my “share” of the debt from my “share“ of the Estate - but I’m in the hands of other family members now and I can’t (and don’t want) to force them to pay money they no longer have, similarly I don’t see why I should pay for them as I’ve not benefited from their share of the Estate.
But given that neither of us has done anything wrong, or was aware of the amount of Pension Credit being claimed by my mother- how far would the DWP take this?
Anyone had anything similar happen?
Thanks to all for reading and any advice as it’s quite worrying!

Stefano

margaretclare

How was your mother on Higher Rate DLA and Attendance Allowance as well?

If DLA begins before age 65 it can carry on after 65, but a new claim, after age 65, would be for Attendance Allowance. So she would have been on either one or the other, but not both.

These benefits are not means-tested and not taxable, so the pension credit would have been quite separate.

amersall

when my mother died, i informed the dwp to let them know, they sent me paperwork and i was told she was overpaid and they would take this out of her estate, this was only 6 weeks after she had died. we had a solicitor to settle the estate, and after everything was sorted,(bills paid etc) we then got our share, if you all have had your share and there is a bill remaining i would have thought that you being the executor will be liable, just as our solicitor will be if after the estate is settled anything comes up to be paid. this should have been sorted out at the beginning.

Stefano_2

margaretclare wrote: »

How was your mother on Higher Rate DLA and Attendance Allowance as well?

If DLA begins before age 65 it can carry on after 65, but a new claim, after age 65, would be for Attendance Allowance. So she would have been on either one or the other, but not both.

These benefits are not means-tested and not taxable, so the pension credit would have been quite separate.

She was getting DLA before she was 65 (she was 86 when she died) as she had been severely disabled since childhood.
As you say the DLA, AA, (and State Pension) are non means tested but the Pension Credit is reduced if the claimant holds savings over £6K. my mother had declared savings at some unknown point but as these savings increased she either forgot - or chose not to - inform the DWP. hence the overpayment, and the inevitable overpayment claim by DWP.

Stef

Stefano_2

amersall - I think you are right

I've just read on DWP website that the Executor (or Personal Representative) is supposed to place an advert in the London Gazette to advertise for creditors and wait 2 months for replies before distributing the Estate.
If he/she fails to do this - The estate is considered incorrectly distributed and the Exec/PR becomes legally liable.

How on earth is aany ordinary person supposed to know this stuff - I carefully read the leaflets that were sent from the Probate Service but no mention of any of this. Nothing was mentioned by the solicitor that held the Will either when I collected it.

My sistor was on the phone desparate for the cash - and who was I not to help her?, after all it was not my money to hold onto. I knew my mother would have no "creditors". So I had no reason to hold up the distribution.
As I said in my OP - I hadn't a clue she was receiving the incorrect pension. we never discussed money. I didn't even know she had savings!

I've tried to help my sister out - that's all, now I suppose I'll have to pay her share of the money back myself or risk prosecution.

Stef

amersall

this is a nightmare for you, i wish there was a way you could get out of this but i dont think there is, sorry i cant help you. when my mum died we went to pick the death certificate up and we were given leaflets about who to inform etc and that was a big help. i know you were only trying to help your family, but at the end of the day they must have a moral obligation to help you with this, i know times are hard but you shouldnt shoulder this on your own. good luck with this maybe you could pay this back over a period of time and then your family can help you? it would be better than paying a lump sum all at once, just a thought, please let me know how you get on

margaretclare

Stefano wrote: »

She was getting DLA before she was 65 (she was 86 when she died) as she had been severely disabled since childhood.
As you say the DLA, AA, (and State Pension) are non means tested but the Pension Credit is reduced if the claimant holds savings over £6K. my mother had declared savings at some unknown point but as these savings increased she either forgot - or chose not to - inform the DWP. hence the overpayment, and the inevitable overpayment claim by DWP.

Stef

Hello Stef

So your mother was on DLA but not AA.

It's not quite true to say that State Pension is not means-tested. It depends on the total income. We've been urged to apply for pension credit many times, particularly when it first came in, but our total income from pensions, SERPS, annuities and work pensions, put us over the limit. So, to that extent, means-testing does apply. We never thought we'd be entitled to it anyway, but well-meaning folk seemed to think we should.

anmarj

Stefano wrote: »

.

So - thanks for reading so far! - here are the questions:

Will I have to pay the overpayments back if requested and how many years back will the DWP go?
Stefano

effecivtly the dwp can look right back to the start of the claim, people over 65 often had an Assessed Income period set which meant that certain things were not required to be reported one of them being increase in capital. If she had review done in the last couple of years then dwp should realistily go back to the start of that Assessed Income period but if it was showed that she had capital that was not declared from the very start then they can go back further. The centre has to look at when her capital increased and look at what date it goes from, this would either by a decision maker or specalist decision maker.

If you do not agree with the overpayment, you can appeal stating why you disagree with the decision, you only get 1 month to do this from the date you are notified of the overpayment ie the letter that states what the overpaid amount is etc.

Biggles

Pension Credit only came in in Oct 03 and, when I succeeded in an application for my mother, it came with an Assessed Income Period of 5 years.

If that is typical, which I would have thought it was, your mother should have had a letter in Oct 08 asking whether her circumstances had changed. If they had, she should probably have declared her higher savings figure at that point.

Therefore, with any luck, any overpayment would only have been made for a few months.

mary-op

I recently had a problem with pension credit overpaying my mother -this was discovered after her death this year. Took several months for them to decide she had been overpaid by £336 in 2003. How I don't know as I went with her to the soc.security office when she first applied and I know she took all her details with her.
Mums solicitor couldn't settle the estate until pension credit had sorted their bit out but she had said if it was a large amount them it would be worth appealing against.
Good luck. Not a good time to have things like this causing upset when you least need it.

Stefano_2

margaretclare wrote: »

Hello Stef

So your mother was on DLA but not AA.

QUOTE]

No - she received £49.10 DLA - Mobility AND attendance allowance of £70.35.

You seem determined to contradict me!!

For the record she was getting £106.18 State Pension, £70.35 AA and £82.78 Pension credit plus the £49.10 DLA. The PC includes a severe disablement allowance.
(I do agree this is quite a lot - but when you have severe disabilities, over and above what qualifies for "normal" DLA you get more - there is even a further level called "Exceptionally Severe Disability Allowance" but she didn't qualify for this)
I have the last Award notice here now plus all the Post Office statements and the last 5 years award notices. i assure you this is correct - the issue here is that the PC element is too much according to the Age concern calculator (and I suspect the soon to arrive claim from DWP!) - the correct amount according to AC should be £61.07, which is why I stated that she was getting £21 too much.

The issue for me is that - when DLA claim the overpayment - I have 3 choices:

1. force my sister into further financial crisis by insisting she repays her share of any overpayment claim.
I won't do that

2. Pay my share but refuse to pay her share and risk prosecution.
I won't do that either.

3. Pay her share for her - to get the DWP of my back
The most likely option!

Stef