Arrears of State Pension After Death

oakwoodbank

A relative of mine had died recently and it transpires that he had not drawn his State Pension for some months. As a result he had arrears of payment to about £6,000. DWP has written to his widow (the sole beneficiary in his will) to state that she is not entitled to these arrears.

Why is that?

dunstonh

Was the widow collecting a state pension herself?

dzug1

She may be misunderstanding what she's been told.

In most cases that pension will have already been paid into his bank account/Post Office Card Account - it's the bank who will owe her the money, not the DWP.

mrschaucer

Would it be because they need to pay it to the ESTATE, (not necessarily the wife as he may have willed it elsewhere,) and/or his bank account has been frozen during probate?

jamesd

Where is the money? If it was paid directly to his bank account as normal, then it will be sitting in the bank waiting to be processed along with the rest of the assets of the estate.

If it wasn't paid to a bank then there might be actual unpaid money around. That's something that the DWP should be able to correct since he was entitled to it and so was his estate.

dunstonh

I was posting my comment wondering if the pension was deferred. Hence asking if the widow was of an age to collect her pension (thinking death on a deferred state pension).

Reasoning being that £6000 of state pension "owed" is a heck of a lot more than "some months". A figure like that is more like 12 months

Loughton_Monkey

I know of no reason why 'untaken' pensions would not be paid. So keep on at DWP and demand a reason. I find it hard to believe it could be a whole years' pension of £6K. I would have thought DWP would ordinarily write after quite a few months, assuming that the pensioner had died.

It stretches imagination to believe that a person (a) knows the amount involved, (b) has contacted the DWP who have declined to pay it, and (c) was not given a reason.

jamesd

The rules for deferral are on pages 36 to 58 of the DWP guide to deferring. A read of those might explain what's happening. One possibility is this one that dunstonh suggested:

"If you have not yet claimed your own State Pension when your husband dies, because you are below State Pension age or have put off claiming your State Pension, you will have to wait until you claim your own State Pension before you can get extra State Pension or a lump-sum payment from your husband’s State Pension."