overpayment of retirement pension after death

luvvy

Hi,
my mum died 8 wks ago.She didn't have an estate,lived in social housing and just had her post office account-no other bank accounts or savings.
I have just received a letter from DWP saying that she was overpaid by £124.02 and that they are obliged to ask for it back.In her post office account was £295.00 which we had to use to put towards her funeral and removal of all her furniture (non of any value) from the house.So all she had to her name was the £295.00.Do we legally have to find the £124.02 to pay them back?Any help would be greatly appreciated.
cheers

zagfles

No you won't be liable for her debts - her estate will be and if there's not enough it'll be written off. As I understand it.

hcb42

I think you do - assuming the overpayment was received after she died....did it get paid into account automatically?

I had this with both parents, and paid it back immediately.

zagfles

hcb42 wrote: »

I think you do - assuming the overpayment was received after she died....did it get paid into account automatically?

I had this with both parents, and paid it back immediately.

If it's still in the deceased's account then it'll be part of the estate.

bengal-stripe

hcb42 wrote: »

....assuming the overpayment was received after she died....did it get paid into account automatically?

zagfles wrote: »

If it's still in the deceased's account then it'll be part of the estate.

It sounds like one week’s payment: State Pension and Pension Credit.

If your mother was paid weekly, that would have been a week in advance, due on Monday. Of course (to arrive on the date due) that payment has to be sent some three or four days earlier. If your mother died the previous week (before Sunday midnight), she would not be entitled to that payment. If she’d died Monday morning, she would be entitled to the whole week’s pension.

So, if your mother did die before Monday morning, the payment would not have been due to her and would not have become part of the estate.

Valley's_girl

I am so sorry for your loss.
Take care
ally x

singlehouseholder

obliged to pay back sounds like they're just asking, not demanding, check the wording- take it to the CAB I'm sure they'll tell you to ignore it. As if you aren't going through enough, take care.

luvvy

Thank you everyone for all your posts.I will take it to CAB tomorrow and let you know what they say.x

mrnatural

The Social Security Administration Act 1992. Section 71(1) states,

(1) Where it is determined that, whether fraudulently or otherwise, any person has misrepresented, or failed to disclose, any material fact and in consequence of the misrepresentation or failure -

(a) a payment has been made in respect of a benefit to which this section applies; or

(b) any sum recoverable by or on behalf of the Secretary of State in connection with any such payment has not been recovered, the Secretary of State shall be entitled to recover the amount of any payment which he would have received but for the misrepresentation or failure to disclose.

So if you have disclosed the fact of a death to the Pension Service and a few days later the pension is paid in as usual it won't be legally recoverable. But any pension payment made before disclosure would be legally recoverable. IMHO.

mrnatural

I should add that under Section 71(4) of The Social Security Administration Act 1992 and Regulation 11 of The Social Security (Payments on account, Overpayments and Recovery) Regulations 1988 overpayments arising from automated direct credit transfers may be recoverable.

The DWP Overpayment Recovery Guide is well worth a look as it tells you what action DWP will take to recover overpayments in any given circumstances.

I'm afraid you'll need to Google it - this site won't allow me to post a link.

babababor

A UK pensioner has recently died and has over the past 10 years received over £25,000 more than he should have because he did not advise his divorce form his first wife for whom he was receiving dependents allowance.

Shortly before he died he remarried -no dependents allowance allowed then, but he was already in receipt.

The widow has now lodged a claim for £2000 bereavement payment.

There is no money in the estate to repay the DWP overpayment.

Will she still receive the £2000, as this is her right and she was totally unaware that her late husband was receiving what he was not entitled to.