Dependent pension overpaid

Lellylion10

Sorry...this is long, but need to get it all down.

My husbands father died when husband was 7. Since then he and his brothers have received a dependents pension.
Husband is the youngest of the 3 and is now 39. They have recently been told the pension has been overpaid and should have ended when each of them was 18 or 23 if in education.
All 3 of them were young when the payments started and none of them have ever been given or even seen any documentation telling them of the rules, they just thought it was due to them instead of their father.
In 2006 they were asked their dates of birth by the pension people and all 3 of them complied and provided what information they were asked for. The payments kept coming and nothing was ever thought to be wrong.
Now 5 years later after they provide their dates of birth, they are told they have been overpaid since 1990 and each of them have to pay back £13,300!!!

Can they do this? Surely even if husband was a babe in arms when his father died, they should have stopped paying in 1999 ( theoretically he would have been 23 in 1999 if he was a baby when his father died)

They have clearly messed up and even after we gave them the date of birth, they still chose to ignore the facts. We can't be held responsible for that many errors on their part.

Stargazer57

See: http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/dealing-with-complaints/mistakes--overpayments especially the penultimate question about long-standing overpayments. I think your husband should contatact the Pensions Advisory Service who will help without charge.

kidmugsy

Hee, hee, hee, hee.
Best story in months.
They are idiots and your man is, shall we say, an optimist - child's pension at 39!
Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo.

dunstonh

They have clearly messed up and even after we gave them the date of birth, they still chose to ignore the facts. We can't be held responsible for that many errors on their part.

If they had underpaid by £13,300 would you have the same view?

Lellylion10

kidmugsy wrote: »

Hee, hee, hee, hee.
Best story in months.
They are idiots and your man is, shall we say, an optimist - child's pension at 39!
Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo.

Thanks for your most helpful comments, it's always good to get good advice from a well respected forum member. Shame you don't fit the criteria of such a forum member.

After speaking to the TPAS, a solicitor and an email to a QC that is a family member we actually have an extremely good case, because at various points the company were advised of the 'children's' dates of birth and payments were still made, they are the ones at fault and as such can be held responsible. The trustees can in effect sue the administrators for the money for maladministration.

kidmugsy

"a QC that is a family member": ah! Double-edged, that.