mum died now I have letter from recovery of estates

Dan-Dan

well i am glad i used the search facility on MSE ,we receieved the said letter at the weekend,my nan had standard state pension and pension credit , lived alone , when we moved in to care for her , her pension credit was greatly reduced (she died 5 months after we moved in)

she had no savings at all and died with a house in her name and £350 in a bank account , no savings or any shares etc etc
It does say in this letter that most cases turn out to show the correct amount was paid , and as we monitored nans affaits very closely , we are confident no over payments have occured

But when the letter comes from `debt managament` it does get you worried

cavework

I got one for my 90 year old Dad who had lived in a Nursing home for the last 3 years , paid for by Social services and from his state pension , pension credit and £25 quid a month private pension plus top ups from the BL.Also admitted he had £20 a week allowance for pocket money from his income.
Told them about the £3000 insurance policy he had to cover the funeral and that he wasn't entitled to any help towards his funeral..
Asked , just out of interest if they would be checking out Maggie Thatchers insurance plan after her funeral ?

fluffylobster

motherofstudents wrote: »

Just wanted to update this. I know it has been a while, July last year but I wanted to let the people who replied know the outcome and also may help anyone in the future who may have a similar situation.

It has been a very hard year, grieving for my mum and also trying to get all the information required by the DWP. The CAB have been helpful but most of the writing letters, ringing etc has been down to me.

Anyway the information is that for 2011, someone on Retirement Pension and Attendance Allowance can have approx £27000 in savings and still get £50 per week pension credit. You can have £10000 savings before it will affect pension credit and over that they say for every £500 in savings they count £1 in income.

Go back to 2009 and the amount was £6000. They also use the 'diminishing capital calculation' which means they start with the full amount of savings and then reduce it by the amount the person would be assumed to have needed to withdraw if they were not receiving pension credit.

I hope that makes sense. So we only have a small amount to repay and I think it could have been worse. The cash part of the estate has been given to the grandchildren to help with house deposits etc. We still have the shares but not sure whether it would be sensible to sell them right now as they have dropped like a stone. The flat we are going to let, so it looks like we will just repay it from our own funds.

I do accept that there has been an overpayment and so we will pay it back. To those people complaining that it should be paid back to the taxpayer, don't you think that my parents paid tax all their lives ? My mum saved the taxpayer money by looking after my dad for years when he had dementia. When she finally gave in and let him go into a care home, she paid. There is a huge amount of money in unclaimed benefits, and I won't go into tax avoidance/evasion.

So, I'm just glad it's over. Hope this helps anyone who faces the same thing. Apparently it happens quite a lot when older people just don't understand what information they are being asked for.

It upsets me when I think how my mum thought about getting some new curtains but decided not to as they were a bit too expensive. She didn't know about the shares and investments that my dad made before he was ill. Like a lot of women of that generation, she wasn't even on the mortgage.

Hi. Though this thread is quite old now, I have found your comments invaluable. My Mother in law passed away in December and her assets other than house were £11,500. She had no occupational pension but received attendance allowance. We are in the process of responding to DWP. With the benefit of your experience, do you think there will be anything to pay back? Like your mother, my mother in law was scrupulously honest.

rogerblack

fluffylobster wrote: »

Hi. Though this thread is quite old now, I have found your comments invaluable. My Mother in law passed away in December and her assets other than house were £11,500. She had no occupational pension but received attendance allowance. We are in the process of responding to DWP. With the benefit of your experience, do you think there will be anything to pay back? Like your mother, my mother in law was scrupulously honest.

Attendance allowance is not a means tested benefit, and would not be repayable from the estate unless there is clear and obvious evidence it was fraudulently claimed.
(for example, she said she had no legs, when she did).

Allowances for different benefits vary.
If all she claimed was her state pension, and AA, then it does not seem likely there would be any repayment.

pmlindyloo

rogerblack wrote: »

Attendance allowance is not a means tested benefit, and would not be repayable from the estate unless there is clear and obvious evidence it was fraudulently claimed.
(for example, she said she had no legs, when she did).

Allowances for different benefits vary.
If all she claimed was her state pension, and AA, then it does not seem likely there would be any repayment.

And just to add that the only repayment would be if the state pension and/AA were paid out after your mum died.

But the date of her death (death certificate) and details of payment (bank account/PO account will quickly sort out whether this is the case.

ALIBOBSY

I used to work at the old DHSS then DSS then BA then DWP just before I left.

We found often pensioners declared the correct amount when making the claims, but often didn't understand the need to keep updating the information. if they got a review letter they would simply think have my circumstances changed-nope still retired, never thinking the £50 a week or month they were stashing away was building up in an account.

Often they would be on say £300-£400 a week as a couple, no mortgage, council tax and prescriptions paid, so just food and utilities to pay so those leftover bits of income would soon mount up over time.

The only deliberate fraud I saw whilst working on pensions was when we tried to get hold of the NOK regarding the issue of the queens telegram for 100th birthday-we used to have to clarify the home address and if the telegram was wanted. NOK panicked at the call so a visiting officer called around to find that said pensioner had died 17 years before, but single pensioner daughter was still cashing the pension.

Left a big overpayment which was being recoved at something like £5 a week-so would never fully be recovered-daughter on low pension herself, living in council house they had both shared, given age of daughter it was decided not to prosecute.

Doubt either would happen now, they seem to take more to court and not that long after this happened they linked the register office information to the dwp so notifications of registered deaths would come direct to the section.

Ali x

anmarj

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

I

Doubt either would happen now, they seem to take more to court and not that long after this happened they linked the register office information to the dwp so notifications of registered deaths would come direct to the section.

Ali x

don't you believe that

best story I heard in the place that a I worked was that a mother and daughter moved from one end of the country to the other,whenever the department visited they would see them together (daughter appointee for mother) turns out the real mother had died some years before;) not sure where the person, that the department saw, came from :eek:

nearlyrich

There was a chap on the news last week who put his parent in the freezer so he could carry on claiming, you would be surprised at how much dodgy stuff goes on.

pennyago

longtomboy wrote: »

Bit late with that advice! I had mum and dad cremated!!

That's not advice Andy!