Is my mum responsible for her husbands debt?

ninafayebaker

Hi,
My mum married my step dad 13 years ago.(second marriage as both were widower's) My step dad has a policy from his first marriage that pays money to him. In the small print it mentions that if he were to marry again, then he is no longer entitled to the money. So, that's 13 years of money that he wasn't entitled to have. I don't think he realized either!! My step dad is 84 and has recently gone into a nursing home. He has suffered many strokes and has bad vascular dementia, he can't even sign a piece of paper. My mum was completely unaware of all of this, she doesn't even have power of attorney either, so can not access the small amount of savings that he does have, which isn't much! She read through and found this on the policy only weeks ago. The debt in total is around the £6k mark! We need to know if she is liable for this debt of his?
She has phoned the company and they said they don't know! and to ask citizens advice!
My mum has not got the money to pay this debt, and so only wants to deal with this, and start paying monthly amounts to clear it, if she is liable?! But this is his error, right?
I'd appreciate any advice, thanks in advance
Nina (daughter)

mellonicoley

I can't see why she would be responsible for this debt, he's the one who signed the policy. BUT I'm not an expert... hopefully someone will come along soon with more concrete advice

PaulLuke

Probably the wrong place to post this as the policy sounds like some form of widower's pension which ceases upon re-marriage.

Anyway, my interpretation would be that the responsibility for the overpayment is with him, as would be the reponsbility to pay the money back. That would involve using his savings to pay back the overpayment and if there is insufficient money there then potentially paying it out of any benefits he receives. In all honesty I'd approach the company again, explain the situation and ask them how they want to resolve the matter, it's certainly not something that citizen's advice would be able to help with at this moment in time as you don't appear to have sufficient infromation and I'm somewhat surprised that they'd send you in the direction of CA.

RAS

nina

I advise that you stop calling the creditor.

1. Get some advice from someone like National Debt line/ Particularly as debt over 6 years old ate statute barred.
2. If he is responsible for paying it back, then it will have to come from his savings.
3. If he is now on benefits, then nominally, he would be expected to re-pay £1 per month, or mum could let them take out a CCJ.
4. Do they rent or own the house?

ninafayebaker

Thanks for your help, the house belongs to my step-dad only, but even though he is in a nursing home now, my mum is entitled to live here as she is his wife/spouse.

RAS

In which case when dad dies, what happens to the house? You say belongs, do you mean he owns it or is it a social housing tenancy?

The creditors will expect the debt to be paid from his estate if he own the house.