Late father may have been paid too much income related benefit?

scottay2hottay

Hi father died at the age of 69 on the 12th March 2012, I hadn't seen him since I was 13 ( I am now 31). I had been searching for him for many years, and it turns out he was living hundreds of miles from me.
I am the sole beneficiary of his estate.
I have just recently been contacted by his solicitor who is the executor of the estate, and she said that probate has been granted and she has just received a letter from the DWP which requests details of my fathers estate. The letter is effectively a claim against the estate and no distribution will be possible until they confirm that they are happy that no overpayment of benefits have been made to my late father. A more recent letter has stated that my dad may have been paid too much income related benefit.
My father was a betting man and he had various betting accounts in his name. He lived alone and suffered with severe COPD, he was unable to get around without a mobility scooter for ten years. I know he was claiming housing benefit, DLA, State pension and pension credit
I have received an acurate statement of his assets/expenditures from the solicitor/executor, this exact list has been sent to the DWP

Lloyds TSB £7,974.55
Payments in:
Prudential £37.63
Pension Credit £76.28
State Pension x2 £128.22
Less funeral bill £3,722.40
NS&I Premium Bonds £4,220 (not yet collected)
Prize £25.00
St Lukes hospice Lottery £9.00
Betfred betting company £3,002.92
Bet 365 £1,157.30
Sun Life insurance £1,527
Domestic and General £133 + £27 (refund)
Money found in savings pot £25.22
Auction company (who sold all my dads items without my permission) £559.20
TV license refund £60.63

Total assets £15,559.66

He had liabilities of £1018.15
Plus the solicitors ridiculous charges of £5,549.23
which leaves £8,992.28 Residuary estate as of 16.8.12

Was my father breaking the law by having that amount of money if he didn't declare it (I don't know if he declared it or not) and if he was would you expect the DWP to make any deductions from this estate? Will I be left with anything? I know they cant count the insurance policy, I have also noticed that the sale of my fathers belongings was listed in the assets section, surely that can't be counted because he wasn't in possession of that money when he died. Will I have any inheritance left????
Sorry for all the questions, I would appreciate any help that you are willing to give me, Thank you very much

nannytone_2

it seems that it is housing benefit and perhaps pension credit that may have been an issue.

the amount of money he had on the day he died isnt really the question.
more important is the amounts he had whilst he was claiming.

you would need to get statements from all his betting accounts as well as his bank account. premium bondas also count as assets.

the amount left by his estate is a bit of a red herring, as obviously he didnt have the insurance money before he died, and also didnt have the funeral expense.

Dunroamin

You're going to need to find out far more detailed information of what money he had in his accounts throughout the time he was claiming. You can't just take a snapshot of one particular moment in time, particularly after his death.

It's going to be fiddly getting this information but it will be cheaper if you do it rather than the solicitors.

twig1_2

The housing benefit and pension credits have capital limits of £10,000 for pension credits and £16,000 for housing benefit I think.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsandretirementplanning/PensionCredit/DG_180168

The letter from DWP is fairly standard I think where probate shows a person has assets. They will be asking for statements such as bank statements and the betting accounts as far back as he has been claiming and will eventually send you or the solicitors a letter with how much he has over received. They work it out on a day to day balance so the betting accounts will be fairly variable and hopefully will be recent wins.
Are the solicitors charges finalised now or will they be charging you on any work done for this if they do ?
Don't know what you can do over the extortinate solicitors charges as their contract was with your father. Is your bill itemised? Can you find the letter they sent him when he first instructed them to execute his estate. I think like funeral directors they can getaway with a lot more because most people don't feel it is decent to quibble when there has been a recent death. Sorry for your loss and having all this to contend with.

xylophone

The solicitor's bill seems disproportionate to the value of the estate?
Have you received an itemised bill?
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/advice/practice-notes/professional-executor/

Dunroamin

This was all covered quite thoroughly in your earlier thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/54897589#Comment_54897589

scottay2hottay

Dunroamin wrote: »

This was all covered quite thoroughly in your earlier thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/54897589#Comment_54897589

I am sorry about that, but the circumstances and some of the other facts have changed, I don't mean to irritate or offend people I would just like your valued opinions.

scottay2hottay

xylophone wrote: »

The solicitor's bill seems disproportionate to the value of the estate?
Have you received an itemised bill?
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/advice/practice-notes/professional-executor/

I do have an itemized bill, sort of
Work costed to Grant of Probate

29 X telephone attendances @ £18.00 522.00
Perusal of X 70 letters and documents received @ £9.00 630.00
54 X letters written @ £18.00 972.00
276 units of personal attendances and
timed telephone attendances @ £180.00 ph 828.00
6 units of personal attendances and
timed telephone attendances @ £200.00 ph 20.00
306 units of perusals and preparation @ £180.00 ph 918.00
24 units of perusals and preparation @ £200.00 ph 80.00
138 minutes travel/waiting @ 120.00 276.00
6 minutes [EMAIL="travel/waiting@133.00"]travel/waiting@132.00[/EMAIL] 13.20

£4,259.20

Plus V.A.T. @ 20% and disbursements

scottay2hottay

Don't know what you can do over the extortinate solicitors charges as their contract was with your father. Is your bill itemised? Can you find the letter they sent him when he first instructed them to execute his estate. I think like funeral directors they can getaway with a lot more because most people don't feel it is decent to quibble when there has been a recent death. Sorry for your loss and having all this to contend with.[/QUOTE]

I have the letter, but its .pdf and very long and complicated, I do remember that it said that they didn't expect their charges to exceed £5000. Those charges are the interim charges by the way. They were going to charge more due to the fact that I kept emailing complaints to them because they gave all my fathers belongings to an "auction company" who sold it all for peanuts, without my permission. I got the legal ombudsmen involved and stopped those charges. They also told me that they arranged a basic funeral (cremation) but that cost nearly £4000. There was also theft at my dads property after the solicitor secured the keys and my dads wallet was stolen at the hospital when he died. I really hate solicitors.....

scottay2hottay

Just thought of a good question, does insurance annuities count as capital, do they affect pension credit?

rogerblack

See my earlier post in the other thread.
_everything_ you can realise as cash, while you are alive, counts as capital, apart from certain exclusions like the house, or pension pots.
If you can't easily sell it, you may be able to sell the rights to it on maturity to others - then counts as capital.

The important thing is not the balance now - but the capital over time.
When it exceeds 6K, 10K, 16K, are common cutoffs or points at which the benefit starts being affected.
At these points he should have notified that he had this amount of money, and his benefit may have been reduced.

That he has not done so has (may have) caused an overpayment, which will be recovered from the estate.

Note again that capital is not capital - debt, it's solely capital.
If you have 20K, and 20K of debt, you have 20K of capital, not 0.
(with some exceptions)

The charges or funds added to the estate after death are quite irrelevant to the DWP overpayment.