Can HOF keep my Mum's pension lump sum from her estate?

jamesd

A week isn't an excessive delay but the next thing to do is check the scheme rules to see whether making and receiving the request is enough to oblige them to make the payment, or whether their processes have to be further on than that for it to happen. It's possible that it isn't valid until say the trustees of the scheme have reviewed and accepted the request.

atush

bigell wrote: »

I had been warned that this place was full of mean-spirited bottom-dwellers. Seems they were right.

What a load of old cobbler's. This forum is full of advice.

What the forum is also full of, is greedy gits who don't like the advice provided. Who then turn on those who gave the correct advice.

mgdavid

OP, have you found, read, and understood the Scheme Rules yet?

System

My understanding is that regardless of any expressed wishes, trustees have an obligation to consider the needs of any dependant when deciding on the payment of death benefits.
They pay regard to a letter of wishes, and generally try to accede to the member's wishes, but have a wider duty, and discretion.

If the OP is saying that there are other dependants, then surely on notification of that, the pension trustees would be obliged to consider them?

uknick

Clifford_Pope wrote: »

My understanding is that regardless of any expressed wishes, trustees have an obligation to consider the needs of any dependant when deciding on the payment of death benefits.
They pay regard to a letter of wishes, and generally try to accede to the member's wishes, but have a wider duty, and discretion.

If the OP is saying that there are other dependants, then surely on notification of that, the pension trustees would be obliged to consider them?

+1 to the above.

OP, I'm a little puzzled. If you mother had no spouse, why are they intending to pay the death benefits to a spouse?

With regard to paying to a dependant, I am currently in discussion with my late brother's DB scheme provider. As he had no spouse they may pay any death benefit to a nominated dependant. However, dependant for pension schemes as defined by the HMRC is;

“He/she was neither married to, or the civil partner of, the member at the date of the member’sdeath, nor a child of the member but, in the opinion of the scheme administrator, at the date of the member’s death: was financially dependent on the member, or his/her financial relationship with the member was one of mutual dependence, or was dependent on the member because of physical or mental impairment.”

They go on to define mutual dependence as;

“This does not require that a person is entirely or even predominantly dependent on another financially, nor does it require an equal level of financial dependence between the parties. Clearly some element of reliance on each other financially is involved, but it is for scheme rules to set out the criteria to be used by the scheme to determine dependency in these circumstances.”


Under this definition a child wouldn't necessarily expect to receive any benefits.

Finally, OP if you think posters on here are as you describe, I suggest you try some of the other sites I visit. You would have been truly flamed much earlier in the thread.

ILW

Inheritance does tend to bring out the worst in people. They tend to get blinded to all logic if the think they may not get every penny they feel the are "entitled" to.

xylophone

To inject a note of balance -

I have now seen letters from HoF confirming her decision.

Under these circumstances, it does not seem unreasonable for the OP to question whether the payment should go to the estate?

She was a widow and had no spouse. HoF are completely ignoring her expressed wish and are now beginning to arrange to have her monthly pension paid to her spouse!

This is utterly mystifying.

margaretclare

ILW wrote: »

Inheritance does tend to bring out the worst in people. They tend to get blinded to all logic if the think they may not get every penny they feel the are "entitled" to.

A friend of mine, a solicitor, once told me that 'you only have to sit behind this desk in this chair for half a day and you see the very worst of human nature'. I think she was right!

Andy_L

xylophone wrote: »

To inject a note of balance -

Under these circumstances, it does not seem unreasonable for the OP to question whether the payment should go to the estate?

however the next sentence is "Before the transaction could be completed and the money actually put in her bank account, she died." so I suspect the letter said something along the lines of

"We confirm receipt of your request to have you pension paid as a lump sum due to ill health." or

"We confirm that you are eligible to have you pension paid as a lump sum due to ill health"

In then depends on the scheme rules/payment schedule how long that takes & what happens if the pensioner dies in between those dates

jamesd

Andy L, right. And that takes some more investigation, to be sure the people handling this are following the scheme rules, and to determine whether there's some discretion in these circumstances as well.

No problem to try to get all money that is supposed to be available. That's what an executor is expected to do.