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DWP claiming back Attendance Allowance from estate
Shevek
Posts: 53 Forumite
Hi,
Last year my father-in-law died having spend around 2 1/2 years in a care home.
My wife is an only child and the sole beneficiary of the estate.
We are still finalising the estate but have received a letter from DWP stating that he was overpaid for Attendance Allowance from the date he went into the care home to the date of his death.
The bill is almost £11,000.
This is the first we are aware of this!
Due to some unfortunate family issues and complications we were essentially sidelined regarding his care so were a) not aware he was receiving the benefit in the first place and b) unaware that he should have stopped receiving it when he moved into the home.
Is it correct that it is up to the recipient (or representative) to cancel the benefit?
Is there anything we can do to challenge this?
If not, is there any way to spread the cost of paying it back?
TIA
Shevek
Last year my father-in-law died having spend around 2 1/2 years in a care home.
My wife is an only child and the sole beneficiary of the estate.
We are still finalising the estate but have received a letter from DWP stating that he was overpaid for Attendance Allowance from the date he went into the care home to the date of his death.
The bill is almost £11,000.
This is the first we are aware of this!
Due to some unfortunate family issues and complications we were essentially sidelined regarding his care so were a) not aware he was receiving the benefit in the first place and b) unaware that he should have stopped receiving it when he moved into the home.
Is it correct that it is up to the recipient (or representative) to cancel the benefit?
Is there anything we can do to challenge this?
If not, is there any way to spread the cost of paying it back?
TIA
Shevek
0
Comments
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Was he funding the care home himself? If so then he would still have been entitled to AA.
If Social Services were funding it (with him contributing from his pension(s)) then he should not have been receiving it.
If there is an overpayment then this has to come out of the 'estate'.0 -
As previous poster mentions, overpayments have to come out of the deceased estate.
If money or assets that will realise over the overpayment amount are part of the estate, then DWP will expect full repayment from the estate. If the money or assets left by the deceased are less than the overpayment amount, you might then be able to work out a payment plan with DWP to repay in installments.
Yes, it is up to the claimant or their representative to notify DWP when they go into a care home or hospital for a stay over a specified amount of time, as this is a condition stated in the award letters sent out to all claimants of AA or DLA. These benefits are not payable to claimants who are in hospital or a care home for longer than the specified time.The bigger the bargain, the better I feel.
I should mention that there's only one of me, don't confuse me with others of the same name.0 -
As previous poster mentions, overpayments have to come out of the deceased estate.
If money or assets that will realise over the overpayment amount are part of the estate, then DWP will expect full repayment from the estate. If the money or assets left by the deceased are less than the overpayment amount, you might then be able to work out a payment plan with DWP to repay in installments.
Yes, it is up to the claimant or their representative to notify DWP when they go into a care home or hospital for a stay over a specified amount of time, as this is a condition stated in the award letters sent out to all claimants of AA or DLA. These benefits are not payable to claimants who are in hospital or a care home for longer than the specified time.
Sorry but this is misleading.
Going into a care home does not mean that you lose your AA. This depends entirely on whether you are self funding or being funded. If you are self funding then you can keep your AA.
And if there is not enough money in the estate to repay any debts then the OP is not responsible for them. The estate becomes insolvent.
There is an order in which debts need to be paid - secured debts first for instance - funeral costs and then other debts. If there is insufficient money to pay off all the debts then the OP should seek advice as to which order they should be paid.
The first thing the OP needs to do is find out whether the overpayment of AA is correct.
http://www.bdl.org.uk/images/21_EW_NDL_what%20to%20do%20about%20debts%20when%20someone%20dies.pdf0 -
Hi,
Last year my father-in-law died having spend around 2 1/2 years in a care home.
My wife is an only child and the sole beneficiary of the estate.
We are still finalising the estate but have received a letter from DWP stating that he was overpaid for Attendance Allowance from the date he went into the care home to the date of his death.
The bill is almost £11,000.
This is the first we are aware of this!
Due to some unfortunate family issues and complications we were essentially sidelined regarding his care so were a) not aware he was receiving the benefit in the first place and b) unaware that he should have stopped receiving it when he moved into the home.
Is it correct that it is up to the recipient (or representative) to cancel the benefit?
Is there anything we can do to challenge this?
If not, is there any way to spread the cost of paying it back?
TIA
Shevek
Why would you need to spread the cost of the repayments - the money is either there in the estate to be repaid or there isn't a big enough estate to do so.0 -
Thanks for all the replies. Sorry, I possibly should have included more information in the original post.
He was not self funding, he was part funded by the local authority and had to pay the rest himself (which, as an aside and we have subsequently found out, also wasn't paid due to the family "issues" and amounts to a debt of more than £30,000).
The estate includes his house which is greater in value than the debt owed.
However, we already own 50% of that property that we inherited from my mother-in-law several years ago and we owned it with my father-in-law as tenants in common.
As we have been living in the house for several years and would like to remain, we are trying to obtain a mortgage to cover his 50% and the care home/AA debts.
I asked the question as this AA debt obviously increases any mortgage by quite an amount!0 -
Are you on land registry as part owning the property?
If not they could out a charge on the property for the debt.0 -
Are you on land registry as part owning the property?
If not they could out a charge on the property for the debt.
Well, yes & no, that's where it gets more complicated.
My f-i-l had an outstanding mortgage on the property when m-i-l died and he didn't want us to share that so the deeds were never changed.
They still show f-i-l & m-i-l as tenants in common.0 -
don't want to put a spanner in the works, but you need to find out if he got Pension Credit, because if they were never told and never reassessed at his move to the care home, then you have another problem looming.....0
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The estate includes his house which is greater in value than the debt owed.
As we have been living in the house for several years and would like to remain, we are trying to obtain a mortgage to cover his 50% and the care home/AA debts.
Is his half of the house greater than the debt?
Debts have to be paid out of whatever estate he leaves. If there isn't enough money to cover the debts, no-one else has to pay them on his behalf.0 -
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