will we have to pay MIL debt now she has died?

sitcom321

My mother in law passed away last month and my husband had to sort out funeral costs bills etc after paying all bills and funeral as she had no insurance etc we also sent 2k to his brother to pay for flights home for him and his wife to attend funeral as they didnt have sufficient funds to get back. There was £200 left from her money which the brothers and wives used to pay for a meal together before they all went seperaye ways.

We have now had a letter from dwp to say she owed them £1500 from an overpayment in attendance allowance and they are asking my husband for this. Ehere do we stand on this. She has no other money no house or other disposable monies. Will my hubby have to pay it back????

Mojisola

sitcom321 wrote: »

My mother in law passed away last month and my husband had to sort out funeral costs bills etc after paying all bills and funeral as she had no insurance etc we also sent 2k to his brother to pay for flights home for him and his wife to attend funeral as they didnt have sufficient funds to get back. There was £200 left from her money which the brothers and wives used to pay for a meal together before they all went seperaye ways.

We have now had a letter from dwp to say she owed them £1500 from an overpayment in attendance allowance and they are asking my husband for this. Ehere do we stand on this. She has no other money no house or other disposable monies. Will my hubby have to pay it back????

The money he sent to his brother should have gone to paying her debts. I think he is personally liable although, if his brother has any kind of decency, he will be paying at least half of it back.

It's not unknown for the DWP to get "debts" wrong so I would want to see clear evidence of why she owed so much before paying them anything.

sh1981

sitcom321 wrote: »

My mother in law passed away last month and my husband had to sort out funeral costs bills etc after paying all bills and funeral as she had no insurance etc we also sent 2k to his brother to pay for flights home for him and his wife to attend funeral as they didnt have sufficient funds to get back. There was £200 left from her money which the brothers and wives used to pay for a meal together before they all went seperaye ways.

We have now had a letter from dwp to say she owed them £1500 from an overpayment in attendance allowance and they are asking my husband for this. Ehere do we stand on this. She has no other money no house or other disposable monies. Will my hubby have to pay it back????

Bereavement payment look here: https://www.gov.uk/bereavement-payment/overview

sitcom321

We didnt know about the debt at the time of sending money for tickets. It was a fairly sudden death and we just wanted to get him home for the funeral not sure he is in a position to pay even half back as he is not working

NYM

sh1981 wrote: »

Bereavement payment look here: https://www.gov.uk/bereavement-payment/overview

How does that apply in this situation ?

pmlindyloo

sh1981 wrote: »

Bereavement payment look here: https://www.gov.uk/bereavement-payment/overview

I don't believe this is relevant. Bereavement payments are for spouses/civil partners.

sh1981

NYM wrote: »

How does that apply in this situation ?

How does it not?

sh1981

pmlindyloo wrote: »

I don't believe this is relevant. Bereavement payments are for spouses/civil partners.

You are absolutely right! Thank you for correcting me.

PasturesNew

It is understandable that you didn't know about the debt when the flights were booked etc.... that would be common and the way many people would behave at the time.

However, the text book situation is that you're supposed to not touch any of their money, to let everybody know there has been a death, then tot up all their assets/cash and list all the debts and settle the debts from their assets/cash.

It is therefore, on paper, entirely correct that the £1500 is owed by "somebody". The somebody who was doling out the money ..... but there needs to be some responsibility for this spending on the other parties. So a reasonable family would settle the £1500 equally between themselves.... although technically the person who was given the money for flights would have otherwise had to borrow it.

So there are many ways to look at the debt and who should pay it. He who flew might say "I wouldn't have come if I'd had to pay for it" or "I would have come if I'd been able to borrow the money". In case A, it's hard to nail where the debt repayment could come from; in case B it could be viewed as that loan having come from the estate and it now needs paying back.

Errata

The difficulty you're faced with is that you didn't pay all the bills before you distributed the contents of the estate.
You may be asked to offer a payment plan to DWP to pay off the debt as the AA overpayment money was sitting in her account and you used it to pay for flights and dinners.

Mojisola

Attendance Allowance isn't means tested so what was the situation that lead to an overpayment? Did she continue to receive it after she went into residential care paid for by the council?