DWP Recovery from estates

beecher2

Posted this in Pensions, but realised it probably should be here:

I'm just looking for anyone's experiences in dealing with the DWP Recovery from Estates. My mum passed away in June of last year, confirmation (Scottish equivalent of probate) obtained in October, and the DWP still haven't come up with an amount which is owing. They asked for copies of bank statments in April and I really hoped it would've been dealt with by now.

I know it is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' but just really wanting some worst case scenarios of when this may be dealt with.

pmlindyloo

Which benefits are involved?

beecher2

She received State Pension and Pension Credit. There will be a significant overpayment of PC, but straightforward enough to calculate.

pmlindyloo

The first thing you need to do is to look at your mum's pension credit award letter.

Did she have an Assessed Income Period? Usually awarded to someone over 65. it means that any change in savings does not have to be reported.

The only reason they are asking for bank statements are to see if her savings changed over the last years. This should not be necessary if she had an Assessed Income period.

Any overpayment of Pension Credit itself should be easy to work out if they know the date of her death.

Ring them now and ask. It should all be on her file and really shouldn't be a problem. Note the time, person you speak to and what they say. All calls are recorded.

If she did not have an Assessed income period then it may be more difficult as they will have to work out whether she owes them other money other than the normal PC payments.

My mum died recently and I phoned about PC and it was all very straight forward as she had an Assessed Income Period, I had frozen her bank account (so the PC payments were returned to them) and was told there were no overpayments. Since I took the person's name who gave me that information if there is any comeback then they would have to put it down to an official error as I had been officially wrongly informed and had distributed the estate.

beecher2

The solicitor's dealing with it all and there is definitely a large overpayment. I was just looking for time periods from people regarding DWP investigations as I was expecting it to take no longer than a year.

dippy3103

beecher2 wrote: »

The solicitor's dealing with it all and there is definitely a large overpayment. I was just looking for time periods from people regarding DWP investigations as I was expecting it to take no longer than a year.

Why do they think there is an overpayment?

To answer your question, pension credit decisions can take a long time- I think they have a backlog.