financial help after death of parent

clearingout

GwylimT wrote: »

The state not paying a benefit after divorce has absolutely no impact on whether or not a parent has taken responsibility.

Both could have taken financial responsibility, dad could have got a job, as already stated dad had no assets for his children to inherit, mum could have taken a life insurance policy out of him.

No, mum couldn't take out a policy. Dad would have had to do it and name mum as the beneficiary.

The point is that HousingBenefitOfficer quite clearly stated that 'everything goes to his new wife - not you or your children'.. Except they're not just the OP's children, are they? And now we have a mother left to bring up 2 children without any kind of support and she is vilified for just wanting to know if there is anything that can be done about that.

As always, it's the woman's fault that she is left with all the hard work without any empathy or understanding from society. I mean clearly it is her responsibility to know her ex was at death's door and she should have somehow made the necessary financial arrangements for their children.

nannytone_2

the OP's ex wasnt supporting his children anyway (£6.50 a week)
now she is upset that she divorced him and cant receive widowed parents allowance ( although it is based on the deceasedparents NI contributions so may not have been much anyway)
i think what is bothering some posters is that the OP doesnt want the same amount of help that the father of her children gave ... but a higher amount.

Mojisola

clearingout wrote: »

The point is that HousingBenefitOfficer quite clearly stated that 'everything goes to his new wife - not you or your children'.. Except they're not just the OP's children, are they?

Children who are being financially supported by a parent do have a claim on their dead parent's estate as well as any current spouse.

Although the intestacy rules give the spouse the first £250,000, dependent children can contest this and a court would make provision for them from the estate. This depends on the deceased parent having enough 'estate' to make it worth making a claim.

Pollycat

Mojisola wrote: »

Although the intestacy rules give the spouse the first £250,000, dependent children can contest this and a court would make provision for them from the estate. This depends on the deceased parent having enough 'estate' to make it worth making a claim.

I guess in the OP's case this doesn't apply.

lmcgbmb wrote: »

My ex husband died a year ago. Before he died he had remarried not had anymore children and not left a will or any assets other than household and was not working.

BillJones

lmcgbmb wrote: »

Dont judge people until you've lived in their shoes! I could do with extra money raising his children.

No-one was judging, and they are not "his" children, they are both of yours. As above, as you'd divorced him, he's now dead, it's not clear what you now expect to happen, as I'm afraid that you need to support your children as do all parents.

dippy3103

Which is why the o/p would need to explore other ways of increasing her income if her kids are suffering. After all she is the surviving parent.
Could she for example increase her 26 hours work?
I appreciate the £6.50 she was getting could leave a hole in her household budget so she needs to explore other avenues to plug that hole.
I don't intend to vilify the o/p- I can see why she she is frustrated.

GwylimT

clearingout wrote: »

No, mum couldn't take out a policy. Dad would have had to do it and name mum as the beneficiary.

The point is that HousingBenefitOfficer quite clearly stated that 'everything goes to his new wife - not you or your children'.. Except they're not just the OP's children, are they? And now we have a mother left to bring up 2 children without any kind of support and she is vilified for just wanting to know if there is anything that can be done about that.

As always, it's the woman's fault that she is left with all the hard work without any empathy or understanding from society. I mean clearly it is her responsibility to know her ex was at death's door and she should have somehow made the necessary financial arrangements for their children.

She could have taken out a life insurance policy on her ex husband as she had an insurable interest her children and the fact that if he were to die her children would suffer financially. My brother did this and when his ex partner topped herself he was able to split the insurance between a savings account for his son, and to use in emergencies if there was anything his son needed and he couldn't afford, such as school trips.

Spendless

GwylimT wrote: »

My brother did this and when his ex partner topped herself he was able to split the insurance between a savings account for his son, and to use in emergencies if there was anything his son needed and he couldn't afford, such as school trips.

I didn't think insurance policies paid out if death was due to suicide?

GwylimT

Spendless wrote: »

I didn't think insurance policies paid out if death was due to suicide?

Hmm not heard of that.
Edit
Just had a quick google, apparently the only time insurance sometimes refuse a payout in that case is when the policy is less than twelve months old, or a medical condition associated such as depression hasn't been declared to the insurer.

marliepanda

Spendless wrote: »

I didn't think insurance policies paid out if death was due to suicide?

Sometimes death in service benefits aren't paid if there was suicide. It happened at my Dads work, it was probably a suicide as there was literally no other result from what the man did, and no reason for him to be doing it other than to kill himself, but because there was some reasonable doubt about it and no proof they had to pay out.