Repayment of Overpaid Benefit After Claimant's Death

LooLa1966

My partner's ex wife died a couple of months ago and his daughter has just told us that she is being pursued for repayment of overpaid income support of £2,500. I understand that there is no money in the mother's estate to pay an amount such as this, does the overpayment still have to be repaid? Also, the mother did re-marry a couple of months before she died, shouldn't it be her husband that is pursued for the debt?

Caz3121

The estate should be the only area chased for repayment, was there any property?

antrobus

LooLa1966 wrote: »

My partner's ex wife died a couple of months ago and his daughter has just told us that she is being pursued for repayment of overpaid income support of £2,500. I understand that there is no money in the mother's estate to pay an amount such as this, does the overpayment still have to be repaid? Also, the mother did re-marry a couple of months before she died, shouldn't it be her husband that is pursued for the debt?

It depends on what you mean by "there is no money in the mother's estate to pay an amount such as this".

If this means that there was never any money in the estate to cover the sum demanded by the DWP because the estate was insolvent, then the DWP can go whistle. Although they do need to be told that the estate was insolvent.

However if this means that there is no money in the mother's estate because it's already been dealt with, and distributed to the benficiaries, then the DWP can pursue the benficiaries.

pmlindyloo

LooLa1966 wrote: »

My partner's ex wife died a couple of months ago and his daughter has just told us that she is being pursued for repayment of overpaid income support of £2,500. I understand that there is no money in the mother's estate to pay an amount such as this, does the overpayment still have to be repaid? Also, the mother did re-marry a couple of months before she died, shouldn't it be her husband that is pursued for the debt?

Is his daughter the executor of the will? Whoever is the executor should be dealing with this.

Only the person whose name the debt is in can be pursued for the debt. The debt would have to come out of that person's estate if there were any assets. There is a certain order in which debts have to be paid.

If his daughter is the executor then she needs to get some advice/do some googling about her responsibilities.

LooLa1966

Thank you all for the responses - there was no property and I perhaps used the word "estate" in the wrong way, as far as I know there were no savings or assets worth anything. I also believe that there was no will so no executors. Obviously I don't have all the details of the finances, I can only go on what I have been told, so am grateful to be able to give my stepdaugter some general advice.

densol_2

An administrator would need to come forward ( usually the person who would inherit ) to apply for letters of administration to distribute the estate. However it would seem there is 'no estate' as the estate is involvent as the debts are more than the value ? DWP need to be told the situation so they don't chase further. If there were any monies then the debts need to be repaid but in a certain pecking order ( like secured and HMRC etc coming out first )

specialboy

Are these payments from when the mother was alive or did they continue after her death?