Intestacy Rules

Rose1988

BobQ wrote: »

OP,

Death Benefit will be twice pensionable pay in the final year.

Thanks BobQ,

Sorry to sound silly here but is that twice his monthly salary or annual salary? The PDF you sent me wasn't clear but I read it and twice the final monthly salary

I am assuming even if he hasn't mentioned her for whatever reason, she would attend the funeral.

To be honest, if she has had communication with my dad, that would be enough for me to accept her as he did. His mobile phone company have asked me to send his death certificate in with a covering note so they can give me access to his phone as he is with Virgin Mobile and has this mobile rescue app on there. There will be evidence on his phone if he's had contact with her. He was unusually quiet and told everyone things on a 'need to know' basis so I don't know if he didn't know how to tell me as I have been his only child for so many years or what, but those are some of the questions that I will be wondering for a long time

I love my dad and even though family didn't want to help out financially, I was angry they left me to do it all alone because they are 'his' family but not so angry the responsibility fell on me (if that makes any sense).

I think I will take the advice, put an ad in the paper, attempt to locate this girl when I travel (and possibly view a death certificate) and then speak to his employer regarding the death benefit and then take it from there.

This is really stressful...

Mojisola

Rose1988 wrote: »

To be honest, if she has had communication with my dad, that would be enough for me to accept her as he did.

The point about administering an estate is that you should follow the law. You have a legal responsibility to distribute the estate correctly. You shouldn't hand over half unless she can prove in some way that she is his child.

If you are happy to accept her word without proof, you should really tie up the estate with you inheriting everything and then give her half - that way it's a gift from you, not an inheritance that someone else could complain she wasn't entitled to.

Rose1988

Mojisola wrote: »

The point about administering an estate is that you should follow the law. You have a legal responsibility to distribute the estate correctly. You shouldn't hand over half unless she can prove in some way that she is his child.

If you are happy to accept her word without proof, you should really tie up the estate with you inheriting everything and then give her half - that way it's a gift from you, not an inheritance that someone else could complain she wasn't entitled to.

Very true, I think this is what I'll do.

I will speak to the employer to ensure that a nomination was definitely not filled in and then probably do as suggested as I was thinking along these lines too.

BobQ

Rose1988 wrote: »

Thanks BobQ,

Sorry to sound silly here but is that twice his monthly salary or annual salary? The PDF you sent me wasn't clear but I read it and twice the final monthly salary

I...

It is twice what he earned in the final year. This would roughly be twice annual salary, although could be different to this if he had had a promotion in the final year. The following explains this.

http://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/media/94842/nbdis_sep2014.pdf

I have a distant relative two had two children one born here and one abroad to different women. Neither knew the other existed but both ended up living in different cities in the same country. They found out each other existed when they went to his house to sort out his funeral. So it does happen.

Rose1988

Funny you say that, his Boss said he moved from a Band D to Band C this April (whatever that means). It's odd about the other girl, but I guess he had his reasons.

Whilst sitting here, I opened a letter and according to his deductions, he was paying PCSPS Widows(er)s Pension Scheme 1.5% BT and he had some other Voluntary Deductions.

I am not sure why he would have a widowers pension scheme though unless he planned to marry?

Savvy_Sue

You're talking about repatriation: does this mean he died abroad? Did he have travel insurance? I'd expect that to cover bringing his body home.

System

I read it as repatriation to the father's country of birth/origin.

Rose1988

!!!!!! wrote: »

I read it as repatriation to the father's country of birth/origin.

That's correct

AngelOfTheNorth

BobQ wrote: »

You say "his family"? If he had a common law wife might he have completed a nomination form in her favour? He may have nominated you of course.

If he lived in the UK, he didn't have a common law wife because there's no such thing. Such a person would be an unmarried partner, common law spouse is a legally meaningless term here. You're right of course that they or someone else could've been a nominated beneficiary.

Also OP, you're not necessarily liable for any service or repatriation. You are if you instructed funeral parlour etc, but the mere fact of being someone's daughter doesn't mean you have to pay. And if there is any estate left, the costs should come from that.

BobQ

Rose1988 wrote: »

Funny you say that, his Boss said he moved from a Band D to Band C this April (whatever that means). It's odd about the other girl, but I guess he had his reasons.

Whilst sitting here, I opened a letter and according to his deductions, he was paying PCSPS Widows(er)s Pension Scheme 1.5% BT and he had some other Voluntary Deductions.

I am not sure why he would have a widowers pension scheme though unless he planned to marry?

Rose,
Yes, it is odd that he never told you about her but maybe there was some family secret that he wanted to avoid you knowing. People do the strangest things!

Re the pension, you might mean Band C to Band D (which is higher)

The pay scales for DWP are:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/350092/dwp-junior-roles-and-salaries-march-2014.csv/preview

So his final year's pay will be some months at Band C and some at Band D depending on when he was promoted.

WPS is intended to pay a pension to a spouse and any dependent children when the pensioner dies. In the older scheme (Classic) the WPS contributions were partially refundable if the person retired unmarried. But I do not think they refund this under Nuvos or when a Death in Service Payment is made. But they will explain that to you.