DWP reclaiming from estates

saracen1966

Advice would be appreciated.
After a horrible 3 years in which I lost my youngest brother, my youngest son and then in March of last year my mother I currently find myself stressed out with having to deal with the reclamation of debt from my mothers estate.
Don't get me wrong I agree with everything they are saying, when mum made an application in May of 2010 she didn't declare that she had opened a 5 year growth bond with Barclays with £40,000, evidently she'd been advised that because it was "locked in" for 5 years she didn't need to.
mum was registered blind and as well as state pension she was in receipt of attendance allowance at the higher rate and obviously due to her not declaring her savings she was awarded pension credit.
As I said I agree that she was claiming money she wasn't entitled to, the whole situation has been a surprise to me, I knew nothing about the bond or the application for benefits; evidently she was advised to make the application when my father was put into a care home.
I have been advised by a friend to approach the council as I am told the likelihood is that if she was receiving pension credit there's a chance she was also receiving housing benefit and help with pension credit and I should attempt to repay any benefits from the estate.
My pressure is coming from siblings who are saying say nothing because they haven't come forward. But my concern is that if I don't and they come forward after the money is distributed as sole executor I will be held responsible.
Many thanks in anticipation.

nannytone_2

if you don't tell them, they WILL find out and as you say, come after you as the executor.
all the pension credit will have to be repaid, and as she received pension credit, she would also have had full housing and council tax benefit too.
these will also have to be repaid.
it will come to light at some point if you don't tell them now.
tell your siblings to take a jump as they are trying to commit fraud

benniebert

saracen1966 wrote: »

Advice would be appreciated.
After a horrible 3 years in which I lost my youngest brother, my youngest son and then in March of last year my mother I currently find myself stressed out with having to deal with the reclamation of debt from my mothers estate.
Don't get me wrong I agree with everything they are saying, when mum made an application in May of 2010 she didn't declare that she had opened a 5 year growth bond with Barclays with £40,000, evidently she'd been advised that because it was "locked in" for 5 years she didn't need to.
mum was registered blind and as well as state pension she was in receipt of attendance allowance at the higher rate and obviously due to her not declaring her savings she was awarded pension credit.
As I said I agree that she was claiming money she wasn't entitled to, the whole situation has been a surprise to me, I knew nothing about the bond or the application for benefits; evidently she was advised to make the application when my father was put into a care home.
I have been advised by a friend to approach the council as I am told the likelihood is that if she was receiving pension credit there's a chance she was also receiving housing benefit and help with pension credit and I should attempt to repay any benefits from the estate.
My pressure is coming from siblings who are saying say nothing because they haven't come forward. But my concern is that if I don't and they come forward after the money is distributed as sole executor I will be held responsible.
Many thanks in anticipation.

As the sole executor, it is your responsibility to administer the estate. You are required to enquire if there are debts anywhere, agree them and settle them out of the estate funds.
Whatever your siblings say should be ignored. If you were to distribute and later it was found that there was this debt would the siblings hand you back the money to pay it off?

SandraScarlett

What a horrible few years you have had. I'm so sorry that you have experienced so many losses, in such a short time. I lost my DH 2 days before Christmas, and, because of the long holiday period, his SRP was paid for 2 more weeks.


When I received the letter asking for repayment, I telephoned and did this the same day. I just wanted to clear all the loose ends up.


It's all very well for your siblings to advise you "say nothing", but if you're the executor, any problems will land solely on your plate. You've got quite enough grief to cope with, and you don't need loads of "what ifs" in your life, and as Nanny says, eventually it will all come to light officially.


xx

McKneff

Nannytone is completely correct. Eventually the DWP will catch up with it all, its inevitable.




If you sort it now you can then move on with your life with a clear conscience and not have to worry over the coming years that they will catch up with you.


Tell your family that its you who they would come after and you would willingly swap places with one of them so that they can sort it all out.
Good luck with it all.