DWP Claim and Estate distribution - advice please.

Snuggles

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Being a little pedantic, but just on case of anyone else reading this.

PIP is a non means tested benefits so unless there were a couple of overpayments after death then savings/income of the deceased would not have had any effect on the PIP payment.

In addition to overpayments after death, payments made while in hospital also have to be repaid in some circumstances, as was the case with my father - I never said this was anything to do with savings or income.

barryjarcher

Well you guys are great so thank you for all your advice.

My main annoyance with this and the DWP is that they won't provide a worse case scenario (Although I must admit it has been my sister in contact with them not myself so she could be asking the wrong questions) they must know how much they were paying him?; we didn't even know he was getting pension credit and if we knew that we could work out how much he owed (99.9% sure he wasn't entitled to this due to savings he had) as for income support its is so historic (1993-2003) that I'll be surprised if we could get his net worth as banks don't keep records that far back plus the fact he was a bank switcher so he may not of even been with the banks he had at death that far back.

If I was in the position of not being able to determine worth during any period is it a case of DWP proving he wasn't entitled or me having to prove he was?

Shelldean

barryjarcher wrote: »

Well you guys are great so thank you for all your advice.

My main annoyance with this and the DWP is that they won't provide a worse case scenario (Although I must admit it has been my sister in contact with them not myself so she could be asking the wrong questions) they must know how much they were paying him?; we didn't even know he was getting pension credit and if we knew that we could work out how much he owed (99.9% sure he wasn't entitled to this due to savings he had) as for income support its is so historic (1993-2003) that I'll be surprised if we could get his net worth as banks don't keep records that far back plus the fact he was a bank switcher so he may not of even been with the banks he had at death that far back.

If I was in the position of not being able to determine worth during any period is it a case of DWP proving he wasn't entitled or me having to prove he was?

They refused to tell OH and he was executor, we foolishly worked out our own rough estimates. But we worked it on all money the deceased was receiving, when it was only pension credit to be paid back.
So we was pleasantly surprised last week to get the letter asking for a much smaller amount.

Dwp state in their letter for balances that they realise most financial institutions don't go beyond six years. So don't worry too much.

We was asked for two dates 2004 and 2009, we just scrapped in under six yrs for the Feb 2009 request. But supplied nothing for 2004, and ours was sorted.

Our investigation was over a ten yr claim, 2004 - death in 2004. And as in your case due to savings no claim should've been made.

barryjarcher

Shelldean wrote: »

Dwp state in their letter for balances that they realise most financial institutions don't go beyond six years. So don't worry too much.

We was asked for two dates 2004 and 2009, we just scrapped in under six yrs for the Feb 2009 request. But supplied nothing for 2004, and ours was sorted.

Our investigation was over a ten yr claim, 2004 - death in 2004. And as in your case due to savings no claim should've been made.

So why are they investigating claims between 1993 and 2003 when there is little or no chance to get any financial information from that time period, seems pointless to even investigate?

Shelldean

barryjarcher wrote: »

So why are they investigating claims between 1993 and 2003 when there is little or no chance to get any financial information from that time period, seems pointless to even investigate?

I have no idea. In our case it was a refund of all pension credit that had been paid, as she should never have claimed it.

Weary_soul

Shelldean wrote: »

I have no idea. In our case it was a refund of all pension credit that had been paid, as she should never have claimed it.

Did the DWP apply the diminishing capital calculation at all?

Shelldean

Weary_soul wrote: »

Did the DWP apply the diminishing capital calculation at all?

No, because her capital was such that even applying it wouldn't have brought the level of savings near enough to receive pension credit.

There was no calculations with the amount requested, and we did not request any. As we was able to calculate ourselves using award notices to almost the exact same figure.

If they're figures had been vastly different I would've asked for calculations to see how they achieved their figure.

However I was aware of the diminishing capital rule and I hope the OP is too as it maybe relevant in his case.

barryjarcher

Shelldean wrote: »

However I was aware of the diminishing capital rule and I hope the OP is too as it maybe relevant in his case.

Well I'm aware of the term as its been mentioned a few times on the forum but I'm not aware of what it is, could you detail please?

Shelldean

barryjarcher wrote: »

Well I'm aware of the term as its been mentioned a few times on the forum but I'm not aware of what it is, could you detail please?

I've made a look but can't find anything to accurately describe it. So I will attempt.....

If the deceased had say 25k in savings and the benefit limit was 16k.
So not entitled to benefits as above upper threshold.
But they use 1k a month to live on. After nine months they would be at the upper limit and entitled to partial benefit. Their savings would depreciate slower but still go down.

I think and only think dwp work it our on cycles of 13 weeks, so at beginning of claim they had 25k and no entitlement, after 13 weeks they have 22k and still no entitlement. After 26 weeks 19k, and still no entitlement. And so on.


What dwp can't do is calculations as if the claimant had the 25k for all the claim, because if they hadn't received the benefits, they would've used their savings, so their capital diminishes.



Right that's about as clear as mud, will Google further.

Keep_pedalling

barryjarcher wrote: »

Well I'm aware of the term as its been mentioned a few times on the forum but I'm not aware of what it is, could you detail please?

If for example you had £5,200 of undeclared money that would have prevented you from claiming a benefit worth £100 per week and you claimed that for 2 years, then without calculating for diminished capital you would owe £10,400. But if you had not claimed that benefit you would have had to take that money from your savings so after just one year they would have been reduced to nothing and you could then legitimately claimed after the 1st year, so now you only owe £5,200.

In your father's case I don't see how they can show he owed the money, let alone calculate depreciating capital.

Did something happen in 2003, which meant he was much better off so no longer needed to claim?