Death In service

atrebor

Hi - Long time member, infrequent poster here,
I really need some help.

My friends husband has sadly past away after a terrible short term terminal cancer. She is left with two young children and as you can imagine is in a very dark place at the moment.

Her husband worked for a large well known company for many years and she is entitled to death in service, which to be honest she is relying on.

The company is refusing to communicate with her - not answering phone calls / returning phone calls, answering emails or letters. I am trying to come up with a plan to help her get what she is entitled to so she can get on with grieving and working out how to bring up two children with out the worry of having her house repossessed.
I don't know where to start. Anyone have any experience of this?

Yours Hopefully,
Rob

DandelionPatrol

1. She should write a letter to the head honcho in HR, and keep a copy. She should ask for a named individual who is responsible for dealing with the matter and for a statement of Death in Service Benefit due.
2. If no acknowledgement within 7 days or no substantive response within 21 days she should write to the Company Secretary, heading the letter 'Letter Before Action' enclosing a copy of the letter to the head honcho in HR and advise that if the letter to HR is not addressed in 14 days, she will pursue the matter in Court.
3. If still no satisfactory response, she should take the company to court and ask for an Order requiring the company to produce a statement of Death in Service Benefit due.

If she has to take step 2, she should ideally get advice from a solicitor first, to check out the options under 3

getmore4less

Who in the company is she trying to contact?

Check the paperwork, the benefit would be attached to the pension scheme or another policy.

It may be worth contacting the policy provider direct.

agrinnall

As gm4l says, it's most likely that the death in service benefit will be related to pension entitlement. The trustees of the pension scheme will be the people to contact, this may well include the head of HR but it would be best to find out the correct details and how to contact them.

Derwent

agrinnall wrote: »

As gm4l says, it's most likely that the death in service benefit will be related to pension entitlement. The trustees of the pension scheme will be the people to contact, this may well include the head of HR but it would be best to find out the correct details and how to contact them.

It isn't always pension related, many companies have separate Life Assurance policies through providers such as Canada Life or Unum which cover the death in service payout for their workforce.

atrebor

Thanks Guys, will get on to this for her, Really appreciate your replys. She's going through enough without the company acting like (insert word of your choice)

Rob

Mojisola

Is she also claiming WPA?
https://www.gov.uk/widowed-parents-allowance/overview

Credit-Crunched

DandelionPatrol wrote: »

1. She should write a letter to the head honcho in HR, and keep a copy. She should ask for a named individual who is responsible for dealing with the matter and for a statement of Death in Service Benefit due.
2. If no acknowledgement within 7 days or no substantive response within 21 days she should write to the Company Secretary, heading the letter 'Letter Before Action' enclosing a copy of the letter to the head honcho in HR and advise that if the letter to HR is not addressed in 14 days, she will pursue the matter in Court.
3. If still no satisfactory response, she should take the company to court and ask for an Order requiring the company to produce a statement of Death in Service Benefit due.

If she has to take step 2, she should ideally get advice from a solicitor first, to check out the options under 3

It may be possible that the deceased has not completed a nomination of beneficiary forms, this would slow things down significantly and the company are within their rights to wait until probate.

Did the husband have any other life policies that may pay out in the interim?

Transformers

Are there any of the deceased's work colleagues that you could call - they might be able to clarify if the payment is pension or insurance related and provide contact details.

How about speaking to his former boss?

Also, try googling the company name plus various terms to see if you can identify the pension provider from there.

gettingtheresometime

tbh it depends on what the nomination form states as to who gets the DIS benefit - and believe me I've seen some where I've thought I hope to goodness I'm not around to deal with this claim

InsideInsurance

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

tbh it depends on what the nomination form states as to who gets the DIS benefit - and believe me I've seen some where I've thought I hope to goodness I'm not around to deal with this claim

Former boss died whilst I worked with him. He'd been at the company for a while and his original nomination form gave his estranged wife as the beneficiary.

HR records showed another form had been received a few years ago which tied up with him moving in with his girlfriend and having a kid with her but the form had been lost and who it nominated had not been recorded.

Was a hell of a mess for the trustees to deal with but it did eventually go to the g/friend rather than the wife