Letter from DWP

FatherAbraham

greenglide wrote: »

What DWP can do is automatically (or manually if necessary) is to reverse a payment made by BACS which has not yet been credited by the bank (within the three day BACS cycle). This is normal action, it happens immediately.

BACS was replaced by Faster Payments three years ago. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BACS#Faster_Payments_Service

Warmest regards,
FA

Roseanne1

Mojisola wrote: »

She doesn't owe them money - your father's estate does. If your mother inherited from him then she will have to pay it back but it isn't her debt as such.

It has taken them a long time to sort this out. We got letters from the DWP much sooner after Mum and Dad died. Contact them and complain but don't expect to be let off the debt.

Yeah that crossed my mind, of course. It is really his debt. My mother inherited everything from him, she then gave some money to myself and my sisters.

PennyForThem_2

I rang the DWP as well as everyone else (credit cards, bank, insurance, hospital) on the Monday when my husband died on Saturday. Yes, I did use Tell Us Once but I did not rely on them. And yes, I had been married 40 years as well.

Roseanne1

uknick wrote: »

This happened when my partner's mother passed away a couple of years ago. She was not happy at first when the letter arrived out of the blue but, as the pension had been overpaid, she accepted it.

In her case she never got the chance to discuss a payment plan as DWP took the money from her late mother's bank account without any other communication.

This did surprise her as she thought the account had been closed after she notified the bank of her mother's passing. After looking into it she found that DWP seem to have special powers to unilaterally take overpaid money from accounts.


However, as said previously, it is a debt against your father's estate. Did he leave any assets after deducting funeral costs? If not, there may be a chance DWP will waive the debt.

That is absolutely shocking. The bank's actions were a disgrace too, what excuse did they have for not closing it?

I had a similar situation with Orange. They tried recently to get £40 odd off us for my dad's mobile account. I had notified the death back in January and, after more too-ing and fro-ing, the account wasn't closed til May. I cancelled the DD and advised them of this. Admittedly, with hindsight, I did this a bit too quick because there was another bill to come for calls from the middle of December. I'd have excepted having to pay that if it came to it but I used the resolver tool to complain (it is very good btw) and basically said that they still have two loyal customers in my mother and I, I posted the account numbers and I said that the least they could do is cancel the debt for the months when no calls were made but, as a gesture of goodwill, it would be nice if they would cancel the other £17 or so where calls were made. To be fair to them, they did. :T

He left a will and, after we claimed on his life insurance policies and paid off the funeral, what was left went to my mother. It wasn't a large estate but she manages and I am happy to help her anytime as well.

Roseanne1

greenglide wrote: »

What DWP can do is automatically (or manually if necessary) is to reverse a payment made by BACS which has not yet been credited by the bank (within the three day BACS cycle). This is normal action, it happens immediately.

I am not aware of them, or anyone else, being able to recover money when the account has been closed but in the case of death notified to the bank the account isnt actually closed.

The pension was paid into my mum and dad's joint account. After my mother got the death certificate, we went to the bank. The joint account was transferred into my mother's own name. The account number is the same as it was and you can still see transactions on the online banking prior to my father's death so I'm not sure if it can be said tha the joint account was closed as such, just that it was changed to a sole account in my mother's name.

Roseanne1

atush wrote: »

My father was a US civil servant who had a pension. Which was paid immediately after he died. And funnily enough, they wanted their money back so my mom paid it. His state pension had to be refunded too.

The difference was, we could see that there was payment after he died so we anticipated this. Why didn't your mother notice his pension being paid after his death?

If she isn't good with accounts, she needs to be so give her a crash course. In t he mean time, contact DWP and ask for a payment plan.

My mother relied heavily on my father as far as anything financial went. She admitted herself that she would have to learn to cope with this stuff now but I help her best I could.

We did notice the payment had gone in but assumed that they would contact us to claw it back. They did contact us with updated details of my mother's updated state pension (she was entitled to extra pension based on my late father's contributions) back in January so we natuarally thought that was that and there was nothing to be repaid.

I try to include my mother when it comes to her banking. I am trying to help her get her money working for her and earning better interest. She finds it "bamboozling" but I am keeping trying to explain things in a way she will understand. I have her passwords and security details for various banks on a spreadsheet, which is itself password protected so that she does not have to remember a lot of different security details. My mum doesn't like talking about her finances on the phone though is fine face to face but, if she is phoning with a simple query, I try to encourage her to do it to give her more confidence. She actually speaks well on the phone, it is just a confidence thing but if she keeps trying she will get used to it.

greenglide

FatherAbraham wrote: »

BACS was replaced by Faster Payments three years ago. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BACS#Faster_Payments_Service

Warmest regards,
FA

Faster payments haven't replaced BACS (officially VOCA these days) many organisations still use the BACS route to pay people regularly when the three day processing cycle isn't a problem.

DWP does have a capability to make payments via Faster Payments but all regular pensions payments go via BACS.

gterr

OP it's worth looking very closely at the wording of the letter from the DWP. Are they _demanding_ that you pay the money back, or just asking if you would consider it?


A similar thing happened when my mother died. We notified DWP of the death promptly, but it was some months before they decided they had overpaid state pension by two weeks. I was my mother's executor and we had wound up the estate by then. If I hadn't done so I would have paid the money back, but at that stage it would have had to come out of my pocket.


It was clear from the wording of the letter that DWP acknowledged that it was their error and that I was not compelled to pay back the overpayment. I phoned them to check and they were fine about it. They warned me that I might get one further letter 'inviting' me to pay back the money, and that I could ignore it.

uknick

Roseanne1 wrote: »

Originally Posted by uknick
This happened when my partner's mother passed away a couple of years ago. She was not happy at first when the letter arrived out of the blue but, as the pension had been overpaid, she accepted it.

In her case she never got the chance to discuss a payment plan as DWP took the money from her late mother's bank account without any other communication.

This did surprise her as she thought the account had been closed after she notified the bank of her mother's passing. After looking into it she found that DWP seem to have special powers to unilaterally take overpaid money from accounts.


However, as said previously, it is a debt against your father's estate. Did he leave any assets after deducting funeral costs? If not, there may be a chance DWP will waive the debt.

Roseanne1 wrote: »

That is absolutely shocking. The bank's actions were a disgrace too, what excuse did they have for not closing it?

Not really shocking. We knew it had been overpaid and should be recovered from the estate. The bank acted correctly in my opinion.

The only surprise to us was we thought bank accounts were closed upon death notification, not just "frozen", and therefore assumed DWP would be in contact again when they attempted to recover the money and failed.

But, if you think about it, how else could the system work? If the accounts were fully closed, how could things like legitimately issued cheques be honoured?

Roseanne1

gterr wrote: »

OP it's worth looking very closely at the wording of the letter from the DWP. Are they _demanding_ that you pay the money back, or just asking if you would consider it?


A similar thing happened when my mother died. We notified DWP of the death promptly, but it was some months before they decided they had overpaid state pension by two weeks. I was my mother's executor and we had wound up the estate by then. If I hadn't done so I would have paid the money back, but at that stage it would have had to come out of my pocket.


It was clear from the wording of the letter that DWP acknowledged that it was their error and that I was not compelled to pay back the overpayment. I phoned them to check and they were fine about it. They warned me that I might get one further letter 'inviting' me to pay back the money, and that I could ignore it.

That's interesting. The letter acknowledges that this payment was not made as a result of anyone's fault. They then go on to say that, when public funds are paid incorrectly, they are obliged to ask for them to be refunded. They then recommend using an attached BGC slip to make payment by cheque etc and give an address to send refunds to.

Your point about the estate is a good one too and that is my issue. It has taken them so long to send this letter that my father's estate has been wound up. It would effectively have to be paid out of my mother's own pocket now.