Letter from DWP

atush

If she wasn't the only beneficiary of that estate, that could be grounds for a reduction/or agreement to not pay.

uknick

atush wrote: »

If she wasn't the only beneficiary of that estate, that could be grounds for a reduction/or agreement to not pay.

Why would this be the case?

But, has the question been answered as to whether there was any money left in the estate after funeral costs?

If there was, the executor is responsible for the debt, not the mother assuming she wasn't the executor, as they distributed the estate without first clearing the debts. I think the payment will be deemed to have been known as it would show in the father's bank account.

Having said that whether DWP will pursue the amount is another question. There will be DWP de-minimus amounts for recovery. When I worked there, these were about £100.

atush

If she wasn't the executor, and only inherited half his estate, surely whoever inherited the other half should be liable for 50% of the over payment? How would HMRC get this money back?

Or again, if an outside executor, they should have seen the payments and queried repayment prior to paying out beneficiaries?

Roseanne1

uknick wrote: »

Why would this be the case?

But, has the question been answered as to whether there was any money left in the estate after funeral costs?

If there was, the executor is responsible for the debt, not the mother assuming she wasn't the executor, as they distributed the estate without first clearing the debts. I think the payment will be deemed to have been known as it would show in the father's bank account.

Having said that whether DWP will pursue the amount is another question. There will be DWP de-minimus amounts for recovery. When I worked there, these were about £100.

The payment they asked for was not shown on the bank statement, they are only clawing a week's worth back, as I explained, he was paid four weekly. I did see an amount had gone in after he died. But, as I also mentioned, we already had correspondence from DWP since then with details of my mother's updated state pension - she was entitled to a higher amount than she was originally getting before my father died based on his NI contributions. Well, I thought it was fair to assuume that they were aware of the death and would have clawed back any money they saw as due sooner. When they didn't - well we couldn't leave the estate undistributed indefinitely. FWIW, the payment said to be due was £120.93 so I'll give them a buzz on Monday, explain the situation and see what they say. If we have to pay it, so be it, we will make arrangements to do that.

JB9302

My mum passed away March this year , she died on a Saturday and I rang the DWP on Monday morning , her weekly pension had already been paid in earlier that day.
DWP took my details and informed me they would write explaining how I would repay the overpayment , still waiting and the money is kept safe ready to be returned .

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.

Thanks gterr for your advice, which I took and I phoned the number on the letter. Explained the situation re length of time being notified of this debt and the estate being wound up some months ago.

I spoke to a very helpful lady who asked the date of death, the date of the letter and agreed it seemed to take a long time for them to notify us of the overpayment. She says we don't have to do anything and can file it in the bin.

Of course we won't do that in case we hear from someone again because she gave me a note of her name and instructed me to note on the letter that she confirmed neither my mother nor I have to make any payment.

Thanks again and I pressed the thanks button on your post too. :T

JB9302

Further to my previous post in June , I have just received letter from DWP asking for over payment of mums pension from March , repaid it online this morning .