Any Advice Please

Stevie_Palimo

Not sure if this is the correct place but here goes :-


I have an elderly friend who has never claimed any money and her partner sorted out all the finances, He passed away in 2008 and basically she then started receiving benefits including HB, Pension and pension credits, Roll on a period of around 6 months and she was then told about receiving his pension which was not huge but did get a backlog payment through of a sum.


Roll on to last week and she has been sent a letter from the Social Security stating that due to a payment she had got of the said amount between 08 and 11 she has been given an over payment of the same figure.


My questions are as follows :-


Should the SS not have been informed of the pension payment being made and addressed this some time ago ?


Could it be a statue barred amount due to the time frames ?


If it is there mistake as she had no clue what she was entitled to can they force this to be paid back and if so due to a lack of income would they have to accept small payments.


I could offer to help here and will do so if needs be but strongly believe this is an error on the SS behalf who should by rights keep things straight and if they did there job properly this would have came to light at the time and she would not now be asked for a lump of money she does not have.

greenglide

Are you saying that she has received a pension from the survivors benefits of her late husbands pension and that Social Security (are you in Northern Ireland? This is an NI department) werent aware of this?

It is her responsibilty to inform the local council (for housing benefit) and SSA / DWP (for pension credit) of her income.

If she informed them and they paid the wrong amount it is "their problem" to a large extent. However if she failed to inform them, even if they didn't ask, it is her responsibility.

Not knowing that you should have done something isnt a valid reason for this.

I would expect them to accept an offer of a payment plan for this. Are you sure she is getting all of the benefits she is entitled to?

Stevie_Palimo

greenglide wrote: »

Are you saying that she has received a pension from the survivors benefits of her late husbands pension and that Social Security (are you in Northern Ireland? This is an NI department) werent aware of this?
Yes it was late husbands pension that she never knew she was entitled to until around 6 months after claiming any benefits for the first time, It is NI as well.
It is her responsibilty to inform the local council (for housing benefit) and SSA / DWP (for pension credit) of her income.
Okay fare enough I thought that for the type of payments here the pension Co informed the SS and they put this into any monies being paid out with a plus or minus.
If she informed them and they paid the wrong amount it is "their problem" to a large extent. However if she failed to inform them, even if they didn't ask, it is her responsibility.
Basically she had never claimed any monies before and had no clue as to what she was entitled to and then was advised by a elderly people centre/charity type thing that she would be due his previous pension and that anything due would be on top of previous monies being paid in benefits.
Not knowing that you should have done something isnt a valid reason for this.
That is fare enough, Perhaps the onus falls onto her but I still believe that the SS should know what's being paid and think they have messed up here by not checking paperwork properly, ( I have no issue in helping her if it is indeed due but think that something is not right with this. )
I would expect them to accept an offer of a payment plan for this. Are you sure she is getting all of the benefits she is entitled to?

As far as I am aware she is now getting pension credits, pension, HB and then a wfa when it comes in throughout the year plus a small amount from her deceased husbands pension.


Thanks for the reply my answers in bold here.

atush

Basically, she needed to tell them houw much she was earning and she didn't.

but she didn't do it on purpose to hide anything. So wont be in toruble so to speak.

Assist her to contract them and find out if their figures are correct, and if they will agree to a payment plan. Before you do that (or after you help her send a letter and while waiting for a reply), contact Age concern and find out if she is claiming all she can. Then see how much she can afford to pay back each month?