Recently deceased - just found out DWP overpaid for 10 years

*Scottish*Lass*

Hi, hoping there's someone out there who can provide some advice on this.

My partners mum died in January this year and left a reasonable amount of money to her 6 (grown up, 40+) children.
The money that she left for them was compensation money as she was one of the people given infected blood in the 70s/80s and she contracted hep c due to that. She was very ill over the last 15 or so years due to various complications owed to the transfusion.

Since her death it has been discovered that the DWP over paid her by £100 PER WEEK since 2005, totalling approx £85,000.

The solicitor dealing with the estate is looking into it all but we're now 10 months on and it's still dragging on with no resolution in sight.

Her children and are all struggling with the emotional implications on losing their mother and now are constantly being reminded of how awful life was for her over the last decade and a half due to contracting a disease through no fault of her own and the financial help that she required afterwards due to the disabilitating nature of some of the side effects that she suffered.

Has anyone been in a position like this with such a massive overpayment? How long did it take to sort it all out? The compensation that she received was approx £100,000 so between the DWP 'debt' and the solicitors fees (it's been going on 10 months now so it's not going to be cheap) theres not going to be anything left really. They all know that and are fine with it as they didn't know she had kept the money for them so it's kind of a 'can't lose what you never had' thing but it's heartbreaking for them to still be working through this now. They can't start to look for closure when there's letters coming every other day from the solicitor to update them all.

Thanks in advance for any advice/similar stories you may have.

NYM

From things I've read, I thought that the compensation payments made by the Skipton Fund were disregarded :think:

I'll try to find where I read it...

p00hsticks

NYM wrote: »

From things I've read, I thought that the compensation payments made by the Skipton Fund were disregarded :think:

I'll try to find where I read it...

http://www.skiptonfund.org/benefits-waiver.php

Bear in mind that the OP hasn't really given any info about why DWP believe there has been an overpayment and of what benefit - it may be that it is not related to having this capital sum of compensation.

stevemLS

Think this is what you meant http://www.skiptonfund.org/benefits-waiver.php

What isn't clear, though, is whether OP's mother's overpayment arises solely or partly from the capital sum she had.

NYM

Thanks to you both..:)

You know how it is when something is at the back of your mind but you just can't seem to recall it...:o

*Scottish*Lass*

Hi guys, thanks for the advice so far. The DWP are saying that they've overpaid pension amount by £100 a week since 2005 to a week or 2 after she died. The overpayment just seems to be an 'oversight' on their behalf! And my mil never queried it as far as we can see as the amounts she got for pensions/disability allowance/housing & CT benefit tied in with what the original letters from the DWP said.

Does this help any further? It's not that they're saying they've over paid as she had the compensation money BUT that's the only money that they can use to claim back the overpayment

stevemLS

I'm afraid that at this stage the money is not "compensation" it is just part of the estate and the DWP recovers from the estate as a whole.

They are going to have to give a better explanation than "oversight" - if your mil provided them with all the relevant information in a timely fashion it may be that the overpayment is not recoverable as an official error.

I would get the Executors or Administrators of the estate to do a subject access request and find out what the DWP knew and when.

pmlindyloo

Where are they saying the overpayments have arisen from? Which benefit(s)

To be honest until the DWP say exactly where the overpayments have arisen then there is no way of appealing/disputing this.

Has the solicitor got a detailed breakdown of the overpayments? Has the solicitor got copies of the award letters?

If the DWP has made a mistake despite all income/savings being declared then they should 'write it off'.

stevemLS

NYM wrote: »

Thanks to you both..:)

You know how it is when something is at the back of your mind but you just can't seem to recall it...:o

Know exactly what you mean, there is all sorts of stuff in all sorts of nooks in my brain which will never see the light of day again, at least not at my behest!

xylophone

What happened in 2005 to trigger the recalculation of her state pension?

*Scottish*Lass*

2005 was when she hit state pension age, it seems to have been an error from the word go �� The solicitor has asked for all of her bank statements from 2005 onwards to have a look through them all but this is going to take a bit of time to get copies from the bank etc.

Really, I just wondered if anyone had had this happen that could give some advice, the solicitor is working on it and we're just waiting to see what he says next.

It makes sense that it's no longer looked at as compensation, but as the estate.

I guess I just don't understand how the DWP could overpay £100 a WEEK and never realise until she died?