Sorting out a widow's affairs

Yorkshireman99

confusED wrote: »

HB in his name only.
Current account jnt (some of the money).
ISA in his name rest of the money.

In which case has she notified the council so the HB is stopped? If not she must do so now otherwise she will be liable for it. Until her funds drop below the HB threshold then she will have to make a new claim. Is there a will and who is the executor? On the face of what you have said and assuming there is a large liability to repay the HB then the estate is probably insolvent. In which case that possibly opens another can of worms.

Keep_pedalling

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

In which case has she notified the council so the HB is stopped? If not she must do so now otherwise she will be liable for it. Until her funds drop below the HB threshold then she will have to make a new claim. Is there a will and who is the executor? On the face of what you have said and assuming there is a large liability to repay the HB then the estate is probably insolvent. In which case that possibly opens another can of worms.

Yes that needs to be done and you also need to contact the landlord if everything is in his name.

I doubt if the estate will be insolvent, as any overpayment should only be based on capital over the qualifying maximum savings, but the amount owed be be significantly increased if the OPs visit to the bank this afternoon turns up more money hidden away.

Yorkshireman99

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Yes that needs to be done and you also need to contact the landlord if everything is in his name.

I doubt if the estate will be insolvent, as any overpayment should only be based on capital over the qualifying maximum savings, but the amount owed be be significantly increased if the OPs visit to the bank this afternoon turns up more money hidden away.

Every month that the capital was above the limit means £1,250 is due to be repaid. That soon mounts up.

confusED

Ok bank reveals more money in his name!
There is 16k in his name there and 27k in joint name. HB in his name but paid into joint account.
So if I understand right the 16k will have to go back. Then either the 11k above 16k in the joint account has to go back now or if "hers" be used without getting HB until she only has 16k to her name.

We used the tell us once when we registered the death and we can see that HB has been stopped so she isn't getting any now. His pension has been stopped and hers has gone up slightly. The tax have told us they will be in touch soon. We have told the landlord and they are going to be in touch but there are holidays being taken by the people we need to talk to. They were giving them a reduced rent as a social program.

The situation seems that she will end up with the 16k savings either quickly or eventually but with the loss of his pension will end up with £1k pm of pension but having to top up rent by £500+ and her bills are £375 so £125pm for food etc. The real issue is that the rent will continue to be put up every april. Yes her savings can be used to supplement her but it isn't a sustainable life.

confusED

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

In which case has she notified the council so the HB is stopped? If not she must do so now otherwise she will be liable for it. Until her funds drop below the HB threshold then she will have to make a new claim. Is there a will and who is the executor? On the face of what you have said and assuming there is a large liability to repay the HB then the estate is probably insolvent. In which case that possibly opens another can of worms.

Hi, no will. We have told all the banks now and currently all accounts are now in her name. As I said originally the HB wasin his name and has been stopped. It was paid however into a joint account which sits at 27k. He had 17k in his name elsewhere but it has now been put into the joint account too.

I personally dont have a problem with them having back the savings - the issue is that she cant then afford to live there anyway as his pension has ended.. The landlord is on a path to ever increasing rent and without savings to top it up she cant live there. I dont know anything about pension credit but I went on a calculator for it and it looked like she'd get no help but I could be wrong.

missbiggles1

confusED wrote: »

Ok bank reveals more money in his name!
There is 16k in his name there and 27k in joint name. HB in his name but paid into joint account.
So if I understand right the 16k will have to go back. Then either the 11k above 16k in the joint account has to go back now or if "hers" be used without getting HB until she only has 16k to her name.

We used the tell us once when we registered the death and we can see that HB has been stopped so she isn't getting any now. His pension has been stopped and hers has gone up slightly. The tax have told us they will be in touch soon. We have told the landlord and they are going to be in touch but there are holidays being taken by the people we need to talk to. They were giving them a reduced rent as a social program.

The situation seems that she will end up with the 16k savings either quickly or eventually but with the loss of his pension will end up with £1k pm of pension but having to top up rent by £500+ and her bills are £375 so £125pm for food etc. The real issue is that the rent will continue to be put up every april. Yes her savings can be used to supplement her but it isn't a sustainable life.

Why does she need to pay such a large top up for the rent now she's on her own when it was fully covered by HB when he was alive?

Keep_pedalling

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Every month that the capital was above the limit means £1,250 is due to be repaid. That soon mounts up.

That is not quite correct, they have to take into account that their savings would have diminished by paying their rent instead of recieving benefit.

So if Ifor example I had savings of £26000 but claimed HB of £1000 a month over 2 years, I would have received a total of £24000, but they cannot make me pay all of that back because that would leave me in a worse position than if I had gone about it correctly and payed £1000 a month to my landlord and then claimed at the point my savings had dropped to £16,000.

In the above example they should claim back only £10000, but I would probably still be in a worse position after being dragged through the courts but that can't happen in the OPs case.

confusED

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Why does she need to pay such a large top up for the rent now she's on her own when it was fully covered by HB when he was alive?

Their rent is and was £500+ more than HB but before his pension was there and this enabled them to cover the extra £500.

Keep_pedalling

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Why does she need to pay such a large top up for the rent now she's on her own when it was fully covered by HB when he was alive?

confusED wrote: »

Hi, no will. We have told all the banks now and currently all accounts are now in her name. As I said originally the HB wasin his name and has been stopped. It was paid however into a joint account which sits at 27k. He had 17k in his name elsewhere but it has now been put into the joint account too.

I personally dont have a problem with them having back the savings - the issue is that she cant then afford to live there anyway as his pension has ended.. The landlord is on a path to ever increasing rent and without savings to top it up she cant live there. I dont know anything about pension credit but I went on a calculator for it and it looked like she'd get no help but I could be wrong.

She might be able to get PC once her savings have fallen substancially but not at the moment.

confusED

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

She might be able to get PC once her savings have fallen substancially but not at the moment.

I tried the calculator stating zero savings and it still appeared to say no help but I may have done it wrong.