Demand from DWP for payment from deceased mother's estate

Keep_pedalling

Keith_Shackson wrote: »

Yes I will do so tomorrow.Surely though any demand should have been sorted out when solucitor was dealing with the estate between Nov 2016-Aug 2017.It seems really odd to me that this should arise so late. Thanks for your comment.

No, what is likely to trigger a query from DWP is the completion of probate. The estate of anyone on means tested benefits is likely to trigger a query where the estate has considerable assets.

In this case it sounds like the original letter from DWP went missing, so as they had no reply they have made assumptions and made a calculation.

As as already been said you need to contact them to find out what they are clawing back and to challenge them if you believe there were no benefits being paid that she was not entitled too. If it turns out that some benefits were overpaid then the residual beneficiaries will need to pay them.

Dox

Keith_Shackson wrote: »

My mother named myself and my daughter as executors of her will with the solicitor she always used.The solicitor dealt with all legal procedures and in June 2017 gave clearance for inheritance of the house and dispursement of the contents of the will.Whether or not this was rather quick I'm afraid I don't know about that.I had never had to do anything like this before so I just went along with the stages as the solicitor dealt with them.

It's impresssively quick.

Sadly the DWP isn't noted for speed. The most common scenario is where someone is receiving means tested benefits, they die, and the value of their estate takes into account the property they owned and occupied (a value which didn't count towards the means tested benefits). The DWP ambles along, spots this and makes assumptions. I would suspect this is exactly what has happened here, and simply pointing out that the house value was £x should do the trick - but first get the detailed correspondence/breakdown suggested above.

Green_hopeful

Did your solicitor put a notice in the gazette for people who might be owed money from the estate. If they did then I don’t think claims can be made after the deadline which is a few months after the notice.

The DWP normally writes to people where the deceased was in receipt of means tested benefits and the estate seems large. The letter normally comes quite quickly after you send the documents to the tax office and pay any tax. The letter asks for evidence of the deceased’s income and capital during the relevant claim period. The DWP then works out any repayment due.

Since it appears they didn’t receive a response to their letter they may have assumed that your mum wasn’t entitled to any of the benefits paid. It is probably a worse case scenario.

Finally if you did end up paying any inheritance tax on your mum’s estate you may get a refund on the money claimed by the DWP.

getmore4less

A gazette notice cannot be used to exempt from potential known debts like utilities tax Dwp banks credit cards... not found through negligence.

Any debt liability passes to the beneficiaries the gazette just exempts the administrators.

As you took out the grant you are responsible to do due diligence and as you deligate this to solicitors you need to ask them why they failed to ensure there were no outstanding issues with Dwp.

As said previously a full breakdown of the claim will be needed before you can acknowledge any debt

Keith_Shackson

Got to bottom if this matter.DWP say they wrote to solicitor 3 times for Bank and Building Society from April 2010 when my mother started claiming means tested benefits.The solicitor did not reply(though so far they deny this)so DWP took 2016 monetary value of estate which was over the threshold which meant my mother should not have been claiming the benefits.However when we can obtain 2010 statements which are now on order the total amount of money my mother possessed should be below the threshold so hopefully the debt will be cancelled. Thankyou to everyone who helped on this matter.