Practical issue during COViD 19

lisyloo

i am currently unable to report a death to DWP or AA (get engaged tone after selecting option 2).
does anyone know if “tell us once” includes attendance allowance and does AA still need to be reported separately (I believe it did 2 years ago).

badger09

lisyloo said:

i am currently unable to report a death to DWP or AA (get engaged tone after selecting option 2).
does anyone know if “tell us once” includes attendance allowance and does AA still need to be reported separately (I believe it did 2 years ago).

Tell Us Once definitely notifies DWP, so I assume (but can't guarantee) that attendance allowance would be dealt with at the same time as any other benefit, state pension etc.
https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once

DWP can be notoriously slow to deal with notifications in normal times, so in the current situation, they'll inevitable get worse. The only practical thing I can suggest is that you keep a close eye on the deceased's bank account for payments from DWP 

lisyloo

Last time I did this (2 years ago) I believe I had to call the attendance allowance unit separately from DWP. It is possible it’s changed since then.
the bank may return payments but I’m not sure how quickly they will deal with closing the account right now.

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once

Tell Us Once will notify:

• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - to deal with personal tax (you need to contact HMRC separately for business taxes, like VAT)
• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) - to cancel benefits and entitlements, for example Universal Credit or State Pension
• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will contact you about the tax, benefits and entitlements of the person who died.
  
  
• Relative used TUO last  April when his relative died when in receipt of AA and SP.

lisyloo

Thanks. I have heard of issues with tell us once not informing DWP for ages and then refunds being requested, but it seems that you cannot contact DWP or AA about this at the moment (announcement implies the service is not offered and option is cut off) so it looks like there is no other option but to rely on “tell us once”.

Bobziz

We used the TUO service and phoned direct before the current crisis, and we still ended up with DWP requesting a refund. Probably best to assume that this is inevitable.

badger09

In my case as executor in 2018, Tell Us Once definitely did notify DWP. The delay in dealing with that notification rested squarely with DWP.

OP, I'm not sure what you mean by 'bank may return payments' but I was informed that payments could & would still be received into the account and only payments out would be stopped within a couple of days of notifying the bank of the death.
This carried on until said banks either released full funds to me as they did not require Probate, or until they had received Probate and released the funds to me. In both cases, that was when the account was actually closed. Hope that makes sense.

lisyloo

Ok thanks. I assumed banks would return/reject payments going in after being notified.
There’s no issue returning money but I know DWP can be slow so I guess we’ll just have to put money aside for several months until it gets resolved fully.

Newly_retired

You could always write a letter to inform DWP, then they can’t turn round and say you kept the AA fraudulently.
At the moment many DWP staff have been diverted on to processing the million new Universal Credit claims, so your issue may not get dealt with for some time. It is therefore prudent to set the money aside ready to repay any extra payments in due course, as you propose.

xylophone

Relative says that in his case, DWP advised that there was money owed to the deceased.

lisyloo

Money arrives weekly in advance, so I’ll just set it aside. Thanks