Pension credit and Assessed Income period

adw112

I am dealing with my deceased uncles estate. There is £46000 in the bank. This is from an inheritance in 2015. When he received this we informed the pension service and was told he had an indefinite assessed income and this money would not make a difference. This letter was shown to us. DWP are now saying there was no such aip and this money needs to be repaid. How can i prove that he was on this? The house was cleared after his death and I do not have this letter.  

calcotti

Perhaps you could try asking for a Subject Access Request - but I don't know if this is possible for deceased person. It may be if you are the executor.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/request-your-personal-information-from-the-department-for-work-and-pensions

Without paperwork you cannot prove the existence of the AIP.

Robbie64

How old was your uncle in 2015 when he got the inheritance? Was he aged 75+?

adw112

He was 78.

Robbie64

I was checking to make sure he was old enough to qualify for an indefinite assessed income period. He was as the person had to be aged at least 75. You will need to speak to someone at the DWP and get them to look at his Pension Credit claim.

Some things that may help point towards your uncle having an indefinite AIP:

1. was he under 75 when he first claimed Pension Credit?

2. If yes, do you know when he claimed PC? (if he first claimed aged 75+ then the indefinite AIP should have been set from the start of the claim). The reason is that if he was under 75 when he first claimed PC then he should have had an AIP's set at 5 years intervals. When the AIP expired it should have been replaced with an indefinite AIP if he was then aged 75+.

It may require a Subject Access Request, as mentioned above, to get a print out of everything the DWP hold but it could be a lot (I'm talking 500+ pages) of print outs. It would be better if someone from the DWP with the knowledge of what to look for could investigate the matter and look to see what AIP was set in 2015. Hopefully the letter you saw sight of (was that back in 2015, or later?) should also be there, assuming it was computer generated. Sadly, not every letter sent by the DWP has a copy saved to the computer records although issue of the letter should be noted. Sadly again, older notes can be overwritten.

calcotti

I was thinking same. Possibly claimed PC at age 65 (in 2002). AIPs were not introduced until 2003 and I don't know when they were first actually applied. However, even if granted in 2003, two 5 year AIPs would take him past 75 in 2012 and into 2013 at which point an indefinite AIP could have been put in place and would have applied in 2015. However without the paper trail it's impossible to say.

adw112

Thank you for your help. I will contact them and request the information. Its very stressful as this all needs to be explained to the beneficiaries.

adw112

I have been informed by DWP that he was on an assessed income period that ended in 2016. The AIP ended 2 days before his 80th birthday. Is there anything I can do?   Why has it taken 5 years for them to query his savings? When the AIP expired, why wasn't it replaced with an indefinite AIP as he was over 75. Any help would be grateful.

bengal-stripe

 As of April 2016 no new AIPs were given out. 

Previously the AIP would have been replaced with an indefinite one, lasting to the end of life. As his birthday must have been after April 2016 there was no extension, the AIP just expired. The DWP should have sent him notification and asked him to state his savings.

Is it possible he made a false declaration as to save his Pension Credit?

adw112

I can assure you that no false declaration was made