My dad passed suddenly, I would be ever so grateful if anyone can help with any advice

BooJewels

I would still use the Tell Us Once service, it informs all Government departments and some is also fed through to some pension companies and the like - my Dad's private pension was through the local authority as he'd been a college lecturer - and they mentioned that they'd been informed through it, which served as confirmation as to what I was telling them.  Just do it, it's one of the easiest tasks to complete.

When you sell the car, just fill in the sale parts of the V5 and sign (maybe your Mum) it as 'executor for'.  The combination of the advice of a death through Tell Us Once and then a car sale/new keeper can't be unusual.

I don't know about paying back State Pension as my Dad was underpaid and they owed him, but with other benefits with my husband - they sent me a letter (with slightly indecent haste) outlining how much I owed back and how to pay.  I was a smidge miffed at how quickly it came through, so decided to make them wait a little by posting a cheque.  I posted it on a bank holiday weekend, knowing it would go on the Tuesday and the funds had left my bank on Friday morning.  Yet my Dad's pension underpayment took 11 months to appear.  I just used the Tell Us Once service and the letter came from them without me further speaking to them - that's the point of using the service - just do it and put the ball in their court.

Perhaps best to speak to the council - I found them very good when I've dealt with the two different ones.  Is it perhaps Housing Benefit?

katies_mum

Thank you, I`ll fill out the Tell us Once details and leave it to them,  will ring Sefton Gov and see if I can speak to council tax office, at least that is in joint names and need to see what mum is entitled to before the new Council tax year.  I did a quick look last night and think she might be entitled to pension credit but as there is so much to sort out and not being sure if she is going to benefit from any of his private pensions thought it might be best to wait a little while to see how much money she is actually going to be getting first.

Cheques seem a great idea for any money that needs to be repaid  lol   hadn`t though of that.

McKneff

Your mum should be getting a pension based on your father's ni contributions , her pension should be 60 per cent of a full pension. Please look into this, she should have been getting this from when your father hit 65. 

katies_mum

Thank you McKneff, Mum currently gets 83.99 a week pension from the Government, she was also awarded Attendance Allowance at the end of November, I think it is £89.60 but as they don`t do online baking and only get monthly statements as of yet I can`t keep track of everything until the next statement arrives.

poppystar

I found the car the most difficult bit of my father’s estate, like yours it was old. In the end I used Giveacar who take away the car and donate to a charity of your choice anything they get for scrap. Obviously you yourselves get no money back but the process is so easy as they arrange collection and tell you exactly what bits of paperwork they require. No cost for this service as a percentage is taken off any money raised before it goes to charity. It was a relief for me and a couple of hundred for Guide Dogs which I thought was win win.

Take it all slowly and take care of yourself. I was a bit like a rabbit in headlights at some points and looking back now I realise I could have taken it more slowly. No one is checking up after you and most things can wait. 

anna42hmr

I have list of all the companies that need to be contacted, and following everyone's brilliant advice will do this bit at a time.  In your experience please are the main ones to contact first   -  bank,  life insurance,   private pensions  and at the same time would you also use the Tell us Once Service  ( but not sure about this because of the council tax and vehicle)  I don`t want to make things complicated for myself.

Definitely do the tell us once, as it also deals with cancelling the drivers licence, passport etc as well as local council, pension office, election office etc makes it easier and whilst you are concentrating on other thing they can get started on the other things. (it also means you don't have to call each division separately). It also starts off letters being sent to you by the dvla etc about the car, licence etc.  


Firstly i would deal with the banks that were joint between your parents as they are usually easily sorted and just that way means that the money is in your moms sole name.
  
Then pensions, and insurances that way gets any money to your mom as fast as possible (or the ball rolling at least) as will help her financially in the interim if needed.
  
I would also then look to sort out the bank accounts/financial accounts in your dads sole name.  Indeed if you submit the form in my prior post they will also mark the information on their records and will also trigger letters to you in the background (death notication service) it also starts some of the banks sending letters to confirm notification and what is needed.

For us the car was fairly simple as my brother and sister in law had the car so it was a case of signing over the v5 form and completing it in line with the letter from the dvla. (DVLA contacted us on receipt of the tell us once which was good as didn't have to sit in their call queues.  )

If you dad has premium bonds (or anything with NS&I) i would start that sooner rather than later as that took the longest for us to come back).  

then i would look to changing names over down the line for utilities (gas electric water phone, tv companies etc, as long as being paid don't think they are too concerned.  (PS there is a simple form on the TV licensing site that can be completed in these instances too) https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/what-to-do-if-the-licence-holder-dies-top4

then lastly things like memberships, subscriptions, dentists, opticians etc i have left to towards the end (in our instance dad passed away in hospital so the drs should be automatically notified, however this can take a while, so we let the surgery know ourselves). 

also don't be surprised if things pop up down the line as 5 months after we thought all sorted we had a letter addressed to day from the AA (didn't think he had a membership as had packed account, but turns out he had an old "suspended" membership that was not paying for but had to confirm suspension of it, so we had to call and cancel that.  

katies_mum

Thank you so much anna42hmr, your reply is so helpful.  I will be starting tomorrow with the tell us once and their joint bank account. xx

anna42hmr

katies_mum said:

Thank you so much anna42hmr, your reply is so helpful.  I will be starting tomorrow with the tell us once and their joint bank account. xx

No problem at all, glad to have helped, i appreciate how daunting the matter can be.  

badmemory

The insurances may well be paid outside the estate.  But I would be most concerned about the council tax bill unless it was produced during the year rather than at the beginning.

katies_mum

Thank you badmemory, sorry am not sure what you mean about the council tax bill, is there a reason you can see as to why I should be concerned?  The yearly bill I have here was issued on 7th April 2021 and the reductions they got are shown under the Breakdown of Charges.   Dad had paid in full the amount that was due.