Ignore requests from the state trying to claw back pension overpayments after someone has died

Pollycat

Chris_English said:

There’s a real case of cultural differences going on here, I simply couldn’t imagine using a parent’s death to have the state over by taking money that neither they nor I were entitled to, and can’t understand the morals or thought process of someone who would.

I agree with the posts pointing out how unpleasant it is that this is posted as an instruction rather than as I formation about your legal rights.

It's not necessarily a case of 'cultural differences'.

In my case, it was a delay not of my making that caused the overpayment.
Although it says that 

"the death must be reported within five days in England and Wales, or within eight days in Scotland via the Government's 'Tell Us Once' service, which is run by the DWP."

it took longer than that for us.
Having to ring the Bereavement Services of the hospital in which Mum died at least 3 times to ask if the death certificate was available is unacceptable.

I believe I made my point to DWP by returning the payment made before the death certificate should have been available but retaining the payment made after - that would not have been paid if I could have used the 'tell us once' service earlier.

Thrugelmir

Some years ago my late father passed away in his sleep on Christmas Day. Due to a combination of circumstances, his post mortem wasn't held until the 2nd week of January. Time soon slips by. 

Chris_English

Pollycat said:

Chris_English said:

There’s a real case of cultural differences going on here, I simply couldn’t imagine using a parent’s death to have the state over by taking money that neither they nor I were entitled to, and can’t understand the morals or thought process of someone who would.

I agree with the posts pointing out how unpleasant it is that this is posted as an instruction rather than as I formation about your legal rights.

It's not necessarily a case of 'cultural differences'.

In my case, it was a delay not of my making that caused the overpayment.
Although it says that 

"the death must be reported within five days in England and Wales, or within eight days in Scotland via the Government's 'Tell Us Once' service, which is run by the DWP."

it took longer than that for us.
Having to ring the Bereavement Services of the hospital in which Mum died at least 3 times to ask if the death certificate was available is unacceptable.

I believe I made my point to DWP by returning the payment made before the death certificate should have been available but retaining the payment made after - that would not have been paid if I could have used the 'tell us once' service earlier.

As I said, I just can’t imagine keeping the extra. I’m the sort of person who’ll go back into a shop if I réalisé that I’ve been given too much change, it’s just not in my nature to keep money that I was given in error.

Pollycat

Chris_English said:

Pollycat said:

Chris_English said:

There’s a real case of cultural differences going on here, I simply couldn’t imagine using a parent’s death to have the state over by taking money that neither they nor I were entitled to, and can’t understand the morals or thought process of someone who would.

I agree with the posts pointing out how unpleasant it is that this is posted as an instruction rather than as I formation about your legal rights.

It's not necessarily a case of 'cultural differences'.

In my case, it was a delay not of my making that caused the overpayment.
Although it says that 

"the death must be reported within five days in England and Wales, or within eight days in Scotland via the Government's 'Tell Us Once' service, which is run by the DWP."

it took longer than that for us.
Having to ring the Bereavement Services of the hospital in which Mum died at least 3 times to ask if the death certificate was available is unacceptable.

I believe I made my point to DWP by returning the payment made before the death certificate should have been available but retaining the payment made after - that would not have been paid if I could have used the 'tell us once' service earlier.

As I said, I just can’t imagine keeping the extra. I’m the sort of person who’ll go back into a shop if I réalisé that I’ve been given too much change, it’s just not in my nature to keep money that I was given in error.

I am that sort of person too.

It was not money given in error.
It was money paid because of government incompetencies because they dragged their feet in providing the unique 'tell us once' code.
You may not see a difference.
I do.

Chris_English

Pollycat said:

Chris_English said:

Pollycat said:

Chris_English said:

There’s a real case of cultural differences going on here, I simply couldn’t imagine using a parent’s death to have the state over by taking money that neither they nor I were entitled to, and can’t understand the morals or thought process of someone who would.

I agree with the posts pointing out how unpleasant it is that this is posted as an instruction rather than as I formation about your legal rights.

It's not necessarily a case of 'cultural differences'.

In my case, it was a delay not of my making that caused the overpayment.
Although it says that 

"the death must be reported within five days in England and Wales, or within eight days in Scotland via the Government's 'Tell Us Once' service, which is run by the DWP."

it took longer than that for us.
Having to ring the Bereavement Services of the hospital in which Mum died at least 3 times to ask if the death certificate was available is unacceptable.

I believe I made my point to DWP by returning the payment made before the death certificate should have been available but retaining the payment made after - that would not have been paid if I could have used the 'tell us once' service earlier.

As I said, I just can’t imagine keeping the extra. I’m the sort of person who’ll go back into a shop if I réalisé that I’ve been given too much change, it’s just not in my nature to keep money that I was given in error.

I am that sort of person too.

It was not money given in error.
It was money paid because of government incompetencies because they dragged their feet in providing the unique 'tell us once' code.
You may not see a difference.
I do.

Like I said, it’s not something that I would do but understand, sadly, that others would keep it. To me using the death of a relative as the opportunity for some free cash is inconceivable, it’s on a par with taking a charity box from a shop because no-one sees you do it.

Pollycat

Chris_English said:

Pollycat said:

Chris_English said:

Pollycat said:

Chris_English said:

There’s a real case of cultural differences going on here, I simply couldn’t imagine using a parent’s death to have the state over by taking money that neither they nor I were entitled to, and can’t understand the morals or thought process of someone who would.

I agree with the posts pointing out how unpleasant it is that this is posted as an instruction rather than as I formation about your legal rights.

It's not necessarily a case of 'cultural differences'.

In my case, it was a delay not of my making that caused the overpayment.
Although it says that 

"the death must be reported within five days in England and Wales, or within eight days in Scotland via the Government's 'Tell Us Once' service, which is run by the DWP."

it took longer than that for us.
Having to ring the Bereavement Services of the hospital in which Mum died at least 3 times to ask if the death certificate was available is unacceptable.

I believe I made my point to DWP by returning the payment made before the death certificate should have been available but retaining the payment made after - that would not have been paid if I could have used the 'tell us once' service earlier.

As I said, I just can’t imagine keeping the extra. I’m the sort of person who’ll go back into a shop if I réalisé that I’ve been given too much change, it’s just not in my nature to keep money that I was given in error.

I am that sort of person too.

It was not money given in error.
It was money paid because of government incompetencies because they dragged their feet in providing the unique 'tell us once' code.
You may not see a difference.
I do.

Like I said, it’s not something that I would do but understand, sadly, that others would keep it. To me using the death of a relative as the opportunity for some free cash is inconceivable, it’s on a par with taking a charity box from a shop because no-one sees you do it.

Again, I would not do that.
And it's really not 'on a par with taking a charity box from a shop'.

I could have - if I wished - kept all of the overpayment, as per the MSE & Moneybox article
But I didn't.
I didn't keep it all and I didn't return it all because I wanted to make a point to DWP.

simon_or

Thanks MSE much appreciated for spreading the news. Tbh this has been the case for quite some time, absolutely no compulsion to repay any overpayment after death.

We make lots of mistakes so even the overpayment might be well be miscalculated.

eskbanker

Own_Worst_Enermy said:

Let's be honest Martin Lewis was only there to get people huge 'payday loans' refunds.

Does he give a stuff that people's mental heath has been stuffed up by HMRC (who aren't as on the ball as they once were) probably not.

He can legitimately be criticised for many things, but I'd contend that the fact that he founded the Money and Mental Health charity signifies that he does indeed care about such matters, i.e. he's prepared to put his money where his mouth is and to use his influence positively....

relishy57

As previously said I immediately paid the overpayment back. My husband passed away after drawing his State pension for just under a year so he was one of the ‘losers’ in the system. I think there should be a discretionary period where under/overpayments are disregarded so as not to burden the family with such requests. I certainly wouldn’t have been clamouring for any underpayment. Does this happen? 

WillowCat

I informed DWP by telephone on the same day my grandmother died.   We got a confirmation that her pension had stopped by letter a couple of weeks later (and they had already stopped her weekly payments immediately) and I assumed the matter was closed. 

The estate was distributed about 3 months after she died, as her affairs were simple. Two months after that - so five months after her death - DWP wrote to request a repayment of about £50 pension that had apparently been overpaid.  I was not a beneficiary of her estate so would have had to request the money from the beneficiaries.  I ignored the letter and they did not write again.