Inheritance and DWP

BooJewels

You perhaps need to separate in your mind, to some degree, the council assessments for funding and the DWP - they're related, but separate.   The DWP are responsible for what he received from them - which sounds like it was state pension, pension credit and possibly Attendance Allowance if he'd claimed it.  The council assess whether he could afford his own care. In my father's case, he had less cash than yours, but they didn't pay anything as they count a property as money in the bank - so his property meant he had to fully self fund.

This is my understanding - other posters might know better.  For the state pension, they'll want to check he got it for the right number of weeks - they'll know that from the Tell Us Once service and date of death - so wouldn't need to ask about that. With Pension Credit, to ensure that he was entitled to claim it and that he got the right amount in line with his savings (they will have seen the probate value) - see HillStreetBlues comments up the thread as to how that's calculated.  If he received Attendance Allowance, he'd only be entitled to get it if he funded his own care - I wonder if this is why they've asked that particular question - if he was fully council funded, he wouldn't be entitled to it.  I'm not sure how it works when partially self-funding.  I'm not sure they'd ask about care funding for the other items.

In my case, it was my aunt's pension credit the DWP were questioning - having seen the headline Probate valuation - they seemed to jump to the initial conclusion that she had a large cash reserve and thereby shouldn't have got PC.  But that was a different letter, asking for a breakdown of her assets. 

Edited to clarify a point.

retiredbanker1

OP The solicitor will not release funds until the DWP have confirmed that they have nothing to claim back. The assessments might be good news (forget any council ones) - I hope that like me you will finally get a letter stating nothing to claim.

Ammah45

Thanks all.

Yes I think it's just the processes they have to go through. But it's taking a long time.

I did the Tell Us Once procedure in early February and submitted the Attendance Allowance information in Early March. But only now they have got back to me to ask for additional information. It's bonkers!

In any case, they should be able to get all the information from the Council, which I am sure they will check with anyway.  

BooJewels

I've never personally experienced the DWP communicating with councils about care funding - that was why I said that you perhaps need to separate them. The DWP deal directly with you, the council will deal with you, but I don't think they speak directly to each other.

Unfortunately, these things do sometimes take time and you just need to work through the process.  I suspect this letter may have arisen because of the Probate valuation.  As mentioned earlier, we got a letter shortly after it was granted, asking questions about her finances.  If your solicitor's details were on the Grant, the DWP may have written, asking them for more information and one of the questions I was asked was where she died - maybe that has triggered this particular enquiry directly to you.  Although it may just be a delay in responding to information you supplied in March - although my experience would suggest they're quite quickly on the case if they think you owe them pennies. Not quite so fast if they owe you.

Please don't assume that they'll just check with the council, if they've asked you, just reply with the answer.  The sooner you do, the quicker it will get sorted.  Or rather than speculate, just ring them and find out a bit more - you might be able to settle it there and then.  I find calls first thing tend to get answered quite quickly.

Spendless

When my Nan died earlier this year her bank Natwest was one of the ones with the highest amount before probate was needed. She only had money in the bank as her home had been sold years before to fund her care. She was in a care home for 8 years, at the time of death she had around £22k-ish in the bank and her bank would have required probate from I think £25K. At £40K your Dad's estate will need probate. He will have also been fully self -funding at that amount, unless part of this estate was in the form of something like life assurance that was only paid on death and therefore fell outside his estate for funding. The care home will work out their final bill and present to you if you've not paid already. The bill won't end the date your Dad died, it will date of death plus x time possibly  until you've cleared his room or they might have a set time charge after death during which time you're meant to clear his room or risk continuing to be charged so much until you do. The care home will know the rules.

The DWP will just look at any payments made to check they were correct and if any payments were made after death. If a State pension was made after death (as my Nan's was) then they will send you a letter asking for it to be paid back though there is no legal obligation for you to do so. Other benefits paid though will need to be paid back if an overpayment occurred.  

retiredbanker1

I might be wrong here but I get the impression that the DWP are fishing as to whether pension credit was allowable if the deceased had capital of £40k. I don't think they are too bothered about a week here or there of over/under payment.
This is why I mentioned assessments - I don't think they do them now but certainly when pension credit was introduced (2003) they did about every 5 years or so. My mother had one (possibly more) but the SAR showed exactly what she had declared on her form - which was below capital limits - so no clawback was due BUT more importantly she did not have to declare any further savings accrued during her lifetime.

BooJewels

My aunt was the same and we discussed that in my phone call - she had a guaranteed pension credit regardless of future savings - it has a name which I can't just remember. 

But when the DWP wrote to me about it, the letter was accompanied by a form about her assets, they wanted a list of all her bank accounts, with balances, details of ISAs, shares and what properties she owned.  It mentioned from the start about Pension Credit qualification and it was all about her assets.  That doesn't sound like the letter that the OP has received from the scant details we've had.

Flugelhorn

retiredbanker1 said:

I might be wrong here but I get the impression that the DWP are fishing as to whether pension credit was allowable if the deceased had capital of £40k. I don't think they are too bothered about a week here or there of over/under payment.
This is why I mentioned assessments - I don't think they do them now but certainly when pension credit was introduced (2003) they did about every 5 years or so. My mother had one (possibly more) but the SAR showed exactly what she had declared on her form - which was below capital limits - so no clawback was due BUT more importantly she did not have to declare any further savings accrued during her lifetime.

I think this is the most likely - they may be feeling that 40K is a little high for pension credit  (if it was that at the time the award was made)

Spendless

From memory when pension credit was introduced there were 2 types I believe one was called something like pension credit savings and I couldn't tell you  the difference but my Nan was entitled to one of them and not the other. I'm guessing she still received it once she went into her care home as her equity was her home, and I'm guessing it stopped once her home was sold and became savings in the bank instead if that made her ineligible. 

Shelldean

It's all to do with an old rule that has since been scrapped.
Protected savings I think it was called.
If they were of a certain age when they claimed and before a certain date. It didn't matter how much their income increased it did not stop them receiving pension  credit. They could essentially win a million on the lottery and still be able to claim pension credit