Money owed from State pension deceased parent

Butterflymimi

I hope this is the correct place to put this question if anybody else had dealt with this. My parent passed away during the pandemic, but had been ill for many years. 3 years ago nearly I brought up a query that I thought their pension had been underpaid. It turns out I was correct and a letter came confirming this with a form to fill out. It had questions about when my parent passed away, where, my details including NI number etc. The letter said please claim this money as soon as possible. I sent the form back and it has been 4 weeks this week since it would have been recieved. I rang up over a week ago through the Bereavement number and it had been sent to them. The person said it was then being dealt with a different department and they couldn't give me anymore info. Has anybody else dealt with this and how long did it take to get any reply after the form was sent in? I was not told how much is owed either in the letter sent to me. It seems quite awhile considering that money is owed and they have all the required info.

molerat

Nothing gets done in 4 weeks, things like this are very much passing bits of paper around between different departments.  I wouldn't even think about trying to hurry them up until 3 months has passed.

Marcon

Butterflymimi said:

I hope this is the correct place to put this question if anybody else had dealt with this. My parent passed away during the pandemic, but had been ill for many years. 3 years ago nearly I brought up a query that I thought their pension had been underpaid. It turns out I was correct and a letter came confirming this with a form to fill out. It had questions about when my parent passed away, where, my details including NI number etc. The letter said please claim this money as soon as possible. I sent the form back and it has been 4 weeks this week since it would have been recieved. I rang up over a week ago through the Bereavement number and it had been sent to them. The person said it was then being dealt with a different department and they couldn't give me anymore info. Has anybody else dealt with this and how long did it take to get any reply after the form was sent in? I was not told how much is owed either in the letter sent to me. It seems quite awhile considering that money is owed and they have all the required info.

I'm afraid 4 weeks is no time at all in the land of state pensions... Not clear why you waited nearly 3 years to submit the form, which (from your post) appears to be the case, or have I misread it (possibly it took them 3 years to actually send you the form...?).

Butterflymimi

Thank you both for your replies. I am sorry for the confusion, I have a fair bit going on with health issues, but I first queried an underpayment 3 years ago. The letter and form confirming there is an underpayment was sent to me this May. We all know the State pension/dwp expect us to respond or repay asap, but they take a long time to contact us. Hopefully it won't be months and months before it is all sorted out.