Can DWP demand payback of an Attendance Allowance overpayment after death?

p00hsticks

NedS said:

Newcad said:

As I understand it they can 'demand' overpaid benefits from the estate - in the same queue with any other debts if the estate has sufficient money to pay them back.

What the DWP do seem to be doing a lot of recently is 'asking' that the next of kin repay overpayments out of their own pockets.

The letters are very carefuly worded to imply that you should/need to/must pay, but as it is not your debt you can decline (ie. Tell them to jog-on).

Agreed, DWP need to write to the executor of the estate, not the next of kin as it is not their debt. However, often the next of kin is also the executor.

If you are not the executor of the estate, ignore the letter and do not respond.

Assuming that DWP have found out about the death via the Tell Us Once service ,then the contact details they have will be for whoever registered the death - they won't know who the executor is (or even if there is a will) unless they are told.

If the person who registered the death is  not the executor then the recipient of the letter should pass it over to the executor to deal with, not just ignore it. Use of the Tell Us once service may also result in communications from DVLA, HMRC, and the local council.

TELLIT01

I thought DWP could only request repayment of overpaid benefits following the death of the recipient.  I'm aware that many of the 'request' letters looked more like 'pay up or else' in the past, but thought the wording had been changed.

HillStreetBlues

TELLIT01 said:

I thought DWP could only request repayment of overpaid benefits following the death of the recipient.  I'm aware that many of the 'request' letters looked more like 'pay up or else' in the past, but thought the wording had been changed.

If the overpayment is because the DWP took too long to action the death then it can't be recovered, they do write one letter making it look that is has to be paid, but it can just be ignored as they won't bother again.

Robbie64

HillStreetBlues said:

TELLIT01 said:

I thought DWP could only request repayment of overpaid benefits following the death of the recipient.  I'm aware that many of the 'request' letters looked more like 'pay up or else' in the past, but thought the wording had been changed.

If the overpayment is because the DWP took too long to action the death then it can't be recovered, they do write one letter making it look that is has to be paid, but it can just be ignored as they won't bother again.

Sometimes they do send a second letter but again this can be ignored. It seems to be hit and miss if they send a second letter.