DWP Recovery from Estate

Bluezeke

My Dad passed away in September aged 98. The house he lived in was purchased from the Council in 2016 by my husband in Dad's name (valued £180,000) and he left just under £40,000 in the Halifax. I've had a letter from the DWP regarding claiming on his estate as he was in receipt of pension credit, I knew how much he got each week but not what it was made up of. I rang the DWP and they said the pension credit was £129 per week. I've read that they go back 6 years to calculate the overpayment, so that adds up to about £40,000. If the whole £40,000 has to be repaid then I accept that, I'll just think of it as whatever he was overpaid he was putting in the Halifax anyway. However, I'm worried about the property being counted as part of his estate. I have the Solicitor's letting from the conveyance acknowledging the money from husband for the purchase. Has anyone got any experience of this or advice they could give me please? Thanks in advance.

sammyjammy

Its not clear from your post what the overpayment is, are they saying he wasn't entitled to pension credit at all?   Why would that be?

born_again

The house is part of his estate as it was in his name, no matter who paid for it. 

Bluezeke

If he had savings over £16,000 then he wouldn't have been entitled to the pension credit element at all. I'm still waiting for them to calculate the overpayment. If the six year period they use to calculate the overpayment is correct, then I presume he had more that £16,000 for the whole of the six year period. I'm expecting a massive bill, it's really stressful. Thank you for commenting.

TELLIT01

The property will be classed as part of the estate, but won't have affected entitlement to benefits as he was living there.

I'd be more concerned about the purchase of the council house if it wasn't actually purchased by your father.  Was there anything documented between your father and husband regarding the purchase?

Keep_pedalling

At his age he would likely not to have to declare any change in his financial circumstances s he would have been on an indefinite AIP, however if his savings were over £16k at the time of claiming PC  it would need to be paid back.

The other issue is the house. This does form part of his estate so once sold the proceeds will have to be distributed as per his will of the laws of intestacy if he does not have one. If you have siblings then it is likely you will have to share the proceeds with them.

Woodstok2000

Do you know when he first claimed pension credit, and what his savings were at that point, or could you find out? If DWP are going by his circumstances when he passed i  order to determine his ineligibility, that may not be correct based on his age and him (probably) being on indefinite AIP

MissFlossy222

Bluezeke said:

If he had savings over £16,000 then he wouldn't have been entitled to the pension credit element at all. I'm still waiting for them to calculate the overpayment. If the six year period they use to calculate the overpayment is correct, then I presume he had more that £16,000 for the whole of the six year period. I'm expecting a massive bill, it's really stressful. Thank you for commenting.

There's no £16,000 limit on savings on PC.

sheramber

Bluezeke said:

If he had savings over £16,000 then he wouldn't have been entitled to the pension credit element at all. I'm still waiting for them to calculate the overpayment. If the six year period they use to calculate the overpayment is correct, then I presume he had more that £16,000 for the whole of the six year period. I'm expecting a massive bill, it's really stressful. Thank you for commenting.

For Pension Credit

If you have more than £10,000, every £500 over £10,000 counts as £1 income a week. For example, if you have £11,000 in savings, this counts as £2 income a week.

What PC he was entitled to would depend on how much his pension was and how much was added for capital over £10,000 , compared to the relevant income figure for eligibility for PC each year. 

Bluezeke

Thank you everyone for your help. I telephoned the DWP this morning, initially I was told I would have to wait for the case to be dealt with but when I explained that I had had a mini stroke on Christmas Eve and that this was worrying me, an extremely helpful chap confirmed that there had been an AIP in place since 2009 and if he Halifax accounts were opened after that date, then he would close the case and I would get a letter to confirm this in 7 to 10 days.

retiredbanker1

Bluezeke said:

Thank you everyone for your help. I telephoned the DWP this morning, initially I was told I would have to wait for the case to be dealt with but when I explained that I had had a mini stroke on Christmas Eve and that this was worrying me, an extremely helpful chap confirmed that there had been an AIP in place since 2009 and if he Halifax accounts were opened after that date, then he would close the case and I would get a letter to confirm this in 7 to 10 days.

You beat me to it - exactly the same when I was administrating my late mother's estate.
I found the Legal Beagle website particular useful when I dealt with this - I would have not known about AIP without it and probably paid up what they were demanding.