Unusual Pension Credit/State pension query?

Jummy

Hi!
My dad passed away 3 months ago and my dear mum is trying to sort out this little problem.Hope someone can advise

Dad was receiving IB till he reached 60 then put on Pension Credit with mum.
When he reached 65 he stayed on Pension Credit and was not told to claim state pension.
When mum reached 60 she was asked if she wanted to keep the Pension Credit claim as a couple or claim on her own.She kept the Pension Credit claim with my dad.
Again no one told mum to claim state pension.
Dad was 69 when he died and mum is 62.

When dad died a lady from DWP visited mum to fill out some forms and advised her that both her and dad should have been claiming state pension with a pension credit top up.
She filled out a few forms for mum and told mum she would get a lump sum of state pension for her and dad backdated and then mum would get a top up on her state pension from now on.
A few weeks have gone by and the lady who visited mum has rung to say that mums claim is being looked into finally in Newcastle but she thinks they are going to try and only pay mum any extra money owed from Dec when dad died.
i am totally confused as to what mum and dad should have been claiming and would have thought that the Pension credit they received would cancel out any monies owed to mum.
Any one got any idea what might happen?
Thanks

EdInvestor

There are several bits to the state pension - the basic, SERPS, S2P, Graduated pension.If you father worked for most of his life he might have a big component of extra pension above the basic - which could have meant he would not have been eligible for pension credit.Same applies to your mother.

The DWP will send the full figures in due course so you should know what's what.

It's impossible to answer your questions without knowing what Dad's state pension should have been.