Death and Debt

MandyT1970 · 15 January 2019 at 2:05PM

Please help! I'm in a lot of debt, about 48K. Husband is unaware of the full extent of it. I'm managing the payments and as I'm in a a reasonably well paid job and about to get a raise next month. I'm still wanting to tackle this myself rather than go through any debt management programme.
The problem is I'm not in great health. I've recently been diagnosed with a heart problem. It is definitely fixable but sometimes when I'm feeling dreadful and lying awake in the night I worry about what could happen.
What would happen to the debts if I died? All of them are credit cards and a big loan. All of them just in my name. I live with my husband (no kids) in 'our house' but actually he had owned it for about 10 years when we first met in 2011. We were married in 2017 and have separate bank accounts and my name is not on the mortgage. My debts are the reason I've not suggested doing anything about this, I thought it was a good idea to keep things as separate as possible.
I don't have any savings but I work for the NHS and apparently there's a death in service benefit as part of my pension (I've only just found out about this). Would the money from this (if it is indeed the 3 x my salary I have heard then it would be about £150K) be classed as 'my estate' and would my debts have to come out of it?
Thank you so much to anyone who responds to this. It's stressful being off sick and worrying about what could happen if the worst happened isn't helping at all.

sourcrates · 15 January 2019 at 2:21PM

Hi,

I can’t answer your specific question about your pension benefits, but any unsecured debt in your name only, upon your death, is written off if your estate does not have sufficient funds to cover it.

You need to consult your provider on this matter, but personally I would assume it would become part of your estate yes.

EssexHebridean · 15 January 2019 at 5:50PM

MandyT1970 wrote: »

my name is not on the mortgage.

The mortgage isn't really very relevant - more importantly is whether you are named as an owner of the property at the Land Registry. Generally mortgage companies will refuse to grant permission for that to happen unless you ARE named on the mortgage too - but the two do not always go hand in hand.

I'd suggest your priority is getting a Statement of Affairs (SOA) drawn up - as much as anything else it will almost certainly help your peace of mind and let you plan how you can deal with the debt. The link for the SOA is ion my signature, or in the sticky post above on this board. Get it filled in as accurately as you can and post it back in here and we can take a look and help you come up with a plan. "Managing the payments" is great but you need to approach things in the right way and also make more than just minimums if you want it gone as quickly as possible.

Flugelhorn · 15 January 2019 at 5:57PM

MandyT1970 wrote: »

I don't have any savings but I work for the NHS and apparently there's a death in service benefit as part of my pension (I've only just found out about this). Would the money from this (if it is indeed the 3 x my salary I have heard then it would be about £150K) be classed as 'my estate' and would my debts have to come out of it?
.

I think that it is actually twice the salary rather than 3 times. (3 times sounds more likely to be the pension lump sum)
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2018-05/Survivors%20Guide%20%28V8%29%2005.2018.pdf

I also think that this is paid "outside the estate" if paid directly to the partner

getmore4less · 16 January 2019 at 8:31AM

Make sure your NHS pension/life cover nominee forms are up to date.

Death and Debt

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