General Chat

I have received today a letter from the DWP who say they are investigating my late mother's estate.
She has received for years Pension and Pension Credit probably since it first came out in 2003 when she was 66.
Now over the years her bank balance has gone up & down but mostly up as she spent less and with her PIP money since her hips were done, she had that as extra.

They are saying that her bank balances which they obtained from her Probate(without contacting us first) exceed the £10,000 max.

For every £500 over the 10k, £1 per week is payable or taken off.

But how can they work it out? If you had say£7k in your current account 20 years ago and now your balance has gone up & down but then overall increased say to £20k, how do they work the overpayment out?

My mum was never asked yearly to provide her bank statements. I didnt know she had 2 ISA either!!

I now have the job of getting a copy of the probate application form from my sols to provide final balances as at DOD plus funeral exps etc.

If anyone on here is getting Pension Credit, owns a house and has any income in bank accounts, premium bonds, shares etc and have not declared this, you may want to look at it.

Once I have completed the form and they come back to me, I shall let you know the outcome as maybe they are peeps on here unaware as it would seem my dear mum was.

Florence in the hebrides

I suspect that your Mum might have had a leaflet every so often giving all the details regarding savings and pension credit and maybe just didn't understand it or ignored it Florence. If you read it on line it is quite clear I think maybe it means that people should tell DWP when savings reach £10000. Pension credit of course is to ensure people on the pension have enough to live on bringing a lower pension up to a certain amount.

But how they work it out when it is over £10000 when they first see it I don't know. Maybe they just take it as any amount over £10000 will be divided by £500 and using that figure to work out what will be the amount owing.

Do you have her old bank statements so you can show when her savings dipped down

Not since 2003! Nat west actually only go back 7 years so if DWP want to see them, it can only be since 2016.They charge over £5 per sheet!!! She did have some statements but all in a black bin bag all mixed up!

I have completed the form but need to phone sol about the info on the probate Application form as I dont have the whole thing.

I mean for the last few years, my mother developed dementia and couldn't remember the days of the week sometimes so if she did get a leaflet, she wouldn't have understood it unless she asked me.

I am also going to tel the Dept of DWP that wrote to me and ask for some more details before I send back the form.

I can't remember - did you have power of attorney, Florence?
If so, perhaps NatWest might allow you to have online access to your mother's account, so that you can print the statements for yourself?

The account has now been closes AG, we only have the closing accounts.
I had 3rd party mandate with my brother but that ceased the day she passed.

Hubby received weekly carers allowance of £82 + payable every four weeks

When he passed in 2015 I immediately informed all the parties that he received income from like company pension .state pension etc etc

I sorted out his will to probate and all the direct debits etc etc and the bank closed his account after all expenses had been paid

Six months later there was a letter ,addressed to him !! Saying he was overpaid one weeks carers allowance that he wasn’t entitled too because he passed and they had tried to recover it from his bank but the account was closed

The letter then went on to say that the sum was due and had to be repaid

I was furious at the way the letter was done and I really had a rant when I rang up and paid it from my account

Told them too how upsetting was getting a letter sent to him when he obviously had passed away some 6 months previously

Not even sure now whether they were entitled to ask someone else to repay it !

When my mother died I rang DWP and was told no pension needed paying back. I then received a badly addressed letter asking for money back. I rang them, told them how distressing it was to get such a bad letter and told them we owed nothing. They wrote it off.

If I remember correctly they wrote to Mrs Thingy Mrs Thingy, I think her Christian names weren’t quite right either.

Not that this helps Florence who has a had task.

The DWP were very quick to send 3 letters to me quite soon after mum passed. 1 saying her pension had been overpaid, 2nd one was her pension credit was over paid and 3rd one her PIP was overpaid. In all we had to pay back over £500.00.

I enquired about this and was told benefits are paid 2 weeks in advance and 2 weeks in arrears so when someone passes there will always be an overlap and likely an overpayment.

We were lucky, that mum had sufficient funds to pay the overpayment but if not and there was no estate like a property, then they have to write it off.

I have to say that when I read the letter just received, it was upsetting as its 7 months now since mum passed and thought we had settled everything, bills etc and are just getting ready to sell the flat.

The letter does say, until they settle this investigation, no funds from the estate can be distributed so even if the flat is sold say March, the monies will have to sit in an account until we are told the outcome!!

Florence in the Hebrides

Has probate been granted as you can’t sign off a sale unless you have it. You then apply for an adjustment up or down, depending on the sale price.

Yes probate has been granted,

Well I tel the NW bereavement services yesterday, explained what i needed and why and a very helpful gentlemean ordered the statement I needed and a statement summary showing the balances when my mum passed away.

The charge for this was.....nothing. he said he wouldn't make a charge.
What a lovely man and so helpful considering the accounts are now closed.

I thanked him for his help and the info should be with me in about 7-10 days...result :-D

If only the solicitor was as helpful!!!

Well a solicitor did ring me back earlier today and was able to give me the figures i needed, so that sorted that bit out.

Next I telephoned the DWP and was able to give all the details over the phone. They went through the list and I answered all the questions. The lady then said, they will be in touch with me again soon and if they need the bank statement from Jul 2017, they will request it so I should hang on to it until further notice??.

When I said, but you will need it and wouldn't it speed things up, she said, it will still take weeks!! We can sell the flat, but not distribute the proceeds along with the bank balances until the DWP has settled their investigation.

So its a waiting game now

Thank goodness the solicitor finally phoned you.
What a disgracefully long time to take!

And at least you can get on with selling the flat.

Hope this is now sorted. There is a letter in todays Telegra ph with a similar issue. The deceased had been in a care home and left a little bit of money, probate granted and the money distributed - then the dreaded DWP letter to say there may be a problem if overpayments at s’some period’.
Hope the beneficiaries are happy to chip in if the DWP case is proved.

It says in the DWP letter that although you may sell the property, we strongly suggest you do not distribute the funds until the matter has been settled otherwise each beneficiary might find themselves having to give some back to pay whatever is owed.

I'm now waiting for the results but realise it may take a few weeks. Flat going on the market before the end of the month!

Result! I today received a letter from the DWP saying that after their investigations, it would appear from the evidence provided that my mothers estate was in order and no further action will be taken. This concludes the investigation.

This is such a relief to myself and my brother.

The Estate Agent is hopefully coming on Friday to value the property so one step closer to closure.

The stress and worry of that investigation did nothing to help my BP but hopefully now it will be a lot lower.

Florence in the hebrides

I often wonder how the Government payouts to 'alleviate' the over-priced energy bills affects those on Pension Credit..

Such a relief to be able to get things moving at last.