Tweet
Hello All and thank you in advance for your time
My mum died in November 2022. I finally got probate, appointed as administrator by my aunty who remains executor, in September. My mum had dementia alzheimer's diagnosed in 2015 and lacked mental capacity to deal with her affairs and there was no POA.
The week after my mum died I used the 'Tell us once' service. I got a bill for £150 for overpayment of attendance allowance, which I paid, and an HMRC letter saying she paid no tax so she owes no tax.
The net value of her estate is £16,600 (Gross value 44k but she owed council 19K in care home fees and funeral and other bits).
Then, a few weeks after getting probate I got a letter from DWP asking me to provide details of the estate, bank accounts, etc.
I provided the info as best I could, explaining that my mum had absolutely no assets at all, only accumulated pension in her Post Office account, and thereafter Lloyds after PO ceased processing pension payments.
DWP now written to me to say "As Mrs XXX was receiving an income-related benefit, they may have paid too much tax. ... We now need you send us more information to work out how much benefit they should have had" They have asked for LLoyds and PO statements, from 3/3/2017 until she died and also the single dates of 6/10/2003 and 07/04/2010.
I now have the statements, but not for 2003 as PO said account only opened in 2004.
I have gone back and added up the pension credit/income support payments since 2017 and looks like 10.5k. BUT she owed council 4.5k in 2017 which she didn't pay, as not compos mentis, and then another £14.4k accumulated since September 2021 toward care home fees. The council were able to take some money from her account on a weekly basis but not all she owed because they didn't know her assets, neither did I, until after she died and PO confirmed she had £25k in account when it was closed. Hence accumulated debt.
My understanding is that she would have been allowed savings of £10K and that every £500 above that would be considered £1 of extra income, which would reduce the benefit she would have been entitled to by that amount, so if she got £90 a week, but had 12k in savings, the extra £2k would have reduced her entitlement by £4, to £86. Using this calculation I have gone back through her statements from 2017 and on the face of it it looks like she has been overpaid £10,600. But this does not take into account debts owed to council that went unpaid due to her lacking capacity.
I shall point this out (supported by a statement from the council detailing all the amounts owed) that the 'savings' in her bank accounts do not take into account her council debts which she would have paid had she been compos mentis, which would have lowered her savings, which in turn would have affected the amount of income-related benefit she got.
My questions, if anyone is able to help:
1) Is it likely DWP will disregard her unpaid debts to council when calculating what her estate now owes them?
2) Am I obliged to send DWP the statement for 2010? Only a few hundred pounds in savings then - she just drew her pension weekly - but are they looking for some other angle to claim more from her estate? The income support payments which show on statement as 'DWP Payments' were £31 per week back then. In case you're wondering, I had no contact with her for decades until last years of her life when I visited her regularly in care home, as she had no other visitors aside from brief and occasional visits from her elderly sister.
3) Are there grounds upon which I can dispute their calculations? I mean, taking into account her real savings, i.e.minus debts to council, it looks like she will owe them about £4.5k if my calcs are correct, but DWP may well disagree.
Any guidance on how best to proceed, i.e. what to say in my response letter to them, would be greatly appreciated.
My mum died in November 2022. I finally got probate, appointed as administrator by my aunty who remains executor, in September. My mum had dementia alzheimer's diagnosed in 2015 and lacked mental capacity to deal with her affairs and there was no POA.
The week after my mum died I used the 'Tell us once' service. I got a bill for £150 for overpayment of attendance allowance, which I paid, and an HMRC letter saying she paid no tax so she owes no tax.
The net value of her estate is £16,600 (Gross value 44k but she owed council 19K in care home fees and funeral and other bits).
Then, a few weeks after getting probate I got a letter from DWP asking me to provide details of the estate, bank accounts, etc.
I provided the info as best I could, explaining that my mum had absolutely no assets at all, only accumulated pension in her Post Office account, and thereafter Lloyds after PO ceased processing pension payments.
DWP now written to me to say "As Mrs XXX was receiving an income-related benefit, they may have paid too much tax. ... We now need you send us more information to work out how much benefit they should have had" They have asked for LLoyds and PO statements, from 3/3/2017 until she died and also the single dates of 6/10/2003 and 07/04/2010.
I now have the statements, but not for 2003 as PO said account only opened in 2004.
I have gone back and added up the pension credit/income support payments since 2017 and looks like 10.5k. BUT she owed council 4.5k in 2017 which she didn't pay, as not compos mentis, and then another £14.4k accumulated since September 2021 toward care home fees. The council were able to take some money from her account on a weekly basis but not all she owed because they didn't know her assets, neither did I, until after she died and PO confirmed she had £25k in account when it was closed. Hence accumulated debt.
My understanding is that she would have been allowed savings of £10K and that every £500 above that would be considered £1 of extra income, which would reduce the benefit she would have been entitled to by that amount, so if she got £90 a week, but had 12k in savings, the extra £2k would have reduced her entitlement by £4, to £86. Using this calculation I have gone back through her statements from 2017 and on the face of it it looks like she has been overpaid £10,600. But this does not take into account debts owed to council that went unpaid due to her lacking capacity.
I shall point this out (supported by a statement from the council detailing all the amounts owed) that the 'savings' in her bank accounts do not take into account her council debts which she would have paid had she been compos mentis, which would have lowered her savings, which in turn would have affected the amount of income-related benefit she got.
My questions, if anyone is able to help:
1) Is it likely DWP will disregard her unpaid debts to council when calculating what her estate now owes them?
2) Am I obliged to send DWP the statement for 2010? Only a few hundred pounds in savings then - she just drew her pension weekly - but are they looking for some other angle to claim more from her estate? The income support payments which show on statement as 'DWP Payments' were £31 per week back then. In case you're wondering, I had no contact with her for decades until last years of her life when I visited her regularly in care home, as she had no other visitors aside from brief and occasional visits from her elderly sister.
3) Are there grounds upon which I can dispute their calculations? I mean, taking into account her real savings, i.e.minus debts to council, it looks like she will owe them about £4.5k if my calcs are correct, but DWP may well disagree.
Any guidance on how best to proceed, i.e. what to say in my response letter to them, would be greatly appreciated.
Comment