DWP claiming overpayments of pension credit

[Kati]

Re: DWP claiming overpayments of pension credit

just waiting for pg2 of Dads ....

[Kati]

Re: DWP claiming overpayments of pension credit

....

[Openlaw15]

Re: DWP claiming overpayments of pension credit

Hi
My mum died in April and left a house worth £270k plus a few thousand in cash (less than £5k)

The house was held in trust for me and my 2 sisters and was held as tenants in common with my dad, who died about 11 years ago.

DWP have now said that my Mum may have been overpaid pension credit and are asking for 10 years worth of bank statements.

The he house sale is due to complete at the end of the month but we are told that the proceeds cannot be distributed until the DWP issue is resolved.

My questions are:

Will the house be taken into account by DWP when deciding if there has been any overpayment of pension credit?
Can DWP claim any proceeds from the sale of the house if there has been any overpayment?
I'm fairly certain that my Mum didn't have more than £16k in her bank accounts at any time in the last 12 years, does this mean that DWP can't claim that she has been overpaid?
How long is the DWP likely to take to conclude their investigation?
Anything else I should be aware of?

Thanks very much in advance

The Agreement doc in Paragraph 4 indicates it's a trust, and paragraph 12, a deed (legal). It appears to be a valid trust, therefore. A trust must be fully constituted (ie title from settlor to trustees). It appears the trust is fully constituted, as per Law of Property Act pursuant to 'trusts'.

The trust is the protection for property or other assets. Property can be owned as tenancy in common or joint tenancy (title/ legal ownership). Paragraph 4 is essentially stating the trust (trustees Mr and Mrs X) owns the property (as a tenancy in common), to be held 'on trust' for X persons etc. However the personal information is redacted but from what I can see it looks a genuine legally valid trust. Answering your question, in my opinion, DWP cannot claim the trust protected property, therefore as - for legal purposes - the trustees own it. I have not read the Wills.