Phillips and Cohen requesting money from me for my deceased partner

[Guest]

Hello,

My partner died 16 months ago. I received a letter 2 months ago from a credit card company (in his name) about a default, and informed them of his death and sent a death certificate copy. This morning, I received a letter from Phillips and Cohen stating that they are acting on behalf of their client to recover money from the estate. Around £900.

We were together for 15 years, and we were never all that well off, so when he passed away, there was no will, and no money left aside from £300 in our joint account which was put towards the cost of the funeral, the rest of the money for the funeral was provided by the DWP. As we had no money, no family, no property (we lived in a housing association home which I still live in), we didn't go through probate or wills on the advice of citizens advice.

I recieved a very small amount as a dependents pension, but that wouldn't even pay half of what phillips and cohen are asking for.

My questions are as follows:

Does this make me liable for the debt? If so, would they accept payments of £1 a month? I only get universal credit and money is tight.

Would the small dependents pension I received be classed as part of the estate? My partner didn't even know that this would be paid out, he thought he had been paid his pension and there would be nothing left (It is in a savings account, safe for if I need it, so that I don't spend it on frivoulous things)

What should my next steps be? Do I ignore them? Tell them there was no estate or offer to pay in monthly installments?

Thanks for your time,

I'm so sorry if all this sounds really simple and silly, but I've never had to deal with anything like this, and am still struggling with the loss of my partner.

[Amethyst]

Im sorry for your loss. I would reply to Cohens stating there is no estate and the debt should be written off. Your dependents pension is not classed as part of his estate.
Theres an example letter from National Debtline linked below however as you discussed with CAB about the estate and probate it might be helpful if you can get them to help you with the letter and possibly go through everything with you to check nothing else is going to jump out the woodwork and if it might, get similar letters off so any creditors know there is no point hassling you xxx

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/...ter-death.aspx

[Hollypops]

Thanks so very much for your reply Amethyst, that's really helpful and has helped ease my mind! I will definitely take your advice and see citizens advice again, I just had a moments panic when I read the letter, and wanted to check with the people on this helpful site! Thanks again, it means alot!