I received a letter today from the DWP Debt Management team (what an awful title) advising me that dad had been overpaid some of his pension and they wanted it back.
I was expecting this as dad's pension did actually go into his bank account a week after he'd died so I knew I would have to pay something back. However, I was also expecting a bill for over payment of Winter Fuel allowance which he received and shouldn't have and over payment of just over 4 months of Attendance Allowance. I've been waiting for them to sort this since October last year.
So I called them to see why this wasn't also included, they knew nothing about it and advised me to contact the Attendance team again. Whilst I was on the phone to them, I did mention that my dad's estate was going through Probate and asked how soon do I need to send them the money owed. They thanked me and said they would put a note on the file to say I'd been in touch and that I had until October to repay it from my dad's estate. They don't expect myself to pay it out of my own money.
I did call the Attendance Allowance team, unfortunately I selected the wrong option and went through to the Bereavement team, I should have chosen general inquiry or something like that. However that call was useful as they confirmed to me that the issue with the over payment of the Winter Fuel payment had been marked as non recoverable. In other words as it was paid due to their own error, they had written it off and I don't need to pay them anything back. Nice to know.
When I did speak to the right people regarding the over payment of Attendance Allowance they informed me it is still ongoing. It turned out they had written to the wrong CHC team, they had written to the CHC team in the LA his care home was in and not the LA which dad used to come under and who were still taking care of dad's welfare etc. I rectified this and they have said they will get it dealt with as a matter of urgency so I can at lease draw a line under it.
I wrote in my Dad's Dementia Diary blog today that I'm bored and I’m really missing not being in the routine of visiting dad and taking care of all the other miscellaneous things I used to do for him. I've even put on weight since he passed, due to eating out of boredom. I need to sort myself out pronto. x
