Mums pension credit

[nic001]

So I noticed mums pension credit has stopped and managed after a long trying to speak to them. It seems she’s been paid too much from when she moved into the care home end of June last year. I’m pretty sure everyone was notified as other benefits were stopped etc.
it seems now she will receive considerably less and they now have to send out a form for me to fill in her income (pensions - no savings there/was receiving housing benefit etc) to work out what she’s entitled to. Also the LA pay for the care home with a contribution of £1000 a month from mum. So of course this will also now be wrong and have been wrong all along. So when they work out what she owes, her contribution to the care home will be wrong too. Omg!

 

[SAP]

What a fiasco, why one department can’t communicate with another is a mystery to me. Carers have enough to do with out having to spend days making calls to government departments, a one stop shop would be so much better.
Anyway, best thing to do would be to call the finance dept of the LA paying for your mums care and explain everything to them. I suspect they will re assess her for funding once the pension credit issue is resolved.

 

[nic001]

What a fiasco, why one department can’t communicate with another is a mystery to me. Carers have enough to do with out having to spend days making calls to government departments, a one stop shop would be so much better.
Anyway, best thing to do would be to call the finance dept of the LA paying for your mums care and explain everything to them. I suspect they will re assess her for funding once the pension credit issue is resolved.

Yes, such a pain. I looked back on my notes from contacting people last year and I spoke to the pensions service and notified them of mums move to the care home ( she’s rec’d letters at the care home from them!) so how did they not sort the pension credit from there.

 

[Tanera]

It does sound a nightmare and you have my sympathies. If it turns out that the DWP say your Mum has to pay back any over-payments of pension Credit I would get support to challenge the decision. Have a look at recent articles in The Guardian about PC overpayments where DWP have been forced to apologise for trying to claw back money when they were at fault for failing to pass information from one department to another. If you gave all the relevant information to them it is up to them to pass it on - you shouldn't be expected to notify all the different departments. Good luck!

 

[nic001]

It does sound a nightmare and you have my sympathies. If it turns out that the DWP say your Mum has to pay back any over-payments of pension Credit I would get support to challenge the decision. Have a look at recent articles in The Guardian about PC overpayments where DWP have been forced to apologise for trying to claw back money when they were at fault for failing to pass information from one department to another. If you gave all the relevant information to them it is up to them to pass it on - you shouldn't be expected to notify all the different departments. Good luck!

Thank you for that I will look that up.
I suspect they will want to claim the money back however mum will also be entitled to a refund for her contribution to the care home payment as her pension credit would have been taken into account when working out how much she will contribute.