Terrible, J, but at least they are willing to pay for their own mistakes.

Like you say, there must be hundreds of people who just cough up, and I'm sure the DWP depend on this

Outrageous, when people are grieving their loss that they would do such a thing, at such an early time too!! Glad you don't have to pay it though Jackie, not that you should have anyway! Absolutely outrageous imo

The have a legal requirement to ask for the money back(brought in by the Thatcher government), the letters are drawn up in legal plain English & unfortunately not many people actually read the letter thoroughly because they are obviously upset when they receive it. The timescale for being able to request money back the same as those for probate/letters of administration, ie within 6 weeks of them being granted, this is the same for all claims against an "estate"not just the DWP(this is why most funeral directors will give three months to pay for the funeral)

I did try to get my suggestion included in the letters when they were first brought in, but sadly it wasn't accepted-my suggestion was for an information leaflet to be enclosed with the letter explaining everything in plain English & a clear referral to the leaflet in the first paragraph-this would have made it quite clear that it was a request not a demand, they did reword the letter though to include an"apologetic"type message

Thanks Clair

Thanks Vicki, they're not saying it's a mistake though. Just that they can't legally take it from us

Thank Aitch. Appreciate it.

Shame they didn't listen to you Joedee as that letter is certainly not straightforward when you read it. An information leaflet should definitely be included with the letter. They don't do a very good job of showing sympathy for your loss either. The fact they said it was owed because they weren't notified early enough about the death is a load of rubbish as well as they were informed within 48 hours. As I say, a shame they didn't put your suggestion into practice.

My brother got one for my mother stating that they had not been notified in time to stop the payment-she died on the Saturday afternoon & I rang the Pensions Agency @ 8.30 on the Monday so couldn't have been in touch earlier. The money was still at the Post Office for her so I withdrew it & paid it on the same day via the Internet-why they couldn't simply have called the payment back I don't know. It was only her Retirement Pension, her Pensioner Tax Credit(she was in a home)was written off. because I was paid up to date at the home I actually got a refund for the period after she died !

It was part of my job many years ago

We did about the same. Let them know immediately. We couldn't have let them know any earlier either. They should have really called your payment back too. It's an absolute nightmare. I felt sorry for OH yesterday having to call them but I'm glad he stood up to them,

when my dad was in hosp, his pension wasnt collected. so after he passed away we took his book to the local dss, they just took the book. no sorry nothing. and nothing about the back dated money. that would of helped to give my dad a decent send off, as it is he had a bog standard cremation, and we met him at the chapel, my dad deserved more.
so sorry about your loss.

So sorry to hear of what happened to you too. Whatever happened to compassion? Don't get me wrong MOST of the people we dealt with through everything were wonderful. Just a shame about the Housing Association who owned the flat she lived in, whole other story and this. It's terrible.