Non Contributory pension

Jackoflynn

Hi,

My Mother received a letter recently notifying her of pension over- payment relating to means and my Dad's UK pension.

We have sent the breakdown of his pension in. They also have bank statements for the last six months.

She is in a state of stress.

How do they go about making this calculation does anyone know?

muffler

Have you looked here?

splinter65

Jackoflynn wrote: »

Hi,

My Mother received a letter recently notifying her of pension over- payment relating to means and my Dad's UK pension.

We have sent the breakdown of his pension in. They also have bank statements for the last six months.

She is in a state of stress.

How do they go about making this calculation does anyone know?

If your mother applied for a non con pension then she completed quite a long form which asked a lot of very specific questions about her income and your fathers income.
You can look at it yourself here.
http://www.welfare.ie/en/pdf/spnc1.pdf

As you can see question 45 on page 12 asks her about your fathers UK pension.
How did she answer this at the time?

Jackoflynn

Her income is the same. She saves and is ridiculously frugal.

He didn't get his pension for another three years.

She told them everything but she didn't know she had to inform them of his UK pension when he got it three years later.

He disclosed it when assessed for his Contributory .

splinter65

Jackoflynn wrote: »

Her income is the same. She saves and is ridiculously frugal.

He didn't get his pension for another three years.

She told them everything but she didn't know she had to inform them of his UK pension when he got it three years later.

He disclosed it when assessed for his Contributory .

Your mothers problem is that when she accepted the pension she agreed to inform them of any change in her circumstances.
The onus is on the claimant to self declare.
Your father getting his UK Pension was a change in circumstances.
OP there’s no way round this. Your mother got payment she wasn’t entitled to and it has to be paid back.
She must engage with them is the most important thing because they don’t have the capacity to forgive the debt or make exceptions for her age or anything like that. The money is owed to the exchequer and it has to be returned.

Jackoflynn

Yes, she feels foolish but it never crossed her mind. I think there should be more info given periodically, to inform and remind people.

She is happy to pay. She doesn't want any trouble.

Do they trawl through old bank statements and do we need to get them ?

Thank you again.

splinter65

Jackoflynn wrote: »

Yes, she feels foolish but it never crossed her mind. I think there should be more info given periodically, to inform and remind people.

She is happy to pay. She doesn't want any trouble.

Do they trawl through old bank statements and do we need to get them ?

Thank you again.

She doesn’t need to feel foolish, this happens all the time and yes there is a current suggestion that people on means tested payments will be reviewed every 3 years from now on.
Please don’t worry. The stories you see in the media are about people who end up in court because the level of deliberate conscious fraud and duplicity was so extreme and/or they refused to engage with the dept.
Your mother is in a totally different position.

Jackoflynn

Thanks so much. That's reassuring.

I'm just wondering what kind of bill she will get.

Do they go through all the years of bank statements since she applied to work out means and give a revised sum? She saves a lot .

wifey28

Jackoflynn wrote: »

Thanks so much. That's reassuring.

I'm just wondering what kind of bill she will get.

Do they go through all the years of bank statements since she applied to work out means and give a revised sum? She saves a lot .

Its means tested, so they go back to when the partner got his pension, and then use that as means, as far as i know its cent for cent deducted, They will also class savings over a certian amount, i think its 5k.



Once they complete the emans test they will then give her the new figure and the number of weeks she was recieving a higher aount she was not entitled to, this will go right back tothe first week the uk pension was paid, so could be quite substantial.

They often ask for immediate payment which most cant do, so you can engage with them to take a certain amountof your payment every week to pay back the debt, they generally try to take 15% i believe

Jackoflynn

Thank you .

Yes, I think she's in for quite a hefty bill.

Her frugal living and savings are going to go against her.

Nevermind, it could be worse I suppose!

Thanks for all that info.

splinter65

Jackoflynn wrote: »

Thank you .

Yes, I think she's in for quite a hefty bill.

Her frugal living and savings are going to go against her.

Nevermind, it could be worse I suppose!

Thanks for all that info.

Don’t look at it like that.
In part her savings are as a result of a payment that she got mistakenly.
So she’s just returning money that she shouldn’t have had in the first place through a clerical error.
Luckily she still has it and can just transfer it back.
The disregard is €20000 by the way not €5000.
1/2 of any amount in joint accounts Is regarded as hers.