I hope I can explain this so you understand, My mother past away on the 30th of January 2018.

Pension was originally paid to my father until his death where a part pension was then paid to my mother.

She was until 20 months ago receiving the pension payment that was stopped by Capita because they didn’t receive a response to a letter they sent her. I guess it was a prove your still alive letter but that’s just a guess on my part.

County Council social services department contacted Capita to inquire as to the missing payments and they advised that a family member needed to send a change of address to capita which was done on a couple of occasions. No acknowledgement or response at all to these letters. Payments have not been made for 20 months despite no change in bank details.

My mother was placed into a nursing home two years ago suffering from dementia and relied on that pension payment to pay her residential care needs and was assessed by social services using her pension payment from them included in that assessment.

Not receiving payments resulted in financial hardship up to the day she died.

I was not made aware of any of this until my mum passed away. I intend to claim back all money not paid to her until her death. Where it can at least go somewhere to paying some of the funeral costs.

Any thoughts on this from my good friends here on CAG.

Cheers.

Hello there. I'm very sorry to hear about your mum.

I agree with you, it sounds as if Capita didn't receive a 'prove you're alive' letter, but I would have expected them to send reminders. I also think they should pay what your mother was due.

Are you the only person dealing with this now [best to stick to one person] and have you spoken to Capita? They're going to want to see a death certificate, I imagine,

HB

Hi,

Thanks,

Yes I am the one dealing with this now and should have been the one from the start but I am now the only one dealing with this matter. I have written to the pension fund manager with copy to Capita threatening pension ombudsman if i didn't get a response. Both have responded now saying they are investigating.

Not sure what the hell there is to investigate. They didn't pay what they were supposed to and records will show why and when. I did supply death certificate so they have everything they need. Apparently its going to take them at least a further two weeks and maybe more to investigate.

I don't know about you but i think there is a very clear and very simple answer to this. Pay what you owe and stop playing around wasting pension fund money on red tape and pointless investigations.

My post here was just to get feelings from you guys and maybe point out what if anything i might be doing wrong. I also felt DX100uk would probably tell me to claim compensation but to be honest i would be happy to get back just what was owed and leave trail here for others that might find themselves in the same situation

Anything else at this point you think i should do? or just wait and see?

Hello again.

My OH has dealt with this type of situation in the past. He normally sends two or three letters, the last one being by Signed For and saying that payments will stop if there is no reply within x amount of time. He also says that no interest is paid on the missed payments when they're brought up to date.

I'll ask him what he thinks is taking time with Capita when I can and what he might suggest you do next.

HB

Thank you so much.

Just to update for anyone interested now or in the future.

It was as suspected that the pension was stopped due to the prove you're alive letter not being returned.

Capita and the environment agency conducted a full investigation and supplied details of what they did and even admitted that a letter we sent was not acted upon.

All money owed to the time of my mothers death has now been paid into her estate and the matter is now closed.

Turned out to be easier than expected if a little long winded

Thanks all especially HB

I'm really pleased to hear that this has been sorted, thank you for updating the thread. It will help other people with the same problem.

HB

I've amended the title of your thread to reflect the outcome.

HB