I have a client who was in receipt of GPC with her husband. He passed away recently and she is waiting for the reassessment of her SP.

Meanwhile she has £2000 in the bank which is in joint names which her late husband. She wants to claim a funeral payment for the funeral which cost £2700.

She is concerned that this money will be taken if a payment is made. I know they will recover from the deceased's estate but will they take these savings.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Off the top of my head you understand - jointly owned property is not technically part of the deceased's estate as he could not leave it by will. It would pass automatically to the survivor whatever the terms of his will were. Joint ownership is a funny thing because the joint owners are each entitled to the whole of the jointly-owned asset unless the equitable interest has been severed into ownership in common, when each one then owns a defined share.
So you could argue that this money was always the wife's anyway.
But I don't know how this would be applied in the context of a funeral payment. I can't find any case law on jointly-owned property in this context.

I would be interested in the outcome of your client's claim.
Ariadne should be right as joint assets are not part of the estate and it is the estate they recover from but why then the question on the form about assets transferred from a joint account?