PC OP because value of home wrongly disregarded?

I have a case where a son of a now deceased lady is facing a 15k overpayment demand from the DWP to the estate.

He was the appointee when his mother went into a care home as a self funder.

That left her home empty and for sale.  It was sold after about four months and he *thinks* he told the DWP in a telephone call.

She continued on GPC for about 2 years until she died and the OP demand has since been issued to her estate becuase of the capital following the sale of the house.

I’m unsure about this one.  The disregard for the house for up to 6 months seems clear but, after that period, were they wrongly continuing to disregard it and does it matter whether the house was actually sold as it had a value - 10% anyway?

The disregard is for “any premises”  where the claimant is taking steps to dispose of them. I can’t see any possibility of disregarding the proceeds of sale.

Nor can I.

What I’m pondering is the error they’ve made by not taking account of the value after either 6 months or the date of sale.

They knew there was an asset, after 6 months they should have made a decision that a longer period of disregard was reasonable or they should have taken the value into account.  If that’s their error then, even if they weren’t notified of the sale that gives two months clear OP only up until a time when they should have made a decision.

There may be another angle here.  If, when the woman was admitted to permanent care, she was in receipt of Pension Credit with an Assessed Income Period in place, the DWP should have revised the award and removed the Assessed Income Period meaning that any changes in retirement provision (in this case the sale of the property) must be reported.  They should then set a brought forward date of six months to enquire whether reasonable steps are still being taken to dispose of the property and if they decide that this is the case then the award of Pension Credit can be extended for (say) another six months.  In practice the DWP often gets this wrong and leaves the Assessed Income Period in place.  When the person rings up to report the sale of the property the agent will look at the account and see that there is an Assessed Income Period in place (wrongly) and advise that the the sale of the property makes no difference to the award.

Ooh!  Good thinking; I haven’t seen the papers yet so I don’t know whether there was an AIP.  Are AIPs a revisable decision?

Yes.  There is only a limited number of circumstances when an Assessed Income Period can be ended.  One of the circumstances is if a person moves into a care home on a permanent basis.  The DWP still don’t seem to understand the importance of this power to end an Assessed Income Period.