my mum has just recently passed away. my father has now been left alone with nothing but the house they live in. they had no savings as my mum was on disability living allowance and her state pension. my dad is on incapacity benefit plus a small pit pension. he has found a letter making an agreement to pay a nominal amount of a credit card he did not know about. he doesn't even have enough to pay for the funeral let alone pay this debt. he has a joint loan with her that he took out to pay off debt that she had got them into so he will struggle to pay that. he is really worried. he is on the wrong benefit to claim the funeral payment from the social fund and i myself do not have any savings to help him. please can you give us some advice. thanks sazle

Hi -- Sorry to hear of your Mum.

The debt that she had in her sole name has to be written off if there are insufficient funds from her estate, however they could technically claim that her share of the house she left is an asset, but rarely does it come to that if there are no other means of repayment. I must add that if the house was owned as "joint tenants" by your parents that rules out the possibility of the creditor making a claim on the house, in that case the property never becomes a part of your Mum's estate and passes automatically to your Father in it's entirety.

Your Father should be able to get some form of help from the social fund in the form of a crisis loan, but he would be well advised to seek the useful help of your local CAB who would help him by doing a lot of the work free on his behalf to alleviate the stress, and advise him exactly what help he is entitled to at this time of bereavement.

Speaking of which he may be entitled to a one off "bereavement benefit" payment, below. of £2000 tax free, besides other possible help with funeral expenses.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Bereaved/DG_10018703

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/cabdir.ihtml

thanks

my head is spinning with all this but that has really helped alot. the house was in joint names so that is good.