Father recently deceased, mother's rights?

M

murphaph

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Hi all,
I come to ask your help in sad circumstances as my father has passed away. I have very general questions now regarding my mother and what she may or may not be entitled to.

I believe she will receive a widow's pension, any details on that?

If you have any ideas about what might be due to my mum I'd really appreciate it, anything at all we should check-my dad kept his finances to himself and nobody knew much about it. My dad was PAYE for about 10 years until 1975 or so but ran his own business thereafter.

Any and all help in this matter will be gratefully appreciated.
 
May I say I'm sorry for the loss of your Dad and the hardship your Mam and family are going through, it's a very difficult time. My Mam was also in this position as my Dad was also very secerative about his finances! Old school! We had the same kinda problems ,having the difficult task of sorting through all paper work ect. Many phone calls to financial inst. banks, bonds and insurance companies were made. Also the social welfare dept. gave us advise as to what Mam was entitled to, pensions, fuel, phone, travel passes ect. I hope you can sort these worries out for your Mam and wish you good wishes.
 
Thank you guys.
I went to the Citizens' information today and they called the pensions dept. in Sligo for me who said my dad had applied for a contributory pension and they hadn't yet decided but if he gets it they'll backdate payment to November when he turned 66 and continue to pay it for 6 weeks post mortem to my mum, who will then transfer to a widow's pension (which she qualifies for in her own right).

My dad's self employed status (with a premises upon which rates must be paid etc.) is making everything quite complex but I fear it would be pointless getting anyone else but me to sift through all his handwritten paperwork.

She appears to qualify for a free travel pass but feck all else!

She's 65 but still works full time and so she's not entitled to the transition state pension as she earns more than their (whopping) cut off point of €38 p/w.

She should qualify for bereavement benefit (€635) and I got the interim death cert from the coroner today which we'll need to apply for that.

As for Household Benefits Package and fuel allowance....looks unlikely. No medical card either. This country really extracts the urine until the very end of the PAYE worker's days!

Gonna have to ring every financial institute we can find paperwork for just in case they have anything of his. I believe if you have even 1 euro in some credit unions they will pay a death benefit which can be quite generous.
 
murphaph, my sympathies to you and yours at this time. Just had a quick thought while I was looking at this. You say your mum is in full time employment, she is entitled to a higher personal tax credit also, it would be worth making sure that she is getting it.
 
so-crates said:
murphaph, my sympathies to you and yours at this time. Just had a quick thought while I was looking at this. You say your mum is in full time employment, she is entitled to a higher personal tax credit also, it would be worth making sure that she is getting it.
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Yes thanks socrates. I was just recently made aware of that and we had a little chuckle that it seems the only advantage to being a widow in this country is to work more hours!

Do you know how long she is entitled to take my dad's credits for? Does it matter that he was self employed and not PAYE or is that irrelevant?

I'll call revenue first thing monday morning in any case (along with about 20 other people!).
 
Not a tax afficionado but from the Revenue website it looks like for this year. Better to check yourself though as her circumstances may warrant a different set of credits. The website doesn't allow you to link to a specific page but if you go onto the website and navigate to "Information... ...for Individuals" on the side panel (LHS) and scroll down, there is a section on that page for Bereavement covering several different topics. hmm - just browsing I came across this booklet I can link to [broken link removed] .
 
Thanks so-crates. Appreciate any and all help and/or advice! People don't value good advice. It's only when something like this happens and you see how everyone wants their few pennies then you realise getting free quality advice is amazing. Fair play AAM.
 
Sorry for your loss. Its a hard time for your mum and all the family.
Your mum is also entitled to pay a lower PRSI contribution [exemption from paying 2% Health Contribution Levy } by virtue of her being in receipt of widows pension. She will need to tell her employer to reduce her PRSI deductions. When my husband died I must say I found social welfare department to be exttremely helpful so it is worth giving them a call.
 
Thanks for that one tonora. She'll be a while waiting for them to process it in Sligo. Wonder is the 2% backdated to the date of application for the pension....
 
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