Here’s the letter my mother in law got from the Pension Service again. This time annotated and scored.
Ref: XXXX XXXXX
Section: Decision Making
Dear Mrs X
Thank you providing information about your property at XX XXXXXX XXXX. Point lost for getting this wrong. I have considered the fact that this property has tenant and that you are receiving rent from this property. However the law states that the Department can only disregard one property and that property is the property occupied by you as your home. Point lost for confusing sentence.
I have noted that you have with held permission to have XX XXXXXX XXXX valued points lost for getting it wrong and writing error. Withheld is usually one word or at least hyphenated. and in order to estimate a value for the property I have consulted a website Zoopla which gives estimated values for properties and I have averaged the estimated values of other properties in XXXXXX XXXX.
The average price for your property is £XX, XXX less 10% for expenses of sale gives a value for State Pension Credit purposed of point lost for writing error £XX,XXX to be taken account as capital when assessing your claim.
This means that for the purposes of your Pension Credit, you will be treated as having additional capital of £XX, XXX from 13 October 2010 that being the date when you informed the Department you had changed address.
If you think our decision is wrong, you also also? As well as what? have the right of appeal. You can get a copy of form XXXX from your local Social Security Office, your local Job Centre or the Citizens Advice Bureau. You should fill in the form XXXX and send it to the Appeals Officer at the above address, within one month of the date of this letter. Your appeal will be heard by an independent appeals Tribunal. If you would like to know more about this decision, please get in touch with us. 5 more points lost because Mrs X doesn’t understand whether she has to pay back any money or whether her future Pension Credit will be affected. #fail.
Yours sincerely,
Xxxxx Xxxxxxx
Decision Maker
I score this letter 0 of 10!
