Shit is my aunt getting too much money

[NoOneKnowsWhoYouAre]

I have POA for my 87 yo aunt. She has been in a care home for 3 years. Prior to this she got attendance and I got carers allowance. I rang and told them she was in a care home She gets £340 a week which I assumed was her state pension plus her widows pension as her DH died 30 years ago after working full time. She pays £1291 every 4 weeks to the care home. So is left with £80 a month for personal spends. The rest is topped up by the council. When I stopped claiming carers and attendance allowance it had been overpaid so we had to pay back £600.

Today I have had a call from someone who said she was from the DWP saying she needed to come and visit my aunt and I to check she was still allowed it as it had been claimed in COVID. She said that the attendance allowance claim was still active??

Now I'm panicking that she has been overpaid for 3 years. She has no money to pay them back. I use that £80 to take her out and but her clothes etc each month. None of the benefits calculations work when someone is in a care home.

Anyone have any idea what is going on here?

South East. The care home is shit but it's where they put her. She seems to like it though

Following, best of luck with it. My aunt is 87 and might be going into a care home, she receives AA.

Are you sure it’s the DWP who called and not the COP? I was Deputy for my stepfather whilst he was in a care home and received a call from someone from the Court of Protection who did a visit with me to see him in his care home. She asked for details of his finances, I took his bank statements and care home invoices. Like your aunt, he was initially in receipt of AA before being admitted, but that stopped when he became a partial funder. It’s pretty pointless paying AA to a partial funder as they would just have to pay the full amount straight to the LA for their fees.
The bank statements will clearly show what your aunt has been paid and as others have pointed out, the pension payment is coded SP whilst attendance allowance payments coded AA.
The only issue that I could think of is where SP or AA has been paid into a different account (my SFs SP was paid to me for a short time before I obtained Deputyship) and not been declared to the LA.

Me too! As Deputy I had to do an annual report which caused me no end of anxiety as it had to balance to the penny!

I challenged an overpayment when I had proof that it was their mistake and I had done my part by notifying them. They threatened me, I appealed and I won.

Sonif you clearly notified them personally I wouldn’t accept your aunt suffering because of their cock up.

Hi Op, hope you got to the bottom of this
Aside from your main issue I thought the £80 a month expenses was a little low, I felt sure I had read something that said £25 per week, anyway, checking the ,gov website it states the the personal expenses allowance for 24/25 is £30.15 per week and is reviewed in April each year