Posting about a relative who has just died.
She had learning difficulties and almost all her adult life has lived in care. She briefly married a man who also had learning difficulties and they managed to live in sheltered accommodation for a period of time with lots of support. They separated a few years ago.
She is a cousin of my mother, and my mother has had been listed by the care homes and hospital as NOK but she never actually specified my mother as NOK. She would have struggled to understand the concept.
My mother is her closest family that sees her. She has siblings who never contacted her once their parents died a long time ago. We don’t know where these siblings are or even if they are alive.
She died with no will recently which we hadn’t thought she had needed but it turns out she had her pension being paid into an account that now has a small amount in it. I don’t know who set this up. It may have been the council. The bank is happy for my mum to fill out their NOK form and take the money but my mum doesn’t know if this is right or not. Is her estranged husband her NOK or her siblings?