Spouse receives condolences from HMRC for her husband – who was subsequent to her | Private Finance | Finance

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A spouse acquired a HMRC letter wishing her condolences on the loss of life of her husband – who was consuming his lunch subsequent to her when she opened it.

Linda Clark, 74, received the correspondence from HM Income and Customs relating to the obvious loss of life of her husband Michael, 77.

The couple stated they had been left extraordinarily “alarmed” over the error.

Mrs Clark, from Saxmundham, Suffolk stated: “The letter requested me to contact HMRC as quickly as doable as a result of I would owe tax on his cash, or they may owe tax.

“I proceeded to contact them immediately.

“After spending practically an hour on the telephone to them, and them talking to my husband, they agreed that he was very a lot alive.

“They might not inform us when he allegedly died, if a loss of life certificates had been supplied, or when he had died.

“It was terrible. They had been very unhelpful. They stated they’d alter their data however informed my husband to telephone the Division for Work and Pensions as his pension would have been stopped.

“This proved to be right, though works and pensions had been very useful. We discovered the quantity and known as them, they usually had been completely gobsmacked.”

In response to Mrs Clark, the DWP informed them that they had not acquired the loss of life certificates however “had been suggested” of the bereavement.

She added: “They resolved the pension problem and reinstated him on their data. The girl on the telephone joked that she had resurrected him.”

The couple had been suggested to contact different companies together with the fraud squad, who couldn’t discover any intention of fraud. Mrs Clark then wrote a letter to HMRC, describing the expertise “alarming and upsetting” as a pension fee was due.

An additional telephone name to HMRC led to the couple being reduce off after 20 minutes.

Mr Clark added: “I could not consider it. I could not see how they may presumably have despatched out the notification with out the loss of life certificates. I used to be stunned. Trying again on it now, I can see the humorous facet, but it surely might have actually upset somebody so it should not occur once more.”

An HMRC spokesperson stated: “We’re sorry for the misery brought on to Mr Clark and his household and are writing to him to verify we’ve corrected his document.”

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