My dad died and we didn’t cancel BT Sport for three years – now they won’t give our money back

Every week, the Money team answers a reader’s financial dilemma or consumer problem – email yours to [email protected]. Today’s is…

My father passed away in April 2022. My mother was formally diagnosed with dementia a few months later. After Dad passed I helped Mum take care of the lion’s share of admin and tried to simplify things in her life cognisant of her reduced capacity. One of the things was to cancel the Sky subscription as this was only ever for Dad to watch the football. In June this year Mum went into full time care and as her son, with full power of attorney, I went about mitigating all her outgoings as I didn’t want her to be paying out unnecessarily now that she was in full-time residential care where everything is covered. Here I unearthed a BT Sport subscription which my mum had been charged for in the past three years. I explained that there was no way my mother would be aware she had this service let alone would use it. We didn’t get any paper bills. BT is unwilling to waiver the charges other than initially offering a paltry £30 on compensation and then at a later date was prepared to offer a further £80, which I declined – this amounts to more than £1,000.
Barry

Thank you for your email, Barry – I was really sorry to read about what your family has gone through and your story illustrates the minefield that often awaits relatives when a loved one dies.

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This is far too big a topic to cover in one post but it’s worth going over some basics that apply across the board (and Citizens Advice has a useful guide here).

When someone dies, the executor named in any will is responsible for sorting the deceased’s financial affairs. If there isn’t a will, an administrator will be appointed – usually a friend or relative.

There are a couple of mechanisms that can help.

There’s the government’s Tell Us Once scheme, which will notify multiple organisations:

• HMRC – to deal with personal tax and to cancel benefits and credits, for example child benefit;
• Department for Work and Pensions – to cancel benefits and entitlements, for example universal credit or state pension;
• Passport Office – to cancel a British passport;
• DVLA – to cancel a licence, remove the person as the keeper of up to five vehicles and end the vehicle tax;
• Local council – to cancel housing benefit, council tax reduction, a Blue Badge, inform council housing services and remove the person from the electoral register;
• Social Security Scotland – to cancel benefits and entitlements from the Scottish government, for example Scottish child payment.

Tell Us Once will also contact some public sector pension schemes and Veterans UK to cancel or update Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments.

Another mechanism is the Death Notification Service, which many major banks and building societies have signed up to and can help when dealing with multiple accounts.

You probably noticed that none of the above cover household bills and subscriptions – there are no shortcuts here other than contacting each organisation.

We have abbreviated your email above, but the key detail is that your mum was ultimately responsible for sorting your dad’s financial affairs – but, given she was just a few months from an official dementia diagnosis, she arguably wasn’t in a fit position to do so.

Had she been diagnosed at the time, it would have been possible to ask a court to replace her as executor and, with access to your father’s bank statements, you would no doubt have spotted the BT Sport subscription fee coming out each month.

Sadly, this wasn’t the case – and BT continued to legitimately charge for a service it was still providing.

Ultimately, it’s hard to pin blame on either side here. It’s an unfortunate case that was hard to avoid – though I would have been surprised if BT didn’t make some effort to help your family.

After I got in touch with them, they responded quickly – and it wasn’t long before they reached out to you.

Though the company maintained no errors were made on their part, they offered you a goodwill gesture that you told me you were happy with.

In a statement to me, BT said: “While the family had Sky, they were also accessing and paying BT for TNT Sports on their Sky box.

“We have spoken to Barry who acknowledges that while the Sky TV service was cancelled, BT were never contacted to report a bereavement or request cancellation of the service.

“Although there has been no BT error, we have offered a reimbursement of six months to acknowledge their experience.”

This feature is not intended as financial advice – the aim is to give an overview of the things you should think about. Submit your dilemma or consumer dispute via:

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• Or email [email protected] with the subject line “Money Problem”