A WIDOW broke down in tears when she opened a letter from a customs official telling her she was dead.

Ann Moore, aged 71, was ‘gobsmacked’ when she opened a letter from HM Revenue & Customs asking her representative to fill in a form to establish her tax position following her death.

The letter, sent out on Monday, October 12, asks her personal representative to “settle the estate of the late Mrs Marjorie Moore” (although she now goes by the name of Ann, her middle name).

The forms asks her living personal representative to complete a four-page R27 form including pension details, benefits and capital gains information.

Mrs Moore said because the letter arrived on Saturday she was not able to do anything about it until Monday, leaving her to worry over the weekend.

She said: “I was gobsmacked. I thought it was a wind-up or a scam. I contacted the registrar in Worcester and she checked through all the records and I wasn’t registered as a death.”

Mrs Moore, of St Clements Close, St John’s, Worcester, who lost her husband David two-and-a-half-years ago, said he would have been furious had he still been alive.

She then contacted HM Revenue & Customs by telephone for an explanation.

“They said ‘what’s the problem?’ and I said ‘you said I’m dead’. There was a long silence and then the person said ‘OK, right’. I asked ‘who informed you of my death?’ “He said ‘I don’t know but I will phone you back’. They didn’t phone back so I rang again later in the day and spoke to a woman.

“I was worried they were going to stop my pension and my benefits but I checked with the bank and it has gone through. She phoned me back on Tuesday and said it’s probably human plus computer error. She was very cold and unsympathetic about it. I was very upset. I was crying, lost sleep and I was getting angry. I’m worried there might be other people like me.

“I would like something in writing from them, apologising. I will frame it.”

Jennie Kendall, press spokesman for HM Revenue & Customs, said: “We are sorry to hear of the problems experienced by Mrs Moore and apologise for any distress caused by the letter we issued in error. HM Revenue & Customs deal with millions of customers every year and things occasionally go wrong. We make every effort to minimise mistakes but when they do occur we sort things out as quickly as possible.”