Pension Credit review

uponahill · 7 March 2012 at 12:49PM

Anubis wrote: »

Lot of ifs in there. My in laws get nothing, they both paid into pension schemes and are just above. They don't get mortgage payments or HB either, they get zero. There are two sides to every coin!

Of course there are.

But I have not yet met any pensioner that doesn't have some level of disability that could give them the lowest rate of AA.

Then we are back at the argument as to what is a disability.

Let the government decide on that one, they seem to have more knowledge than the pensioner does.
I know of one case where within the past 5 years he has had two dizzy spells only because he stood up too quick. Yet SS had him complete an AA claim and he was awarded the lower rate!!

To me that is taking it a bit too far, but hey the government makes the rules and they say he is disabled!!

mrsyardbroom · 7 March 2012 at 3:28PM

The problem is that with Pension credits they disregard the first £10000 of your savings but after that they say you are getting £1 a week for every £500 you've saved. This adds to your income so that even if your pensions only just go over the PC limit the "larger income" from your savings will put you well above the limit. I'm earning as much as I can online so that we can keep our heads above water.

One thing for people with pets. We have two dogs and I keep some savings to pay for vet's bills rather than pay for insurance every month. You can see where this is going! With the benefit of hindsight I'd have been better paying the money into insurance for the dogs and not into our savings account. We would probably have been below the £16000 limit.

dodger1 · 7 March 2012 at 3:39PM

uponahill wrote: »

This is causing a problem with many others from April. The State Pension has gone up by more than the PC limit, and as such many pensioners that are within GPC now, will lose that protection after April. In other words their State Pension increase will, like you, tip them over the limit!

Can only speak as a single person but the state pension is rising by £5.30 in April and the pension guarantee credit is rising by £5.35.

uponahill · 7 March 2012 at 4:07PM

dodger1 wrote: »

Can only speak as a single person but the state pension is rising by £5.30 in April and the pension guarantee credit is rising by £5.35.

Yes for a single person.

But for a couple the State Pension is rising by £5.30 x 2 = £10.60,
yet the couple rate for Pension Credit is only going up by £8.20!

So if the couple are already close to the current GPC limit of £209.70 (say 2 x SRP = £204.30pw + other income £5.00pw), with the April increase their income will be 2 x SRP = £214.90pw + other income £5.00pw giving a total of £219.90pw which is £2.00 OVER the GPC limit.

As such they will lose all of the add on benefits of receiving GPC and will quite likely end up having to pay their council tax of say £26.00pw!!

Not a bad result for the government - give them a rise of £10.60 and end up with a CT bill of say £26.00!!!
The poor old pensioner is being seen to be doing their bit too - nearly £16 a week worse off this year than they were last year.

And if you say it doesn't happen like that, I can tell you it does!

If I could 'lose' £18 of weekly income, I would get GPC and pay no CT - a saving of £29.00 a week. On top of that because I get a contributory benefit I pay tax on it. My tax bill for last year was just under £500 (£9.62 a week).

I would willingly get rid of the £18 excess income I have coming in as in doing so, I would receive £38.62 - I would be £20.62 better off by being on GPC!!
And the government will not allow me to give up the contributory benefit to get that end result - they will treat it as a deprived income!

I think that this is the thin edge of the wedge. They are phasing out Pension Credit in light of the new fixed State Pensions coming in in a few years time. The value of Pension Credit will be eroded away and more will become liable to pay council tax!!

mrsyardbroom · 8 March 2012 at 1:40PM

I have hit upon a possible solution to our problem. I will pay the whole of the council tax and water rates in one go. This will reduce our savings to below the £16000 threshold. I've just done an online calculation that says with the reduced savings we will be eligible for Council Tax Benefit. We should also be entitled to £1.20 a week more in pension savings credit as our savings will have been reduced.
Can anyone in the know tell me if there's anything that would stop me doing this? I know you aren't supposed to spend your savings in order to claim benefits but this is paying for essential bills.

fluffymovie · 8 March 2012 at 2:09PM

Mrsyardbroom

If you pay in one go when the bill is asking for 10 monthly payments, this could be seen as deprivation. It isn't that you aren't supposed to spend money to claim benefit, it's legislation.

If you have had this capital for some years and only now, decide to pay your bills in advance, this would flag as a concern to any benefit officer with experience.

Unfortunately, the law is the law and the rules do exist. However worthy you may feel the cause, it would be doing something that is against the regulations. If you did spend the money and they found it was deprivation, you wouldn't have the capital and wouldn't get the benefit either.

mrsyardbroom · 8 March 2012 at 5:29PM

We haven't had to pay the council tax as we had the guarantee pension credit so we haven't been paying by monthly installments. In the past we have paid both by monthly installments and by lump sum depending on our circumstances. I really don't want to pay by monthly installments, I'd prefer to just pay the whole lot in one go. We do have some essential repairs to do to the house this year so that will take care of some of our savings and it will certainly take us below the £16000 savings limit.

Anubis_2 · 8 March 2012 at 6:59PM

If you have paid by lump sum previously and can find proof of that, then IMHO they can't really use depravation of capital however, ring them and check it out as it is only my opinion, not fact

Pension Credit review

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