Are parents entitled to this?

Katykat

The situation. Mum applied for and got Pension credit. She doesn't get a state pension in her own right as she paid married woman NI's ( despite working till she was 75). He r health declined and a benefits officer filled in the forms for Attendance Allowance, which she subsequently got at the higher level. At this stage, she found out that dad has £20,000 in 3 bank accounts. Now we want to know if she has to give up the Pension credit. I know that A Allow is not means tested, but is it included when means testing for Pension credit? Would she be prosecuted if it was found that she claimed fraudulantly even though she didn't know about dads money?
Incidentally, this is not such an unusual situation with this generation. She has never known how much he earned when he worked, he just gave her housekeeping money and paid all the bills himself, always cash. He gets a basic state pension only. Some of the money is earmarked for their diamond wedding celebrations at Christmas, and they are planning on visiting their daughter in Oz next year.

cw18

Attendance Allowance is the "over-65's" version of DLA -- which means it's not means tested, not taxable, and not counted as income when working out what means tested benefits someone may be entitled to.

cw18

With regard to Pension Credit -- this looks the easiest page to follow to me (and specifically says it ignores AA in calculations)

It appears your Dad's savings will lose them £28/week in Pensions Credit...

an 'assumed income' of £1 a week for every £500 (or part of £500) of 'capital' you have over £6,000 or over £10,000 if you live permanently in a care home (capital includes savings and investments, and property that's not your main home)

and I suspect it will work the same as Income Support, in that if they spend the capital on 'non essentials' (which the things you list are), then the Benefits Agencies will treat them as if they still have the money in the bank !!

Oldernotwiser

I think that they need to earmark a chunk of their savings to pay back the arrears that they'll have accumulated, although I'm sure that prosecution is extremely unlikely.

glitterkitty

0845 60 60 265

The Pension Service - they deal with queries about pension credit too- you can get all the answers and put your mind at rest