Can anyone help explain these DWP Pension Payments?

minnie123

Hi,

My Grandad has gone into a residential home (self funding) so I am looking at his bank statements to try and work out how long his money is going to last basically. I think he is claiming Attendance Allowance at the lower rate (I am going to claim for the higher). I assume this gets paid in with his pension because there is only one payment in monthly. But from my calculations it doesn't seem enough. He is getting £544.56 monthly from DWP. This works out as approx £6500 yearly. But I calculate the pension @ £90.70 weekly + the Attendance Allowance @ £44.85 weekly as coming to approx £7000 yearly.

Can anyone explain this difference - is there a reason his pension may be less that £90.70 weekly or does it seem like Attendance Allowance is not included. I can't find any paperwork at his house regarding his pension but I did find a letter saying he is getting AA from 2005.

monkeyspanner

Hi Minnie
DWP usually make payments on a 4 week cycle so the payment of £544.56 should be divided by 4 making £136.14 a week. If we assume there is the lower level of AA included at £44.85 this leaves £91.29 and the difference between this figure and the basic pension could be pension credit or an age allowance.

Easiest way is to ring DWP they may refuse to give any specific case info if you don't have a power of attorney logged on their system (it depends how willing the operator is to bend the rules). If they will noy discuss try the hypothetical route to gettimg confirmation.

Hope this helps.

EdInvestor

monkeyspanner wrote: »

If we assume there is the lower level of AA included at £44.85 this leaves £91.29 and the difference between this figure and the basic pension could be pension credit or an age allowance.

Or SERPS/S2P depending on his age.If he retired before 1974 he wouldn't have any of this, but he would probably have some Graduated Pension (precursor of SERPs) .He may have both. Doesn't he know?

I would doubt there is any state pensioner who actually gets 90.70 a week.

To inquire how much state pension he gets if he doesn't know/can't say , contact www.thepensionservice.gov.uk