Does an inheritance affect qualification to pension benefits

Oldernotwiser

sue1953 wrote: »

Hi
Are you saying that if the OPs folks continue to get Guaranteed Pension Credit until the end of their assessed income period, they wont get HB/CTB as their savings are over £16,000. Can you please clarify

I have to say, I'm not positive about the way HB interacts with pension credit, so if you are, then I'm quite prepared to be in the wrong.

What happens at the end of the pension credit period if people have deliberately given away money; isn't it taken into account?

sue1953

As I understand it, if you are entitled to Guaranteed Pension Credit you will be passported to full HB/CTB even though your capital may be over £16,000. These are the only group of people who, I believe, can get HB/CTB if they have savings over £16,000. If you are only entitled to Pension Savings Credit and you have savings over £16,000 then you are disqualified from HB/CTB. At the end of the assessed income period, the Pension Service review a person's entitlement to Pension Credit. I'm not sure how they can check whether a pensioner has come into large amounts of capital though, I can only guess that they have their ways and means!

I found the following on an AGe Concern information sheet about Deprivation of Capital

5.2 Deprivation of capital (notional capital)
If you deprive yourself of capital in order to get Pension Credit or
increase the amount of benefit, the Pension Service can treat you as still
having that capital (they call this ‘notional capital’). This might occur if
you give money away to members of your family or buy expensive items
in order to reduce your capital.
You will not be considered to have deprived yourself of capital if you
have paid off debts or used money on ‘reasonable’ spending on goods
and services. If you are refused benefit because of this you should seek
advice and consider appealing against the decision.