pension credit

mo1_2

my dad who is 89 got this letter from pension credit today,can someone explain please what it means.

there has been a recent change to pension credit legislation which has affected your assessed income period.because of your current circumstances your asserssed income period no longer has an end date.

the change in legislation does not affect the ammount pf p.c. we currently pay you,then goes on to say about appealing,but dont understand what there sayin or what to appeal against?any help please

mo1_2

anyone please?

mrs*n_4

Basically his assessed income figure wont be reassessed again. What it is now it will stay at even if he wins the lottery 4 times over.

BUT if his income suddenly took a nose dive you could appeal it and have it reassessed.

Hope that helps? x

alwaysonthego_2

mrs*n wrote: »

Basically his assessed income figure wont be reassessed again. What it is now it will stay at even if he wins the lottery 4 times over.

BUT if his income suddenly took a nose dive you could appeal it and have it reassessed.

Hope that helps? x

Pension Credits are means tested and if he did win a substantial amount of money he would need to declare any interest he makes off it. Also if any of his circumstances change he needs to declare them.

Your savings

The first £6000 of your savings and capital are ignored in the calculation for Pension Credit. There is no savings / capital limit above which you cannot claim Pension Credit.
The Pensions Service count £1 a week as income for every £500 or part of £500 over £6,000 you have in savings. (For care home residents the first £10,000 of savings ignored.)
Capital that is counted includes savings and ISA’s, shares or unit trusts, premium bonds, and income or capital bonds. Property that you normally live in is ignored as capital.

http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public
_pensioncredit.hcsp

To the op I have included a link that may answer your query
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:OqsEv2N-_OcJ:www.dsdni.gov.uk/dmser_vol14_36.doc+recent+change+to+pension+credit+legislation&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk

mrs*n_4

This is true but i recently had a discussion with Pension services as a lady i know DID win a substantial amount and wanted her AIF re assessed accordingly in the AIP and was told in no uncertain terms that it didnt matter, it would only matter when her AIP was up and she would have it taken into account then...which i think was a couple of years away.... so either Pension Services are giving incorrect advice or thats the way it is, i will look it up on monday as itd be nice to know.

Is it not also the case that after 80 the pension services have an indefinate AIP where they dont look to re-assess the AIF? Or is that outdated...?

Ive only been lurking on here a few days and its wonderful learning so much, for every rule theres an exception, befuddling but great to know nonetheless.

real1314

alwaysonthego wrote: »

Pension Credits are means tested and if he did win a substantial amount of money he would need to declare any interest he makes off it. Also if any of his circumstances change he needs to declare them.

Your savings

The first £6000 of your savings and capital are ignored in the calculation for Pension Credit. There is no savings / capital limit above which you cannot claim Pension Credit.
The Pensions Service count £1 a week as income for every £500 or part of £500 over £6,000 you have in savings. (For care home residents the first £10,000 of savings ignored.)
Capital that is counted includes savings and ISA’s, shares or unit trusts, premium bonds, and income or capital bonds. Property that you normally live in is ignored as capital.

http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public
_pensioncredit.hcsp

To the op I have included a link that may answer your query
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:OqsEv2N-_OcJ:www.dsdni.gov.uk/dmser_vol14_36.doc+recent+change+to+pension+credit+legislation&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk

If he's in an Assessed Income Period, he wouldn't need to declare the winnings, interest or anything else.

"Assessed Income periods" - basically for the time of the period, changes to income or capital are ignored. The idea (I *think*) is that re-assessing Pension Credit for small changes often costs more than it saves, and in many cases the changes can be anticipated (e.g. most private / employers pensions increase based on pre-determined criteria such as inflation/average wage rise etc).
In a very small number of cases, people may get a sudden windfall, but I'd guess that the number is so small that the losses are outweighed by the savings in admin.
They've recently changed the periods to allow certain cases to have a "lifetime" award rather than a set period.