Disability Living Allowance continues after pension

Radioray29

I work on DLA (Disability Living Allowance) and am involved in getting this benefit de-combined from other benefits which have been asked to administer the DLA for the convenience of the DLA customer. There would seem to be many claimants that are NOT getting their DLA paid when transferred from Incapacity Benefit to Pension or Pension Credit on reaching the qualifying age. We are told time and again by the customer that they thought their entitlement to DLA stopped at pension age and indeed in some cases have been told this by third parties or DWP so did not question it when their income reduced, in some cases many years ago. Disability Living Allowance CONTINUES to be payable after pension age if you have the benefit in payment before. In some cases we have made arrears payments of TENS OF THOUSANDS of pounds on finding the DLA was not transferred to be paid after pension age. If unsure call the DLA Helpline 08457 123456 and question whether your entitlement to DLA is still valid and if so are your payments being made. :think:

fluffymovie

Hi Radioray!

This is really useful as I work in HB and also hear the same thing quite a lot!

Could I ask, is AA only awarded if the original claim is made after pension age?

anmarj

It's not paid with SP is because the IB section do not send back the ATP to tell the DLA unit to pay with SP, that is where the marjorty of problems lie (work for SP and PC) and they phone the IB section and are told that it is not their problem as the cust is SP age.

Fluffymovie, aa is only payable to people age 65 or over, they cannot get it before that age, so if they are 64 they apply for dla if they are 66 they apply for AA.

fluffymovie

Got it! We have had some queries checking on CIS to find DLA in payment when SRP also in payment!

Having said that, we also have had cases on CIS showing Incap and SRP and have been told to ignore CIS!!!

anmarj

fluffymovie wrote: »

told to ignore CIS!!!

not suprised!:rotfl:

Radioray29

Not really interested in blame anmarj, in simple terms it is a DWP failure that the customer ceases to pursue their entitlement . I simply aim to inform customers to be aware that they may have arrears due and so relieve us in future of the long process of identifying a paid up to date.

burkey365

may i just ask, not sure if its the same...i get DLA and am 36 years old however i am about to get my civil service pension ( as i worked for the inland revenue for 8 years during the 1990s though its not much £25 per week) paid out on the grounds of ill health because i had an accident and will never work again, will this mean my DLA may be stopped in error

suelees1

No burkey, I think they're all talking about moving from working age to pension age. Working age customers often have their DLA combined with say Incapacity Benefit or such like but it seems when claimants then reach pension age and start to get paid state retirement pension the DLA isn't getting combined with these payments but should be paid separately and not stopped which mistakenly happens.

sebastianj

So what happens to a lady 60+ getting DLA but not entitled to any pension. I guess she will be dependent on her husband's pension when he retires? It is all so confusing.
seb

Whiteknight

I was under the impression that DLA should no longer be combined with SP/PC (unless it already is) so hopefully when someone moves from a working age benefit to SP/PC the working age benefit will de-combine the DLA and inform the DLA section that they need to be paying.

suelees1

I've not heard that whiteknight but just in case I've edited my post so hopefully it makes more sense which is what I wanted to say anyway