Poxy Pension Credits !!!

gorgeousgeorge

Am getting really fed up with the Pension Credits department :mad: have received a letter from them today ( with no covering letter!) saying that we are entitled to PC's from 24/11/09, 3 different sheets, 3 different amounts, and from my workings out looks as if they owe us nearly £1200 , but are they going to pay it.....NO not yet as partner is in receipt of JSA (cb)at the moment, and will be for about another month. They are saying that they cant pay it until his claim for JSA stops, apparently they dont pay it as a 'top up' which is different to what we have been told in the past. They have based it on the savings that we had when we 1st claimed, but as we tried explaining on the phone, we no longer have those amount of savings as we have had to pay rent etc etc! :mad:

Yet again, they cant get into partners system, so cant give us a breakdown of what they say we have coming in. Am really fed up with them now, the sheets with our entitlement has neither names or NI numbers on them, so could mean that they could be for anyone ( obviously someone in the department was in a rush and didnt put in a covering letter etc etc ) The person on the other end of the phone was no help at all, and couldnt tell us what to do when his JSA stops.

Now does this mean that when his JSA stops, we have to yet again prove what we now have in our accounts, what we have coming in etc etc?
Just wish they would get their bloody act together, provide correct information everytime we ring up and have our details on the system!!!

Aaaaaaaaaaargh!!!! :mad::mad:

Whiteknight

Where on the 3 different sheets did it say that they were not going to pay the Pension Credit. It sounds to me that is is being dealt with clerically - I know of no reason why they would send those forms out if nothing was being paid. When the JSA (conts) ends then they will be able to pay in on the system.

I would suggest that you call them up with your partner (who is the PC customer) and ask them to check if it is being paid clerically and if any payments have been released or are pending?

With clerical cases it can be very difficult for the person answering the phone to give you much detail as the system is only as good as the notes which have been left by the person who is dealing with the case.

When the JSA ends you will not have to provide the information again regarding your capital.

gorgeousgeorge

Hi Whiteknight, i was in the room with my partner when he rung them up, and he was told that all monies would be backdated and paid when his JSA (cb) ends.
The 3 sheets had different totals 24/11/09, which was £44pw 6/4/10 which was £43, and 12/4/10 £47pw, so i have taken that the 1st lot runs from 24/11/09 til 6/4/10 (19 weeks) 6/4/10 til 12/4/10 (1 week) and 12/4/10 til now (4 weeks).

They have obviously taken into account what savings we did have at the time and taken money off for that as well, but we do not have that amount of savings anymore, due to paying rent, paying off c/cards, loans etc.
So surely once we are in receipt of PC's only they will have to take our (now) savings into account?
I have just worked out that if its 182 days that you get JSA(cb) paid for, its only about another couple of weeks that we will be getting that for anyway, so full PC's should be paid pretty soon (hopefully)

anmarj

gorgeousgeorge wrote: »

They have obviously taken into account what savings we did have at the time and taken money off for that as well, but we do not have that amount of savings anymore, due to paying rent, paying off c/cards, loans etc.
So surely once we are in receipt of PC's only they will have to take our (now) savings into account?
/QUOTE]

did the statements that you sent only relate to that backdated period, if so then you need to send in new bank statements to show what your capital is now for them to reassess the claim

gorgeousgeorge

Hi, yes they did, they were bank statements from 29/11/09 up to March this year when we were asked to submit them.

I blame all this on the Job Centre, they should have advised OH to claim for pension credits when he 1st signed on.

We didnt know about pension credits until I read about them somewhere, thats why we didnt put in a claim for them until Feb and we only put in a claim for H/B in March as I thought we wouldnt be able to get any until PC was sorted out, so we paid full rent from Nov to March, not that we get much H/B anyway ( due to having 2 grown up kids still at home )

suelees1

gg you've been having a right old time of it. I'd strongly advise you to go and see a welfare benefits advisor in your area.

In the meantime ask the LA if they'll backdate your HB as I think you can show good reason for the late claim. Your husband's JSA claim should also have been taken by them as a claim for HB. All the messing about is another good reason.

An experienced benefit advisor should be able to help with all of this

gorgeousgeorge

Cheers Suelees1 yup, we definately have been given the runaround by all the departments, my hair is now totally white :eek:, just makes me very angry that OH has paid his taxes and NIC's for nearly 46 years and they mess you about when you ask for monies that you are entitled too Still I should count ourselves lucky, theres a lot worse off folk than us out there.
Will give it another couple of weeks until his JSA(cb) ends then see what happens with the PC department, and then decide our next plan of action

suelees1

good luck mate

gorgeousgeorge

Woooooohoooo :j Pension Credits have finally paid some money into OH's account, went to withdraw some money and he couldnt understand why the balance was so high lol :rotfl:. Was surprised that they paid it in especially after we were told that no payments would be made until his JSA(cb) ended. I spoke to a very nice lady at the PC department today to tell her that we had no breakdown about the amounts that were being paid, she was very apologetic and said she would get something out in the post, and also advised us to give them a call when he was signed off with our change of circumstances, and also to let them know of our capital that we now had, also said that H/B would be informed by them, and if we had overpaid on H/B that would be sorted, and also any cold weather payments that should have been made would also be sorted as well .

I could have hugged her down the phone line

Would like to give a BIG THANKS to all of you that have given me great advice over the past few weeks
:beer:
Mel x

suelees1

and a woohoo from me Mel !

gorgeousgeorge

Cheers Sue, and thank you very much for your help and advice, it has helped a great deal