Pension credit payment ?

andyandflo

Could I ask a simple question. If the poster was on IS/IB and told to move over to PC, why aren't ESA(C) claimants told the same? I actually had a local pension service guy call at the house on three separate occasions, to be told that as I was claiming ESA(C) that would take priority over PC. That is why I had been fighting for my appeal (now ceased), as PC would only pay the 'top up' which in my case was £5.25pw
Now that I am waiting for my first JSA(C) payment (had nothing since 15/8/10) and the ESA has stopped as well as the PC, who takes priorty now? By the way I am 62 and my wife is 66.

Sixtails

IS cannot pay anyone over a certain age, regardless of gender - that age used to be 60 but is going up with the new rules. ESAc & JSAc can pay upto state pension age so 65 for males. Thats why IS send the letters advising people payments will stop & they need to claim PC.

The only time PC should make you going forward with ESA or JSA is if you would be better off on those instead of PC. If you were still entitled to PC when on ESA then it would not make you any better off (hopefully that makes sense!) So PC have no reason to make you claim ESA/JSA - it's actually harder to pay claims when someone is on ESAc or JSAc so they're only making it harder for themselves!

PC can take pensions into account if you could claim them but don't, i've never heard of them doing that with benefits though. I don't know why people have been telling you anything about benefits taking priority over each other - from the info you've given PC should have been paid as soon as you were entitled which sounds like some time ago, ESA shouldn't have been brougt into the equation unless it was in payment - sorry, i know that's likely to frustrate you further.
It could be that theres some other reason this started that you've mentioned so i could have the wrong end of the stick but going from what you've said it appears something strange is going on

anmarj

andyandflo: ESA(c) & JSA (c) can be paid at the same time as PC but taken into account as income, so when assessing the entitlement they would be taking the ESA(c) into account, ESA(IB), jsa (IB), and income support is the equilvemnt of PC so therefore cannot be paid at the same time. If somebody is on JSA (c) they do not have to sign off but I know a lot of people were told they had to sign off but it is only really necessary on the IB side of things. the main problem with the conts side of things was that until esa came in, anybody on JSA (C) had to be paid clerically as it was a problem with the system so in real terms was proberly better to sign off only through the changes has it been possible to process a conts claim on the system.

andyandflo

Sixtails wrote: »

IS cannot pay anyone over a certain age, regardless of gender - that age used to be 60 but is going up with the new rules. ESAc & JSAc can pay upto state pension age so 65 for males. Thats why IS send the letters advising people payments will stop & they need to claim PC.

The only time PC should make you going forward with ESA or JSA is if you would be better off on those instead of PC. If you were still entitled to PC when on ESA then it would not make you any better off (hopefully that makes sense!) So PC have no reason to make you claim ESA/JSA - it's actually harder to pay claims when someone is on ESAc or JSAc so they're only making it harder for themselves!

PC can take pensions into account if you could claim them but don't, i've never heard of them doing that with benefits though. I don't know why people have been telling you anything about benefits taking priority over each other - from the info you've given PC should have been paid as soon as you were entitled which sounds like some time ago, ESA shouldn't have been brougt into the equation unless it was in payment - sorry, i know that's likely to frustrate you further.
It could be that theres some other reason this started that you've mentioned so i could have the wrong end of the stick but going from what you've said it appears something strange is going on

Thanks for that extremely understandable explanation. The time spent on it is appreciated very much.

I claimed PC first (in June 2009) I then claimed ESA in October 2009.

It took until January 2010 for PC to come into payment as it seems (explanation given by PC) that they were waiting to see what ESA I was to get. ESA came into payment in December 2009, but then stopped and then restarted again in March 2010, because (so ESA said) "they had to do my ESA clerically".
There was some confusion as to who was supposed to pay my benefit - ESA or PC (yes I know that they take ESA into account and there aren't any pensions that I could have but haven't claimed) although the point about being sanctioned by PC if I chose not to claim ESA or now JSA was brought up by DWP - ESA, as it would be deemed to be an income that I could claim for for did not do so. It was made clear to me that PC in my case, would only be a 'top up' after I had claimed everything else I was entitled to.

Anyhow, in April they had it all sorted and paid my ESA at the assessment rate (because I had failed the medical and had appealed) and PC topped up my income by £5.25pw.

So it does seem that each was waiting for the other and nobody wanted to move first - hence the reason why I asked who took priority.

Anyhow since I gave up my appeal in early August 2010, and went onto JSA(C) instead they stopped my ESA(C), obviously, and also the PC payment.

I am now waiting for my first JSA weekly giro and no doubt (because the weekly amount is the same as the ESA payment), they will start up with the PC payments of £5.25pw again.

I realise that I will only be able to claim JSA(C) for 6 months and then I will have to go back on to ESA(C) and hopefully pass that medical.

At the end of the day, however and whenever I receive my benefits, they will not, when combined together exceed the PC Guaranteed figure of £202.40 + the element for savings. My affairs are, well I don't think so, a little complicated because of my many sources of income/pensions etc - 9 in total) + self employment in which I make a regular annual loss, in that some change at different times of the year by way of increases.

It would make life easier if PC paid everything, but that does not seem to happen. I suppose I could have not claimed JSA, and had it all through PC, but ESA didn't tell me that, they said to claim JSA as I was fit for work and had not reached normal retirement age (65)!