How much savings you are allowed before it effects benefits for the over 60's???

damonflash

Hopefully somebody can help as I’ve trawled the internet to no avail, the situation:
Mum & Dad both over 60,
Mum already on state pension due to having to retire early down to illness.
Dad made redundant and been told he is entitled to various benefits – Council Tax, Council Rent & Pension i think.

Basically they need to know how much savings they are allowed before it either effects these entitlements or makes them something their actually not entitled too.

My Mum's really paranoid that she'll get sent down if they don't get this right....

ses6jwg

16k

if they have more and get rid of em to get benefits theyre committing fraud

damonflash

Is that between them or both, and thats exactly what they don't want to do hence the question.

richard9991

damonflash wrote: »

Is that between them or both, and thats exactly what they don't want to do hence the question.

for means tested benefit they are a couple so that is for both of them

sleepless_saver

The previous posters have got it a bit wrong. The £16k limit does not apply to any contribution based benefits they are entitled to. And it does not apply to pension credit for which there is no capital limit.

You don't say exactly how old your parents are, but I see your mother is already getting her state pension. She may be entitled to pension credit (they would be assessed as a couple but only one of them needs to have reached that age). If they get guarantee pension credit, then the rent and council tax will be covered. If savings pension credit, then they will get some reduction in rent and council tax (ETA, I take that back, as they are too your for savings pension credit.)

Probably the best thing would be for her to phone the PEnsion Service 0800 99 1234 and ask about claiming pension credit, they can take the claim over the phone and are pretty helpful in my experience. She'll need her NI number, and details of income and savings (both parents). They'll make sure they have her savings recorded and she won't get sent down!!

The alternative is for your father to claim JSA, but they are likely to be better off with pension credit, plus he won't need to sign on.

ETA, your father could make the pension credit claim if he is old enough.

damonflash

Thanks for your imformative reply 'sleepless saver', my Dad is 63 and Mum 60. I'll call get them to read your post and go from there, seems so complicated to me, glad i'm in full time work no worries about all these different benefits for this and that...

sleepless_saver

Glad I could help.

If your dad is 63 then he should claim the pension credit. (He doesn't need to have reached his state pension age to claim, just the state pension age for a woman his age - strange but true)

If your mum is just 60, I'm not sure how she can be getting state pension yet - could it be a pension from her work she's getting?

damonflash

Maybe she's not getting a state pension, i'm sure she said she was getting something due to her not being able to work though an illness she has?
Is their a savings threshold for these benefits? Is it 16k as previously stated if so i'm sure the'll be fine.

Thanks Again

bengal-stripe

damonflash wrote: »

Is their a savings threshold for these benefits? Is it 16k as previously stated if so i'm sure the'll be fine.

The lower threshold (which will not affect means-tested benefits) is £6,000 for the under sixty and £10,000 for the over sixty.

Mind you, the pension age for women is changing from 60 to 65 at the moment, so it might not be sixty anymore but the current pension age for females (a woman celebrating her 60th birthday today, will reach pension age at 61 years, 7 months and 15 days old).

sleepless_saver

There is no savings limit for pension credit.

It's not clear what your mum is getting, could be an ill health pension from work, or employment and support allowance. Or both.

If they are entitled to guarantee pension credit, the Pension Service can help get the housing benefit and council tax benefit sorted out for them, so that should be the first port of call.

sleepless_saver

bengal-stripe wrote: »

The lower threshold (which will not affect means-tested benefits) is £6,000 for the under sixty and £10,000 for the over sixty.

Anything below £10k is ignored for the older age group. After £10000, you are assumed to have some income from your savings. That income is added on to your actual income e.g from state pension and then compared with what the government says you need. The difference is the amount of guarantee pension credit you get. So if your state pension or other income is low enough, you can have tens of thousands in savings and still get pension credit.