grants for a pensioner who owns home

rotoguys

margaretclare wrote: »

We've been told many times that we should be claiming pension credit. Equally many times, we can't because our combined incomes are too much - both get own pensions and annuities from previous careers. We think we do pretty well anyway - not rich but a darned long way from being poor, and that's the best place to be.

I wonder when the OP's Dad decided to exercise his RTB way back, he didn't think of repairs/renovation/maintenance costs? I ask because my eldest GD lives in a council flat, has lived there long enough - just - to qualify for RTB, but she isn't even thinking about it. Reason: these are 1970s flats and when she moved in, her kitchen and bathroom were completely replaced and upgraded under the 'Better Homes' scheme. Since then she's had a new front door, new windows and has had her boiler and radiators replaced under a similar council scheme. She's doing her own painting and decorating as she's recently qualified as a master painter and decorator. There would be no benefit to her in trying to buy. She thinks she's better off paying the rent. She'll always get essential repairs done for her - why should she opt to pay for all these herself? No point at all.

From what Pension Credit have said and including all of the other benefits we will have coming as well in each week it is a total of £631.22 and we don't rent our home.

rotoguys

kingfisherblue wrote: »

My mum gets pension credit and some council tax benefit - it doesn't amount to anywhere near £400 a week! She has a state pension and a small private pension that she inherited from my dad, but the private pension is only £13.89 a week.

Then she can't be sick and disabled like we both are.

seven-day-weekend

rotoguys wrote: »

Oh yes it does. I have a form here from the Pension Service that says not.

Up until now we have been living on:

My ESA £99.85
Wife's OAP £58.95
My DLA Mobility £51.40 but we have given that up for a new car
My DLA for care £49.30
Wife's AA £49.30
£257.40 a week to live on, pay the mortgage, council tax etc.

On Pension Credit I have been told that we are entitled to:
Basic £209.70
Disability Premiums £110.60
Carers Allowance Premiums £62.00
Housing Costs (£100,000 mortgage) £69.81
£452.11 Entitlement per week

Plus
£49.30 DLA
£49.30 AA

Total £550.71 weekly entitlement
And they say I will not have the council tax to pay of £29.11 per week!

making a total of £579.82 a week
That is an increase over what we already have coming in of £322.42 a week and we still have the new car paid for out of the other DLA (£51.40).

We were shafted, just look at what we should have been getting for the past 6 years!! Could you afford to lose that sort of money?

Yes it's on the internet, but only if you know about it and then start looking to find out more about it.

You were not shafted, you didn't claim it so no-one could give it to you.

I understand that you might not have known about it, but that does not equate to 'shafting'. Shafting is deliberately lying to you or misleading you.

rotoguys

Errata wrote: »

Why were you shafted? You could have claimed and didn't.

We didn't claim it because we never knew about it! This is despite the DWP knowing about our disabilities, and the council knowing about our financial position. No one thought about mentioning it to us. I presume they just thought that we were claiming it.

You have to know about something or be told about it before you can go round trying to find out more information about it.

We never were told about Council Tax Benefit either - that came as a shock to us when the Pension Service told us that we should have claimed.

rotoguys

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

You were not shafted, you didn't claim it so no-one could give it to you.

I understand that you might not have known about it, but that does not equate to 'shafting'. Shafting is deliberately lying to you or misleading you.

Or failing to inform us when it was pretty evident from what we were living on AND knowing that we are both disabled and getting DLA/AA.

Bells should have been ringing in the DWP office and the council.
As it is we have a debt from a couple of years ago for Council Tax, which has been to court and is still outstanding (£821). Maybe the council should have queried our financial position after I sent in an Income and Expenses statement showing that we can't pay the debt!!

I have spoken to the council this week and had a go at them about it. They had the nerve to say that they DO have a active policy of making sure that potential Pension Credit/Council Tax Benefit claimants are told and if need be, helped into making the claims. They couldn't explain why we were overlooked!

seven-day-weekend

rotoguys wrote: »

From what Pension Credit have said and including all of the other benefits we will have coming as well in each week it is a total of £631.22 and we don't rent our home.

We have about £250 a week and we don't rent our home either. We are not entitled to Pension Credit as our income is too high.

£631? In my dreams!

seven-day-weekend

rotoguys wrote: »

Or failing to inform us when it was pretty evident from what we were living on AND knowing that we are both disabled and getting DLA/AA.

Bells should have been ringing in the DWP office and the council.
As it is we have a debt from a couple of years ago for Council Tax, which has been to court and is still outstanding (£821). Maybe the council should have queried our financial position after I sent in an Income and Expenses statement showing that we can't pay the debt!!

But it is your responsibility to claim, not the Council's to sort out your income for you. You could have asked advice from a Benefits Advisor at the CAB or somewhere similar.

I can't believe you're getting £631 a week and still grizzling about it.

midnight_express

It's clearly not the claimants that are being shafted.

rotoguys

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

We have about £250 a week and we don't rent our home either. We are not entitled to Pension Credit as our income is too high.

£631? In my dreams!

Are you saying you don't believe me? I don't blame you to be honest.

But I have listed down in an earlier post how this figure is made up. It is quite genuine. I was as shocked as you seem to be. It's a lot of money every week. I don't know how we will manage to spend it seeing that we have lived on £257 a week for years.

I can only presume that you aren't sick and disabled as we both are. It seems you get a lot more if you are disabled.

seven-day-weekend

rotoguys wrote: »

Are you saying you don't believe me? I don't blame you to be honest.

But I have listed down in an earlier post how this figure is made up. It is quite genuine. I was as shocked as you seem to be. It's a lot of money every week. I don't know how we will manage to spend it seeing that we have lived on £257 a week for years.

I can only presume that you aren't sick and disabled as we both are. It seems you get a lot more if you are disabled.

Yes, I do believe you.

My husband claims a reduced amount of Incapacity Benefit (he is 63 on Monday, not State Pension age yet) and his reduced Teachers' pension (due to taking it early because of his health issues) and I get State Pension. This comes to just over £300 a week (not £250 as I said earlier, I added it up wrong). We are not entitled to any means-tested Benefits including Pension Credit and Council tax Benefit as our income is too high.

Disability Allowances are not counted as incomefor the means test whereas all our sources of money are.