grants for a pensioner who owns home

rotoguys

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

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.

We just assumed that our £257 a week we had been getting was a reasonable income. We had no reason to start thinking if there is more we could have. So why would we be asking if there was anymore in the pot for us.

I can't believe from what you are saying that there are people that ask if they can have more from somewhere else, but not know where from.

Some on here are saying that they get the same money £250, but aren't entitled to any benefits.

What seems to make the difference is that I get DLA (Mid care/High Mob) and my wife gets AA and we care for each other.

There are premiums that bump up the money plus you get to keep the DLA & AA on top!

I'm not complaining about what we will be getting, it's like winning the lottery. What I find difficult to accept is that no one mentioned that Pension Credit existed and that Council Tax is available for anybody, not just those on means tested benefits.

From what I am now told by the council, they have always had a policy of asking people who are over pension age if they would like to claim Pension credit. We were never told, the council have apologised and have said we should have been years ago when we started to have difficulty paying the council tax.

rotoguys

midnight_express wrote: »

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

Who then is being shafted?

seven-day-weekend

rotoguys wrote: »

We just assumed that our £257 a week we had been getting was a reasonable income. We had no reason to start thinking if there is more we could have. So why would we be asking if there was anymore in the pot for us.

I can't believe from what you are saying that there are people that ask if they can have more from somewhere else, but not know where from.

Some on here are saying that they get the same money £250, but aren't entitled to any benefits.

What seems to make the difference is that I get DLA (Mid care/High Mob) and my wife gets AA and we care for each other.

There are premiums that bump up the money plus you get to keep the DLA & AA on top!

I'm not complaining about what we will be getting, it's like winning the lottery. What I find difficult to accept is that no one mentioned that Pension Credit existed and that Council Tax is available for anybody, not just those on means tested benefits.

From what I am now told by the council, they have always had a policy of asking people who are over pension age if they would like to claim Pension credit. We were never told, the council have apologised and have said we should have been years ago when we started to have difficulty paying the council tax.

I meant that if you were not sure you were getting the right money you could have asked to have your income checked. We did, that's how I know we are not entitled to anything.

rotoguys

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I meant that if you were not sure you were getting the right money you could have asked to have your income checked. We did, that's how I know we are not entitled to anything.

We were sure and quite happy with what we were getting. It seemed quite enough to live on. Or are you suggesting that you tried on the off chance that there might be more in the pot for you?

You can only question something if you have doubts or are made aware of it.

Errata

We bought it outright in 2003 when we downsized

They have sent us a written statement (A124A) which shows that, including help with our housing costs (mortgage interest), we should have been getting £400 extra a week for the past 6 years!!!

Housing Costs (£100,000 mortgage) £69.81

Looks like the OP remortgaged the house they bought for cash in 2003, although how they managed to get a £100k mortgage on the amount of state benefits they were in receipt of escapes me.
The OP may want to look into the time limit for the payment to cover the mortgage interest.

seven-day-weekend

rotoguys wrote: »

We were sure and quite happy with what we were getting. It seemed quite enough to live on. Or are you suggesting that you tried on the off chance that there might be more in the pot for you?

You can only question something if you have doubts or are made aware of it.

I was aware of Pension Credit and Council Tax Benefit so I checked on the Internet to see if we would be eligible for either of these (just on the offchance, I didn't really think we would be). We have recently taken out a £30k mortgage and get nothing for that either. Not that I think we should, but some people do, if they are entitled to Pension Credit.

This sis the rub isn't it? PC is a Benefit that is supposed to bring your income up to the minimum, but in doing so passports you to having your mortgager/rent and Council Tax paid. Then there are some Benefits such as DLA or AA which are ignored for income purposes. So someone on these, ends up with far more than someone who isn't, and still has the Pension Credit and attendant freebies to bring them up to the 'minimum'.

I've just checked again on the Turn2Us calculator, still entitled to nothing.

rotoguys

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I was aware of Pension Credit and Council Tax Benefit so I checked on the Internet to see if we would be eligible for either of these (just on the offchance, I didn't really think we would be). We have recently taken out a £30k mortgage and get nothing for that either.

I've just checked again on the Turn2Us calculator, still entitled to nothing.

Which answers my point. You were ALREADY aware of Pension Credit AND Council Tax Benefit, hence the reason you thought that you would check out your entitlement.

You would have been in a different situation if you believed that there were no other benefits available and you would have no cause to check it out.

Cornish_piskie

rotoguys wrote: »

This also applies to me. Due to health problems, the house, which is owned by us, is now 8 years old and needs decorating inside and out. I can't do it, nor can my wife and we are on Pension Credit too.

rotoguys wrote: »

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.

Think quote 2 answers quote 1

rotoguys

Errata wrote: »

Looks like the OP remortgaged the house they bought for cash in 2003, although how they managed to get a £100k mortgage on the amount of state benefits they were in receipt of escapes me.
The OP may want to look into the time limit for the payment to cover the mortgage interest.

cancelled reply as the info in it was too personal and could identify us

rotoguys

Cornish_piskie wrote: »

Think quote 2 answers quote 1

Yes we have already decided to get decorators in during Spring.