Incapacity Benefits

zappa1

When you are on long term IB & DLA , what happens when you reach pensionable age? and what if you have a shortfall in your Insurance contributions, and your forecast is a lot lower than your IB?
Help needed

seven-day-weekend

You should be having Contributions credited if you're on IB.

I 'm not sure what happens in the situation you describe, although I would imagine they would make your pension money up with Pension Credits.

I would imagine you could still have your DLA up to 65 as it is not AFAIK a means-tested allowance, and then after 65 you have to apply for Attendance Allowance.

I stress that I am not altogether sure about this - hopefully someone will come along soon who is.

seven-day-weekend

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/hb5/dla/dla_1.asp

Try this site

Paul_Varjak

I am no expert on State Benefits but my understanding is as follows:

1. Incapacity Benefit usually ceases when you reach State Retirement age (currently 60 for a woman, 65 for a man) and you will get a State Retirement Pension instead.

2. You may be able to top your NI contributions (for up to six years) but if you have been on IB for six years then NI top-ups are not applicable as NI credits are paid for those on IB. So, maybe, you will have enough NI contributions/credits after all to get a full state pension? You can check here: http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/atoz/atozdetailed/rpforecast.asp. Also, remember, that there are proposals to reduce the qualifying years for a State Pension (currently 44 years for a man, 39 years for a woman) to just 30 years for men and women.

3. DLA care allowance ceases when you reach 65 (both men and women) but you get Attendance Allowance (AA) instead (assuming you are on the middle or higher rate of DLA care). If you are on the lower rate DLA care I think you may not qualify for AA. The amount of Pension or IB you get is not affected by DLA or AA.

4. DLA Mobility Component has no upper age limit but a person has to be aged under 65 to initially qaulify.

5. Whilst you are on IB you may be qualifying for a State Second Pension, providing that you have worked for at least 10% of your working life from 1978 until State Retirement age.

Now, if your State Pension + Graduated Pension + SERPS + S2P is above the Pension Credit limit (you can check this from your forecast) you will not get Pension Credit. If you do qualify for Pension Credit then your State Pension + Pension Credit will be more than your IB anyway. DLA and AA is ignored when calculating Pension Credit.

I think all the calculations are not easy - not even the Pension Service's calculator can take full account of an entitlement to Pension Credit where a person is severely disabled. Anyway, you can try here: http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/pensioncredit/calculator/home.asp