MSE News: Older people should check their benefits, says Age UK

luxor4t

I remember my mother getting "family allowance" for my younger sister in the mid 60s.
I thought the Government were paying my mother to look after my sister as she was such a pain

Dunroamin

Trix3y wrote: »

It should come as no surprise that many older people do not claim benefits that they are entitled too. This last year some government ministers seem to be on a mission to portray pensioners as an affluent group of people that are taking money from the country that they do not need. For example the debate on heating allowance and bus passes. Whilst it can be true that a minority of older people are wealthy,many struggle to survive. These are the people that worked in many cases for forty to fifty years contributing in tax and national insurance to the government coffers. During the last decades there was not the opportunity to take out private pensions especially for women.The Tory Government in the eighties diminished the state pension by removing the link to wages,this had an enormous impact upon retiring. I feel that older people are now the scapegoats for the financial mess Britain is in.Maybe some Ministers would care to live on what some older people survive on and then they could step into the real world.

Except that many pensioners get a full pension with a minimal work history (if any) as NI credits are paid when someone is claiming benefits.

If pensioners have no other income they can claim pension credit (as they should do) which gives a more than liveable income considering that LHA/HB/SMI/CTB are covered as well.

Someone who's been living on JSA will find their disposable income doubles the day they reach their pension age as well as the claimant becoming eligible for much extra help. No pensioner needs to badly off if they claim what's available to them, quite the opposite.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Dunroamin wrote: »

Except that many pensioners get a full pension with a minimal work history (if any) as NI credits are paid when someone is claiming benefits.

If pensioners have no other income they can claim pension credit (as they should do) which gives a more than liveable income considering that LHA/HB/SMI/CTB are covered as well.

Someone who's been living on JSA will find their disposable income doubles the day they reach their pension age as well as the claimant becoming eligible for much extra help. No pensioner needs to badly off if they claim what's available to them, quite the opposite.

...and pensioners are exempt from the bedroom tax and get 100% council tax support if they qualify.