Can I claim benefits?

meg72

McKneff wrote: »

It seems that you have a pretty good income then if you pay NI on both jobs and he has a works pension.

It will be a bit of a shock dropping your work income.

If you have no mortgage to pay, could you not just leave one of the jobs and keep the other, surely that would be better than going onto jSA.

Excellent advice, I would certainly look into that if in your position. Good luck, I was lucky to be able to retire at 60, I think anymore would have finished me off.

skeenie

Is pension credit based on my earnings as well as his income? if so we would certaily be over the threshold if the two are combined.
dont get me wrong we have always worked hard and paid our dues and even thinking about claiming benefits goes against the grain. hoping it wont come to that and just looking at all options.
it would be an option to give up one of my jobs but financially it would leave us struggling a bit.
my husbands disability is not nearly severe enough to qualify for further benefits and we wouldnt want to claim anything we are not entitled to. It just seems that the longer and harder you work you are penalised for it in some way or form.

Torry_Quine

skeenie wrote: »

Is pension credit based on my earnings as well as his income? if so we would certaily be over the threshold if the two are combined.
dont get me wrong we have always worked hard and paid our dues and even thinking about claiming benefits goes against the grain. hoping it wont come to that and just looking at all options.
it would be an option to give up one of my jobs but financially it would leave us struggling a bit.
my husbands disability is not nearly severe enough to qualify for further benefits and we wouldnt want to claim anything we are not entitled to. It just seems that the longer and harder you work you are penalised for it in some way or form.

Pension credit is on household income. I thought though that you were thinking of it if you stopped work?

pmlindyloo

skeenie wrote: »

Is pension credit based on my earnings as well as his income? if so we would certaily be over the threshold if the two are combined.
dont get me wrong we have always worked hard and paid our dues and even thinking about claiming benefits goes against the grain. hoping it wont come to that and just looking at all options.
it would be an option to give up one of my jobs but financially it would leave us struggling a bit.
my husbands disability is not nearly severe enough to qualify for further benefits and we wouldnt want to claim anything we are not entitled to. It just seems that the longer and harder you work you are penalised for it in some way or form.

Have you checked whether your husband is eligible for Pension Credit.

Certainly your income would be taken into account as it is a means tested benefit.

However, if you gave up work then only your OH's occupational pension would be taken into account. If this is his only income then you would certainly be entitled to Pension Credit. For a couple it is about £200 (actually £222.05 a week which will include your husband's occupational pension) Guarantee Pension Credit entitles you to Council Tax reduction and other health benefits so it may be worthwhile.

skeenie

thanks, does that still count if i voluntarily give up work? a previous contributor says i might get sanctioned if i did this but thought that was only for JSA and not pension credit. Do you mean it would be approx £200 pension credit plus his occ health pension?

skeenie

Where is the best place to actually go and discuss this issue? citizens advice or benefits office?

Torry_Quine

skeenie wrote: »

thanks, does that still count if i voluntarily give up work? a previous contributor says i might get sanctioned if i did this but thought that was only for JSA and not pension credit. Do you mean it would be approx £200 pension credit plus his occ health pension?

It was me who mentioned sanction was possible for JSA but no it wouldn't be for pension credit. The £200 is in total.

McKneff

skeenie wrote: »

Is pension credit based on my earnings as well as his income? if so we would certaily be over the threshold if the two are combined.
dont get me wrong we have always worked hard and paid our dues and even thinking about claiming benefits goes against the grain. hoping it wont come to that and just looking at all options.
it would be an option to give up one of my jobs but financially it would leave us struggling a bit.
my husbands disability is not nearly severe enough to qualify for further benefits and we wouldnt want to claim anything we are not entitled to. It just seems that the longer and harder you work you are penalised for it in some way or form.

I don't understand. You say that you will struggle if you give up one of your jobs, but on benefits with no job you would be miles worse off financialy so struggle even more???
From what you have said you are getting Im presuming here around 1200/1500 a month and your struggling even with no mortgage to pay can you see why I at least am struggling to understand your reasoning.

All I can see that you have to pay for is utilities, food and insurance

McKneff

And another point, JSA would not be applicable. It is Job Seekers Allowance, from what you have said, you don't want to be job seeking so yu wouldn't be eligible for it.

Dunroamin

skeenie wrote: »

Im 60 years old but thanks to the government I dont qualify for my State Pension til March 2017. My husband got early retirement from his work but his pension date is June 2016. Our income at present consists of my husbands occupational pension of just over £400 per month and my income from two part time jobs which we can manage on. We do not claim any benefits as my wages takes us over the threshold. If I gave up work because of health reasons (but not bad enough to be granted Ill Health Retirement) is there any benefits we could claim. The two jobs I have are quite challenging manually and I have just had pacemaker surgery and dont know if I will get back to full fitness to carry on these jobs. We are houseowners and have no mortgage just Council Tax. I have paid full National Insurance stamp contributions for over 30 years.

If you don't have NICs for 35 years it might be worth waiting to see the exact date that the proposed pension changes will come in 2017. It's assumed it'll be April but hasn't been confirmed yet.