State pension advice help?

valleyboy22

Hi all,

My dad had a phone call last month to ask him a few details about his state pension he is receiving. After doing that they told him he had been on the wrong pension because they should of switched him on the right one when he turned 65, and now he is 70.
They said they should back date it because of this and he will have a letter in the post soon to explain what they owe him. He had a letter today saying that over the 5 years which he did not have the money he was entitled to, they have offered him a lump some or around £17,000 or they will add it on his pension weekly.
My dad had been on incapacity benefit before they changed him to state pension so does not pay rent etc. He has a lot of debt which we all as a family help him pay towards, so this money will help so much if can have it?
How will it effect him if have it lump sum to do this or will it be pointless because he will have to pay rent etc and to be honest there wont be much money left over when pay his debts offso will struggle to pay rent etc when the money has gone.

Thank for any advice an advance

dunstonh

If he takes the lump sum and immediately pays it off his debts then it will not impact on his benefits.

atush

Generally speaking, if this was a type of deferment, he'd be better off taking the higher pension.

But given he has debts, he should take the LS and pay them off, reimbursing those who lent him money, and banking the rest.

But I would take him down to age concern or another such charity and ask them go over his possible future benefits such as pension credit, housing benefit and the like. Or Universal credit etc.