Pension credit help!

levonhelm_2

Looking for advice please on behalf of my mother...

She has just received a backdated payment on pension credit and ongoing award of £78, even though she did not apply for it, she just got a letter through then checked her bank account. It has been backdated to June 2013, just after my mothers partner died.

She had never claimed housing benefit in her life until after he died, and she was duly awarded the full amount. She has a state pension and gets dla care and mobility, and she also gets a part of her partners private pension. All in all she was getting more than when she worked, even excluding this new pension credit award. We are a little concerned that she may be getting too much.

I don't know if her deceased partners private pension has been, or has to be, taken into account with regards her pension credit, it was not mentioned in the paperwork they sent out that showed how her pc was calculated. Also, if we notify the hb dept of her pension credit award, will her hb be reduced?

Also, to complicate things further, my disabled brother moved in with her 2 months ago, he gets ESA and dla. He had a stroke and clot in 2012 and is now severely disabled and unable to walk propely or speak and had to obviously stop working. Note that her hb was not affected by him moving in.

Just looking to see implications of pension credit on hb, and also if deceased partners private works pension should be taken into account for pc.

Thanks.

anmarj

yes the pension needs to be taken into account, she must of applied for it, did she have a visit from the DWP around the time of the partner's death? if so, they must of completed the details with her or she phoned up and did the application over the phone, it is not automatically awarded. It may be at the time when the application was done that she was still waiting to hear, which in that case she should of then contacted PC to advise it had gone into payment.

levonhelm_2

Thanks for the reply, is appreciated.

She is adamant she did not speak to the dwp, but things have been a bit up in the air over the last year so I cannot say 100% this is correct. She did speak to a housing assoc advisor last year, so possibly he contacted the dwp, I don't really know. But certainly she has not spoken to the dwp in the last 3-4 months.

Is there any chance she could play dumb? She got 2.5k backdated and is now richer than she has ever been due to this, and is ecstatic about the possibility of being able to leave something for my brother when she dies.

However, I am guessing it is probably better to be upfront and advise about the deceased partners pension, and also notify the council for her hb.

Mojisola

levonhelm wrote: »

However, I am guessing it is probably better to be upfront and advise about the deceased partners pension, and also notify the council for her hb.

As she's on benefits, when she dies all her accounts will be looked at and any overpayments claimed back.

Best to sort it out now.

tinkledom

anmarj wrote: »

yes the pension needs to be taken into account, she must of applied for it, .

Not entirely true.


The DWP are once again trying to get the elderly to apply for Pension Credit.


They did this same exercise a year or two back. Working with HMRC, they identify who should be claiming it. They then simply pay GPC at the rate of what they believe she should be getting for the next 6 months.
At the end of that 6 months the payments will stop and the DWP will contact her to ask her to complete an application form.


They hope that having had this money for 6 months she would put a claim in for it to continue.


The DWP are trying everything they can to get those over 65 to claim their known entitlement.


Unfortunately if it goes the same way as the last trial, the DWP only had a 15% take up of people putting in a claim to get the money to continue so the DWP gave up on that idea and tried to get AGEUK involved to see if they could get more people to claim.
That idea came unstuck as well!


Most of the over 65's do not want to claim a means tested benefit - they simply feel that their privacy is being invaded by the DWP by asking questions about their means.

lld01

There is no way that the PC would be awarded automatically. She either applied herself, or someone applied on her behalf (with her consent).

The DWP need to be informed asap about the private pension.

The PC award will not affect housing benefit.

xylophone

Read through this http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS48_Pension_Credit_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

poppasmurf_bewdley

If your mother is getting the 'guaranteed' element of Pension Credit, then she automatically qualifies for full Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit, no matter what other income she has coming in.

levonhelm_2

Thanks for the assistance folks, greatly appreciated. No-one in our family has ever claimed for any benefits until the last year due to illnesses and deaths in the family, so its all a bit confusing!

I contacted the DWP and they are going to send out a form, looks as if she will have to pay back either all or some of the money, which is fine. Turns out a Housing advisor had applied for PC on her behalf back in July 2013, just after her partner died, but the award only got processed in Feb 2014! When I asked what took so long they just sort of coughed and said not sure what caused the delay....unbelievable! The DWP staff member then had the cheek to turn it round to state my mother should have told them back in July that she was going to get her partners work pension within the next year. At that time she had not claimed for it nor been awarded it as we had to fight for 4 months to get her partner's work pension.

Ah well, whatever will be, will be...

Thanks again.