Income support and SMI

bll78

Hi,
I have a question I'm asking on behalf of a friend, whose asked me but I don't know the answer.
This person is on DLA and their partner gets carers allowance for looking after them. Their other income comes from an occupational pension, they have no means tested benefits.. They have recently used entitled2 calculator to have a look to see if they can claim any means tested benefits. It says they are eligible for £21 a week Income Support. However the issue is this is only when there mortgage is taken into account. So initially (before the mortgage element kicked in after 13 weeks) they would not be eligible for Income Support, but after 13 weeks they would once SMI kicked in.
Can they claim, do they get £0 for 13 weeks and then the £21 a week or will they not be eligible because the wording is you can only get SMI with an Income Support claim?
Thanks

pmlindyloo

If they are entitled to Income Support because of their housing costs (ie the mortgage) then they can apply.

The actual Support for Mortgage Interest doesn't 'kick in' until after 13 weeks (ie doesn't get paid until them) but their housing costs are taken into account to assess their eligibility.

Basically put in the claim for IS.

By the way, you mention an occupational pension. How old are they?

bll78

Hi thanks for your help. They're under pension ages. He's 61 and she's 59. It's one of those catch 21 situations ones where they can't get pension tax credit, nor WTC because they're not working or old enough, but their pensions mess up ESA claims, but they are really struggling. It seems unfair given he's worked 45 years full time and her 22 years. They'd actually be better off without the pension according to the calculator, but hopefull the IS will help them out massively until he either gets better (unlikely) or gets to pension age, or the mortgage is finished which I think is only a few years off.

xylophone

He's 61

Re pension credit age https://www.gov.uk/calculate-state-pension/y/age