End of Pension Credit

lld01

margaretclare wrote: »

Well, I'm getting equally confused here.

Mum got annual letters stating the amount of her state retirement pension, but Dad didn't? AFAIK everyone gets those letters, everyone to whom SRP applies. QUOTE]

Yes they get sent out automatically every year. Have you checked that they have the correct address for Dad? State Pension addresses do not link between partners.

The amounts should have been shown on the Pension Credit breakdowns anyway.

confuseddaughter_2

margaretclare wrote: »

Well, I'm getting equally confused here.

Two things:

Mum got annual letters stating the amount of her state retirement pension, but Dad didn't? AFAIK everyone gets those letters, everyone to whom SRP applies.

Mum is presently getting AA but it comes to an end soon. She'll be asked whether she wants to re-apply - can't remember the wording, but I do remember one benefits adviser telling me that it was rare for AA not to continue on. As she said, you don't get better of the reasons why you claimed AA in the first place, due to changes brought by age. So, is Mum saying she doesn't want to re-apply?

You don't have to 'spend your retirement years'....etc etc. What you have to do is to be on the ball. There's no point in being stupid about it when it's money that you're entitled to. Dad won't allow anyone else to help with Mum's AA claim? Well, it's not down to Dad, it's down to Mum - it's her claim after all, not his! And it's not down to you either. It's down to her.

Just from experience, DH firmly believes that he wouldn't have got his AA successfully if he hadn't gone to DIAL (Disability Information and Advice Line). Even though he's a highly-intelligent and articulate man, used to sorting out problems.

I can't understand the attitude of some people. 'It's too much trouble...' There is money available, it's money which can make a difference to the quality of life, and it's money which comes from the taxes that we all paid, as we're constantly being told.

Me too, welcome to my club!!


It is me that has probably confused the situation a little. Mum is older than dad by 5 years. Dad (65) started to get his State Pension this year, whilst mum has had hers for 10 years. Yes mum has always had these updating letters, dad wouldn't get them as he is a 'new' pensioner from 2014.
Mum's Attendance award has always been for 2 year periods. This latest award will finish next month. From what I have been told most Attendance awards are for a fixed period. Yes she did get the renewal papers last December but I didn't know that and nothing has been done about them.
The problem really is that their GP is useless in always telling the Attendance people that she can self care with no problems. Yet the Social Services people and OT thought differently. After having an assessment in 2012 and them supplying all sorts of kit for her to use, the OT told the Attendance people that what the GP had written was 'rubbish' and that she confirmed that mum needed regular care 24/7. On the strength of that OT report mum was awarded the night and day rate. Now as it is more than 12 months since that assessment by Social Services, they have closed their file. If they need to be brought back into it, mum has to have deteriorated since 2012 which she hasn't.
So the only evidence now of mum's care needs will have to come from the GP only (as if).


Left to mum she wouldn't bother with the forms, like she did for at least 5 years when she could have claimed DLA (from age 60 - 65) and another 3 years when she could have claimed Attendance. She was 68 when she accepted help from dad. Now that dad can't help her because of his problems, I was brought into it.


Attendance awards are (in my mum's case) awarded only for short periods, so how long would this go on for? Every two years until she gets to 80/90+?


Physically and mentally both mum and dad can no longer deal with these massive claim forms. the alternative is for me to try to help. Mum leaves everything to dad to sort out, always has done. Dad, doesn't want strangers 'poking their noses' into mum's personal health problems.


How often does your husband or you have to keep on filling in these Attendance renewal forms?

confuseddaughter_2

margaretclare wrote: »

AA at the full rate is £81.30 weekly, not £230.00.

Yes I know it is, but with the Attendance award comes extra money from Pension Credit which amounts to about £150 a week.

confuseddaughter_2

lld01 wrote: »

margaretclare wrote: »

Well, I'm getting equally confused here.

Mum got annual letters stating the amount of her state retirement pension, but Dad didn't? AFAIK everyone gets those letters, everyone to whom SRP applies. QUOTE]

Yes they get sent out automatically every year. Have you checked that they have the correct address for Dad? State Pension addresses do not link between partners.

The amounts should have been shown on the Pension Credit breakdowns anyway.

Thanks
Dad is a 'new' pensioner for this year so wouldn't have got any. Mum had hers but the Pension Credit payments for 5 years were based on her pension as it was in 2009.

margaretclare

Sorry about this, but....

In our experience, DH's and mine, the first award of AA was for 2 years and then subsequently for an indefinite period. We're not expected to get any better.

I shall shut up now and go and watch some fictional 'Doctors' on BBC1.

Morglin

I have helped more than a few pensioners fill out AA forms, including my parents, and all of them have got indefinite awards, and not had to fill out another form since.

Every pensioner, who is entitled, should claim AA - it can make a huge difference to finances.

Lin

confuseddaughter_2

margaretclare wrote: »

Sorry about this, but....

In our experience, DH's and mine, the first award of AA was for 2 years and then subsequently for an indefinite period. We're not expected to get any better.

I shall shut up now and go and watch some fictional 'Doctors' on BBC1.

Thankyou for that information. Then I have no idea why mum only has it for 2 years. As a matter of interest I have just telephoned the helpline on 03456056055 who told me that it was because mum would improve. They then were surprised when I told them what pain killers she was on and what one of her illnesses was. They seemed surprised that the awards were for 2 years each.
They told me to fill in the form for her best I can, but did say that her current award will cease in May and there is nothing that they can do about it.
So it looks like another uphill struggle for me to fill this form in to get another 2 years of award.

confuseddaughter_2

Morglin wrote: »

I have helped more than a few pensioners fill out AA forms, including my parents, and all of them have got indefinite awards, and not had to fill out another form since.

Every pensioner, who is entitled, should claim AA - it can make a huge difference to finances.

Lin

Thanks. Well I don't know what to say as it seems that mum is being victimised.
I have re-read the award letter again and this is what it says:


About the amount of money we pay you.

...........You are entitled to:
higher rate for help with personal care from 10th May 2012 to 9th May 2014.

How much money we can pay you

From and including 08/04/2013 you will be paid:
For help with personal care £79.15
The total each week is £79.15


She had a similar letter back in 2010 for a similar amount that carried on to the 9th May 2012.


How do you apply for an indefinite award? Maybe I am not filling the from out properly and only asking for a short term award.

margaretclare

How often does your husband or you have to keep on filling in these Attendance renewal forms?

We don't. We've never been asked to. We are meant to report it if/when we get better. If we could somehow 'magic away' the fact that DH is in constant pain from the 4th replacement of the same knee, that his knee can't bend far enough to get past the A-frame in the car passenger seat, that he can't bend down to put socks on, that if I fall over he can't pick me up because of spinal damage...in other words if we somehow had the health, strength and vigour that we had a decade or two ago. It ain't going to happen.

In other words, it's down to us to tell them when we get better. 'Report a change of circumstances'. Until we do, no one asks us. However, things may be different now due to 'the squeeze', 'cutbacks', whatever you like to call them. All I hear is that everything is so much tighter than it was 5 or so years ago.

I've never been the type of woman who 'leaves everything to him'. From force of circumstance I've always had to stand on own feet - metaphorically now. Thank God, I've still got my marbles and can do a lot sitting at a computer. Not even safe to walk down the garden.

confuseddaughter_2

margaretclare wrote: »

We don't. We've never been asked to. We are meant to report it if/when we get better. If we could somehow 'magic away' the fact that DH is in constant pain from the 4th replacement of the same knee, that his knee can't bend far enough to get past the A-frame in the car passenger seat, that he can't bend down to put socks on, that if I fall over he can't pick me up because of spinal damage...in other words if we somehow had the health, strength and vigour that we had a decade or two ago. It ain't going to happen.

In other words, it's down to us to tell them when we get better. 'Report a change of circumstances'. Until we do, no one asks us. However, things may be different now due to 'the squeeze', 'cutbacks', whatever you like to call them. All I hear is that everything is so much tighter than it was 5 or so years ago.

I've never been the type of woman who 'leaves everything to him'. From force of circumstance I've always had to stand on own feet - metaphorically now. Thank God, I've still got my marbles and can do a lot sitting at a computer. Not even safe to walk down the garden.

Thanks MC. It then looks to me that mum has been caught up in the 'squeeze' then
Maybe they don't trust my mum to be honest enough to report any improvement so they are making her have to prove her problems regularly. Which in a way isn't a bad thing I suppose. How else are they to catch the fraudsters out, they certainly won't be offering any information that may cause them to reduce the money they get. Best keep quiet and say nothing until they find out I suppose is what people think.