More pension benefits

comeandgo

My continuing saga in trying to help my widowed over 70 mum. She has never worked but my late father did until his retirement. Prior to his death they were getting some pension credit and housing benefit.
Mum has been told her pension will be £147 and some pence. I can not believe she is entitled to so much. I had thought she would get the very basic single pension then pension credit make it up. I have not seen the letter telling her of the amount and if there is a further break down. My dad was not in any high paying jobs, all would have been low wages.
If the amount is correct would she still be entitled to housing benefit?

Another problem - she has money coming from a policy that dad held and it will put her money over £16k . She has a funeral to pay for, a stone and talks of pre paying her own which should then take her money under£16k. Would she have to tell housing dep that she is over as it will be for a month at the most.
Thank you.

pmlindyloo

comeandgo wrote: »

My continuing saga in trying to help my widowed over 70 mum. She has never worked but my late father did until his retirement. Prior to his death they were getting some pension credit and housing benefit.
Mum has been told her pension will be £147 and some pence. I can not believe she is entitled to so much. I had thought she would get the very basic single pension then pension credit make it up. I have not seen the letter telling her of the amount and if there is a further break down. My dad was not in any high paying jobs, all would have been low wages.
If the amount is correct would she still be entitled to housing benefit?

Another problem - she has money coming from a policy that dad held and it will put her money over £16k . She has a funeral to pay for, a stone and talks of pre paying her own which should then take her money under£16k. Would she have to tell housing dep that she is over as it will be for a month at the most.
Thank you.

It is very important that you find out the exact amount of pension that she is receiving as the limit for pension credit is £148.35 per week.

Will this pension be her only income?

Any savings over £10000 will be deducted from her PC at the rate of £1 for every £500 over.

If her total income is below £148.35 per week then she will be entitled to a 'top up' of Pension Credit.

Even if it is only pennies each week this will entitle her to full HB and CT support.

Pension Credit are much more lenient about how savings are spent.

So, funeral costs are fine. Pre paid funeral plan is fine. The rest is open to question but think a head stone would not be seen as deprivation of capital nor would any 'aids' in the home.

pmlindyloo

From ageuk fact sheet

Deprivation of capital (notional capital)
If you deprive yourself of capital in order to qualify for benefit or to increase
the amount of benefit you get, the Pension Service can treat you as still
having that capital. This is known as notional capital. This might occur if you
give money away to members of your family or buy expensive items in order
to qualify for PC.
You have not deprived yourself of capital if you have paid off debts or used
money on ‘reasonable’ spending on goods and services. If the Pension
Service decides that you have notional capital you should seek advice and
consider appealing against the decision

margaretclare

The basic state pension for a single person (which is what your mum is now classed as) is £113.10, but there are additions. For example, if your Dad was also receiving SERPS, this can be inherited by your Mum. What age did you say she is? DH and I are in the age-group in which we can inherit 100% of each other's SERPS - the percentage is lower in younger age-groups. So, if she gets SRP at the full rate using your Dad's contributions and then inherits his SERPS on top, that explains why she's getting £147. That's £34 extra a week.

For example, I get the £113.10 basic and then SERPS/S2P on top, that makes mine up to £155 a week. If I die DH can inherit my SERPS and I can inherit his.

confuseddaughter_2

pmlindyloo wrote: »

It is very important that you find out the exact amount of pension that she is receiving as the limit for pension credit is £148.35 per week.

Will this pension be her only income?

Any savings over £10000 will be deducted from her PC at the rate of £1 for every £500 over.

If her total income is below £148.35 per week then she will be entitled to a 'top up' of Pension Credit.

Even if it is only pennies each week this will entitle her to full HB and CT support.

Pension Credit are much more lenient about how savings are spent.

So, funeral costs are fine. Pre paid funeral plan is fine. The rest is open to question but think a head stone would not be seen as deprivation of capital nor would any 'aids' in the home.

The purchase of aids for the home might not cause a problem with deprivation of capital, but if there is a disability related benefit in payment such as Attendance Allowance or the care element of DLA, they could well reduce the care needs the person has and thereby reduce the level of any disability based benefit.

confuseddaughter_2

pmlindyloo wrote: »

From ageuk fact sheet

Deprivation of capital (notional capital)
If you deprive yourself of capital in order to qualify for benefit or to increase
the amount of benefit you get, the Pension Service can treat you as still
having that capital. This is known as notional capital. This might occur if you
give money away to members of your family or buy expensive items in order
to qualify for PC.
You have not deprived yourself of capital if you have paid off debts or used
money on ‘reasonable’ spending on goods and services. If the Pension
Service decides that you have notional capital you should seek advice and
consider appealing against the decision

Debts that are not legally due for settlement will be treated as deprivation. Otherwise you would have pensioners rushing to pay off their mortgages and still expect to receive Pension credit at the same rate.

comeandgo

So to still get housing benefit she must still be getting pension credit? No PC then no hb? I don't think her award has any PC in it as she did read a bit if the letter to me and it said something about claiming for PC. If no PC included then with the savings she has she won't get hb. On my, rent will go up ten fold then.

pmlindyloo

comeandgo wrote: »

So to still get housing benefit she must still be getting pension credit? No PC then no hb? I don't think her award has any PC in it as she did read a bit if the letter to me and it said something about claiming for PC. If no PC included then with the savings she has she won't get hb. On my, rent will go up ten fold then.

No

She may still be entitled to HB and CT support based on low income.

If she isn't eligible for PC then she can still apply for HB and CT support.

Does your mum receive Attendance Allowance or Disability Allowance?

pmlindyloo

confuseddaughter wrote: »

Debts that are not legally due for settlement will be treated as deprivation. Otherwise you would have pensioners rushing to pay off their mortgages and still expect to receive Pension credit at the same rate.

This is not true for Pension Credit.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/236961/hbgm-bp1-assessment-of-capital.pdf

Page 43 Deprivation of capital

comeandgo

No she does not receive any attendance or disability allowance, her and dad were in the process of claiming one of them for him but he died prior to it being agreed,

This will be her only income, other than savings which look like being about £14k when all funeral expenses are met and she has paid her own funeral so not sure if that counts as deliberate deprivation of capital.

xylophone

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

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/money-matters/claiming-benefits/pension-credit/

For information.