Do I risk Jeopardising benefits of Pension Credit?

seven-day-weekend

But surely if you draw the Pension you will have enough money to pay your rent, or at least some of it?

You shouldn't be any worse off.

JJ_Egan

I have a very small pension that i have not touched yet .
DWP count it as income of £6 per week .

sleepless_saver

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

But surely if you draw the Pension you will have enough money to pay your rent, or at least some of it?

You shouldn't be any worse off.

That's not how it works. If the OP was entitled to even a few pence of pension credit he/she would automatically get full housing benefit and council tax reduction. If they stop getting pension credit, their housing benefit and council tax will be assessed purely on the basis of income. So people with pension income of just over the pension credit threshhold can be a lot worse off than those with income of just under.

I have some sympathy with the OP because those rules are unfair, but they are the rules and he/she has had the advantage of being subsidised by the taxpayer for some years when they should have been drawing the local government pension instead.

greenglide

The Pension Service have sent me a letter advising that I'm entitled to a Pension for the few years I worked in Local Government about 30 years ago.

But if DWP are aware of it now (and you have said they are) then presumably they will reassess you and stop the pensions credit until you take the pension.

You really do need to ask the pension scheme how much they owe you. Have they not been in contact with you over the years or have you moved?

It seems to me that there is a very good chance that this pension plus the arrears could be significantly more than the PC and HB you are getting anyway.

zagfles

sleepless_saver wrote: »

That's not how it works. If the OP was entitled to even a few pence of pension credit he/she would automatically get full housing benefit and council tax reduction. If they stop getting pension credit, their housing benefit and council tax will be assessed purely on the basis of income. So people with pension income of just over the pension credit threshhold can be a lot worse off than those with income of just under.

How exactly? The applicable amount for housing benefit for people over 65 is £165pw (or £247 for a couple), which is above the pension credit amount, and HB is tapered (at 65%) for income above the AA. Council tax support is localised but I believe usually uses the old CTB method of the AA and a taper of 20%. So in terms of HB & CTS the OP is unlikely to be worse off.

OP you can check the effect of the new pension income at http://www.entitledto.co.uk