Medical Assessment for Pension Credits ?

chickendipperbabe

Hi

Background: My sister’s husband and my niece both suffer from a hereditary illness. While the symptoms affect my brother-in-law to a somewhat lesser extent, my niece is basically crippled and has been since she was 15 (now 28) she receives ESA (support group) and PiP. When she was moved over to PiP last year my brother-in-law applied for Carers Allowance and has been in receipt of it ever since.

My brother-in-law hasn’t worked due to the illness since around 2000 and was on Incapacity Benefit until around 6 or 7 years ago when he came off his benefits entirely even though he was still unable to work. He was unable to claim ESA due to my sisters earnings.

Out of the blue, yesterday they were called up by an assessment centre asking for my brother in-law to attend a medical assessment on Thursday for his Pension Credits, no letter or details just a rather vague phone call. The assessment is at the same place his daughter was assessed for ESA over a year ago. Just to add he’s at least a decade away from being able to receive his state pension.

We assume this is all linked with him receiving carer’s allowance for his daughter as from what we gather this also includes pension credits. Has anyone been in a similar situation or know what he can expect? We just cant understand why they would want to put a Carer through a medical for Pension credits. Any input is appreciated.

Ames

By pension credits I assume you mean NI credits?

If he's receiving just carer's allowance he would get NI credits automatically. It sounds as though he's claiming ESA with a carer's element, and so has to have a medical assessment.

Does he have any letters which detail what his benefit is and what parts it's made up of? Or can he look at the reference on his bank statements, it should have his national insurance number and some other letters which refer to the benefit.

p00hsticks

chickendipperbabe wrote: »

Out of the blue, yesterday they were called up by an assessment centre asking for my brother in-law to attend a medical assessment on Thursday for his Pension Credits, no letter or details just a rather vague phone call. The assessment is at the same place his daughter was assessed for ESA over a year ago. Just to add he!!!8217;s at least a decade away from being able to receive his state pension.

?? I'm not an expert but this doesn't make sense to me - Pension Credit is a retirement benefit. Men can currently qualify for it a bit earlier than their State Pension Age, as it works on a womans retirement date, but this is rising and if he's only in his fifties he's too young to be getting it.

chickendipperbabe wrote: »

My brother-in-law hasn!!!8217;t worked due to the illness since around 2000 and was on Incapacity Benefit until around 6 or 7 years ago when he came off his benefits entirely even though he was still unable to work. He was unable to claim ESA due to my sisters earnings.

I wonder if it could be that they've got him down as having an underlying ESA claim whereby although he doesn't get any money due to your sister's earnings he's getting NI credits towards his eventual State Pension and this is what they are referring to ?

chickendipperbabe

This makes no sense what so ever.

Ive just asked my sister, he hasn't received any benefits at all since 2011/12. he applied for ESA back then but was knocked back due to her earning too much.

As for the NI credits, the person on the phone distinctly said Pension Credits.

we're completely lost here.

Ames

chickendipperbabe wrote: »

This makes no sense what so ever.

Ive just asked my sister, he hasn't received any benefits at all since 2011/12. he applied for ESA back then but was knocked back due to her earning too much.

As for the NI credits, the person on the phone distinctly said Pension Credits.

we're completely lost here.

So, to be clear - he's not receiving any benefits at all, not even carer's allowance?

It sounds like he was on contribution based ESA, then ran out of time. He didn't qualify for income related so the money stopped but the claim remained live, so that he was receiving national insurance credits towards his state pension.

If he wants to keep claiming the credits then he needs to go to the medical assessment. Or he can claim carer's allowance, which would pay him around £63 a week (I think) and give him the NI credits. However this could impact on his daughter's benefits if she lives alone and gets income based benefits.

As P00hsticks says, pension credit is an income top up for pensioners, and he can't be claiming that. It was NI credits which count towards a pension that the phonecall was about.

chickendipperbabe

Ames wrote: »

So, to be clear - he's not receiving any benefits at all, not even carer's allowance?

It sounds like he was on contribution based ESA, then ran out of time. He didn't qualify for income related so the money stopped but the claim remained live, so that he was receiving national insurance credits towards his state pension.

If he wants to keep claiming the credits then he needs to go to the medical assessment. Or he can claim carer's allowance, which would pay him around £63 a week (I think) and give him the NI credits. However this could impact on his daughter's benefits if she lives alone and gets income based benefits.

As P00hsticks says, pension credit is an income top up for pensioners, and he can't be claiming that. It was NI credits which count towards a pension that the phonecall was about.

That makes some sense, I'll get in touch with my sister tomorrow to confirm but that could be the case that his ESA claim has remained active though he never completed the move over to income related due to my sisters high income.

Just to clarify, he is receiving Carer's allowance for his daughter and has been for around a year - she currently lives with them. So, basically it's possible that he's been getting NI credits from both his old ESA claim and the Carers allowance and not going to the medical wouldn't really change anything?

The trouble is this was all done over the phone, it is possible one of them misheard but I doubt it, hopefully a letter will show up confirming the appointment that will shed some light on this.

chickendipperbabe

Ames wrote: »

So, to be clear - he's not receiving any benefits at all, not even carer's allowance?

It sounds like he was on contribution based ESA, then ran out of time. He didn't qualify for income related so the money stopped but the claim remained live, so that he was receiving national insurance credits towards his state pension.

If he wants to keep claiming the credits then he needs to go to the medical assessment. Or he can claim carer's allowance, which would pay him around £63 a week (I think) and give him the NI credits. However this could impact on his daughter's benefits if she lives alone and gets income based benefits.

As P00hsticks says, pension credit is an income top up for pensioners, and he can't be claiming that. It was NI credits which count towards a pension that the phonecall was about.

Just to let you know this was all down to an old ESA claim and NI credits/contributions. They eventually found out after getting passed from department to department (over an hour on the phone) but my brother in law was told Pension Credits yesterday on the phone, he had written it down and is adamant that's what they told him. He was advised to attend the medical in case his daughter looses her PiP and the Carer's Allowance stops so he has that to fall back on when it comes to his NI credits.

Ames

It's possible the person on the phone did say pension credits and assumed he'd know what they were talking about. Especially since credits from being on benefits only count towards the state pension and not contribution based benefits.

TELLIT01

He is getting credits towards his pension i.e. National Insurance credits, rather than Pension Credits which is another benefit altogether. It's possible the person on the phone referred to to it as 'pension credits' to try to explain but ended up causing more confusion.