Help with SDA and pensions

kpopopooo

My father (81) passed away just before Xmas and I find myself having to sort out my mum's (76) money affairs, about which I know nothing.

As far as I can tell, he received pension credits for both of them – something like £280 per week. He got DLA too and carer's allowance too. I've now cancelled all this by telling the DWP he's died.

My mum gets higher rate DLA (daily living, and mobility) and also SDA. When I phoned the DWP about dad they said my mum has never claimed a state pension, and this was probably because SDA got her more money.

Can somebody explain?

As far as I can tell, the way forward for her will probably be the widows pension plus her own and possibly some pension credits too – but I'll need to check whether this works out to be more than SDA. Will the DWP/HMRC automatically take her off SDA? I know she can stay on DLA indefinitely, having been old enough at the cut-off point.

[Deleted User]

I would advise trying to get an appointment with CAB, some of what you say isn't how I understand things to work?

Alice_Holt

I'm puzzled by why your mum is getting SDA.
This was a benefit for claimants of working age.

"Severe Disablement Allowance was a benefit intended for those below the state pension age who cannot work because of illness or disability. It was replaced by Incapacity Benefit in April 2001, which itself was replaced by Employment and Support Allowance."

If your mum has not claimed her Pension it's more likely (I think) that the joint Pension Credit claim would have already maximised their income.

I would think claiming her Pension, and Pension Credit would be the way to go. If she takes all her DWP paperwork, savings, and income details to her CAB - they should be able to do a benefits check to confirm.

poppy12345

Alice_Holt wrote: »

I'm puzzled by why your mum is getting SDA.
This was a benefit for claimants of working age.

Could the OP be confusing this with SDP? It seems like a lot of people get confused by this. I see that both parents were receiving DLA so it's more than likely the SDP rather than SDA.

C.C.L.

I get SDA and have done since 1997. When I got to retirement age I had the choice of state pension or keeping the SDA instead. As I had only ever paid married womans stamp the SDA was double the pension so I opted to keep the SDA. Maybe this is what's happened?

anmarj

Sda was Severe Disablement benefit, if you had not paid any stamp and or National Insurance when working age, and went sick, you could not have claimed Incapacity Benefit, so could have got SDA instaed.

Ccl is correct, when it came to State Pension age, if the SDA was more than State Pension, they could stay on SDA.

So the OP mum needs to claim the State Pension