Pension Credit

badger120

Hello, woder if anyone can offer me any advice please?


I have received my letter informing me I have been awarded my full state pension of £168.60 per week as of 6th September 2019.


I am a man and live alone in a supported housing retiremnent village managed by Midland Heart.


The £168.60 per week will be my only income and will replace the previous E.S.A. benefit allowance of £128.45 per week.


I have now received a letter from my local Council Housing Office informing me I will have to pay £1,065 a year in council tax. (This is after their deduction of 25% for single living occupancy)


According to their online calculator I will also be liable to pay £62.08 rent per week myself as they haven't awarded me a full rent allowance.


Previously whilst on E.S.A. I got a full rent rebate and a full housing benefit rebate meaning I had only my weekly service charge to pay myself.


This means I have now reached retirement age and have been awarded my full state pension which I thought would make me a bit better off financially and make life a little less of a struggle.

The fact is I will be worse off than when I was on E.S.A. benefit and just don't see how I will be able to pay my rent and council tax out of my £168.60 per week pension.


I had a look at Pension Credit but the Government website appears to imply if I am in receipt of the full state pension I won't qualify to receive it. I believe this would have given me what I needed to get a full rent and council tax rebate.


I am really worried about this. Can anyone offer any light at the end of the tunnel please?


Thank you
Regards
John

jamesd

Hmm, 1065 / 52 = 8.75 a week. So 168.60 - 62.08 - 8.75 = 97.79 a week. Vs before 128.45 - 0 - 0 = 128.45 a week.

First thing to do is give the council a call, tell them your new total income from state pension age and ask them to check that the rent reduction and council tax reduction are based on supported housing and the correct income.

Citizens' Advice would be the next people to contact if there's no improvement.

SnowMan

Based on that information your ESA will stop when you reach State Pension Age (SPA) but you can still get housing benefit (HB) to cover most of your rent and council tax reduction (CTR) to cover most of the council tax

You should get almost all of your council tax covered by Council Tax Reduction after SPA. Your income (state pension) of £168.60pw is just above the threshold £167.25pw to get it all paid, and they don't cover 20% of that excess though CTR, so perhaps about 27p a week won't be covered.

Similarly you should still get most of your rent (after deducting the service charge) covered by housing benefit i.e. almost the same amount that has been covered before SPA. The calculator you used may not be taking into account that you are in supported accommodation.

While you've been getting income based ESA you have automatic full entitlement to full housing benefit (to cover the eligible part of the rent) and full CTR to pay all the council tax reduction. But after you reach SPA you won't automatically get the HB and CTR but will need to reclaim based on low income and low capital, but because your income is only marginally above the threshold you end up with pretty much the same help with your rent and council tax (within about a £1 a week). Unfortunately when automatic entitlement ends councils just tend to send out letters to say people no longer qualify for HB and CTR without bothering to check if someone's income is low enough to still qualify, and without considering that it might unnecessarily scare people.

From SPA you may also need to apply using a HC1 form for a HC2 certificate to give you full help with your health costs (such as NHS dental costs) because you won't get automatic help with some of these after SPA. At the moment you get automatic help through getting income based ESA.

It is possible you might qualify for a severe disability element within pension credit (if nobody claims carers allowance for you and you are getting a qualifying benefit such as the care element of Personal Independence Payment). If you do then you will qualify for pension credit after all as they include an extra element in the pension credit calculation which means your income will be below that needed to qualify. At the moment you are getting the enhanced disability premium of £16.80pw within your ESA award (since 128.45 = 73.10 + 38.55 + 16.80). To get that premium you normally need to be in either the support group for ESA or be getting the enhanced care element of PIP. If you do qualify for and claim pension credit, then you will still get the same automatic help after SPA with your rent, council tax and health costs that you get at the moment.

Agree with jamesd ask your local CAB to check out the position properly for you. But you should be OK relative to your financial position before SPA :j

badger120

Thanks for the positive replies guys I so hope you are right. Going to get the paperwork together and make an appointment to see someone fron C.A.B.


I will also ring the council housing office first and if I can get someone to answer the phone I'll try to explain my case. Seems you can no longer walk into a housing benefits office, get a ticket and wait to see an actual person.


Thanks again
Regards
John

jazzy

badger120 wrote: »

Thanks for the positive replies guys I so hope you are right. Going to get the paperwork together and make an appointment to see someone fron C.A.B.


I will also ring the council housing office first and if I can get someone to answer the phone I'll try to explain my case. Seems you can no longer walk into a housing benefits office, get a ticket and wait to see an actual person.


Thanks again
Regards
John

Please keep us updated. I am in a similar situation and probably there are many others as well.

Alice_Holt

I would fully agree with SnowMan's excellent post.

On just the SP, you will have an entitlement to Housing Benefit and Council Tax support.
For an idea of the amount you will get, use these online benefit calculators:
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/
https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/AboutYou
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/benefits-entitlements/benefits-calculator/

Are you in receipt of PIP?
If so, then you will receive Pension Credit (and therefore an automatic right to full HB).

The council will not know what your income in retirement will be - the letters you have received as are based just on your ESA stopping. For all the council know, you may have an occupational pension in addition to the SP.
You need to inform them about your new circumstances and proof of your income post SPA. They will then calculate your new entitlement to HB / CTs.

When you see your local Citizens Advice, ask them about Attendance Allowance (assuming you don't currently receive PIP).
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/attendance-allowance/
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs34_attendance_allowance_fcs.pdf

You will be better off with the SP rather than ESA (and no more assessments to endure).

jazzy

Alice_Holt wrote: »

Are you in receipt of PIP?
If so, then you will receive Pension Credit (and therefore an automatic right to full HB).

Would this be the Guaranteed Pension Credit element?

Alice_Holt

jazzy wrote: »

Would this be the Guaranteed Pension Credit element?

Yes, that's correct.

An additional Severe Disability Premium can increase GPC if a disability benefit is in payment.

This is from the Age UK factsheet link:
"4.1 Severe disability
An additional amount for severe disability can be included in your appropriate minimum guarantee if:
 you get AA, DLA middle or high rate care component or PIP daily living component, and
 no one is paid Carer’s Allowance to look after you , and
 you live alone, or are treated as living alone."

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs48_pension_credit_fcs.pdf