State pension advice .

barnstar2077

Adyinvestment said:

My father gets a bigger pension because of his time in the Army

It is good to hear of people being rewarded for service to their country!

Silvertabby

Adyinvestment said:

My father gets a bigger pension because of his time in the Army

If he left the Army before April 1975, with less than 22 years service, then he won't have an Army pension.  Nor will his State pension be increased due to his Army service.

It's all down to what's on his bank statements.  One State pension payment of £200 per week is fine.  Two separate payments of £130 and £70 per week isn't. 

changing_ways

He might well be getting pension credit in addition to his state pension which would bring him up to at least £175.20 weekly depending on what other benefits he might be getting. If the annual award letters can't be found, then the Pension Service can clarify.

Gorf123

changing_ways said:

He might well be getting pension credit in addition to his state pension which would bring him up to at least £175.20 weekly depending on what other benefits he might be getting. If the annual award letters can't be found, then the Pension Service can clarify.

If he has dementia then he's probably getting attendance allowance or similar, which would go some way to explaining why the £130 pension is topped up by pension credit to £200 rather than £175. It might also just be because of his age and savings.

To the o/p -check your father in law's statements, if you can. The DWP lines will have a national insurance number as part of the payment description. If one of them is your mother in law's number, you need to contact DWP to get the payment stopped. However I'm betting they would both have his national insurance number, and one of them is state pension and the other is pension credit.

Make sure he's on the higher rate of attendance allowance too. It works out at just under £60 per week at the lower rate or just under £90 per week at the higher rate. Considering his age and dementia, he needs to be on the higher rate. 0800 731 0122 according to google.