Do not qualify for Pension Credits

molerat

Pollycat said:

whizzywoo said:

I am just re-reading your original post.  Why did your Dad have to wait until July 2019 to get his Pension when his State Pension Age was 6th May 2019? 

I was born on the 12/01/1954 and my State Pension Age was also 6th May 2019.  My first payment of State Pension was on the 10th May 2019.  Granted I elected to receive mine weekly but even receiving it 4 weekly he should have received it before July 2019. 

He could have made a claim for Pension Credit any time during the period from 6th May May 2019 up to 14th August 2019/

Could that be when he received his first state pension payment?

Highly unlikely unless he failed to claim it on time.  With a SRA at 6 May his first part 4 wk payment under normal circumstances would have been late May.  Mrs M reaches SRA in Feb and we have known her late Feb first payment date and amount since late Oct.  I reached SRA 6 Nov 19 and had my first payment late Nov.

I wonder if his birthday is not 3 Feb !

Jay_1987

whizzywoo said:

Jay_1987 said:

Hi there,
I am posting on behalf of my Dad. He was born 03/02/54. He had 5 months extra added on before he got his old age pension due to change in retirement date, and only has an old age pension and no private pensions. He is getting £535 every 4 weeks pension at the moment, and he applied for pension credits and was told that it changed in May and he no longer qualified due to the fact he had to wait until July to get his pension. He was told that because my mum is younger than him that he no longer qualifies for pension credits, and the law changed in May. He tried to apply for universal credit but does not qualify for it. I feel it is ridiculous that he has been penalised due to the fact that if he got his pension at the right time he would have qualified for a pension top up but now can’t due to the change in rules. Do we have anyone here who is also married to younger and has suffered the same problem? It all seems terribly unfair.

Your Dad qualified for his State Pension at the same time as myself.  My husband is younger than me but we did qualify for Pension Credit and your Dad could have done as well because his State Pension Age was before the 15/05/2019.  However there was a cut-off date for claims and this allowed a Mixed Age Couple to back date a claim by three months.

I'm not sure he would have qualified because of your parents joint income but even if the Pension Guarantee had only been £1 per week it would have passported them to other benefits the main one being not having to pay any Council Tax.

The change in rules was quite widely publicised at the time and there were articles and discussions on here and in the news etc.
Basically your Dad would have needed to qualify in the few days after receiving his SRP and could have made the claim anytime in the following three months.

Did your Dad take any advice from Benefits Offices concerning a Pension Credit application?  Luckily I knew what was going to happen and had all my ducks in a row so that I could make a successful claim.

He didn’t know anything about the fact that he could have still been eligible. They heard of the cut off date I think before he got his first pension payment and thought it was just another case of tough luck due to the fact of when he was born. They did contact Age UK, but am assuming it was after the cut off date as they did not mention anything and just advised it was not available to them now. They have both worked all of their life and never been on any form of benefit. My dad done bar work, and then worked on building sites. Unfortunately from his earlier years working he paid NI but when I went on to government website to check how many years he qualified for a few of the earlier companies did not pay the NI and are now defunct, dead and gone. 

Pollycat

molerat said:

Highly unlikely unless he failed to claim it on time.  With a SRA at 6 May his first payment under normal circumstances would have been late May.  Mrs M reaches SRA in Feb and we have known her late Feb first payment date and amount since late Oct.  I reached SRA 6 Nov 19 and had my first payment late Nov.

I wonder if his birthday is not 3 Feb !

Maybe when the OP said his Dad was born on 3/2/54 he meant 2nd of March instead of 3rd of Feb.

Someone born on 3/2/54 (how we in the UK tend to write it and meaning 3rd Feb) would reach state pension age on 6/5/2019 (6th May).

Someone born on 2/3/54 (2nd March) would reach state pension age on 6/7/2019 (6th July).

Either way:

if he was born 3rd Feb 1954, he missed the deadline to claim pension credit.

if he was born on 2nd March 1954, the rules had changed by the time he reached state pension age so wasn't eligible to claim.

Jay_1987

whizzywoo said:

Jay_1987 said:

Hi there,
He was born 03/02/54....  and he applied for pension credits and was told that it changed in May and he no longer qualified due to the fact he had to wait until July to get his pension. 

I am just re-reading your original post.  Why did your Dad have to wait until July 2019 to get his Pension when his State Pension Age was 6th May 2019? 

I was born on the 12/01/1954 and my State Pension Age was also 6th May 2019.  My first payment of State Pension was on the 10th May 2019.  Granted I elected to receive mine weekly but even receiving it 4 weekly he should have received it before July 2019. 

He could have made a claim for Pension Credit any time during the period from 6th May May 2019 up to 14th August 2019/

That was when he got his first payment and he did not get an option to get his pension weekly, just every 4 weeks? I had to phone regarding his pension around a week before he was due to qualify for pension as he did not get any letter from them, which I also thought was unusual.

xylophone

That was when he got his first payment and he did not get an option to get his pension weekly, just every 4 weeks?

A specific request needs to be made for the weekly payment otherwise the default is four weekly.

Jay_1987

molerat said:

Pollycat said:

whizzywoo said:

I am just re-reading your original post.  Why did your Dad have to wait until July 2019 to get his Pension when his State Pension Age was 6th May 2019? 

I was born on the 12/01/1954 and my State Pension Age was also 6th May 2019.  My first payment of State Pension was on the 10th May 2019.  Granted I elected to receive mine weekly but even receiving it 4 weekly he should have received it before July 2019. 

He could have made a claim for Pension Credit any time during the period from 6th May May 2019 up to 14th August 2019/

Could that be when he received his first state pension payment?

Highly unlikely unless he failed to claim it on time.  With a SRA at 6 May his first part 4 wk payment under normal circumstances would have been late May.  Mrs M reaches SRA in Feb and we have known her late Feb first payment date and amount since late Oct.  I reached SRA 6 Nov 19 and had my first payment late Nov.

I wonder if his birthday is not 3 Feb !

He was born 6th February 1954, so turned 66 on that date. He did not receive his first state pension payment until July.

Don’t know why my phone keeps changing date to 3rd, sorry.

Jay_1987

xylophone said:

That was when he got his first payment and he did not get an option to get his pension weekly, just every 4 weeks?

A specific request needs to be made for the weekly payment otherwise the default is four weekly.

I phoned on his behalf and the advisor I spoke to specifically said it would be 4 weekly, and I didn’t question that assuming it was the norm, so that makes sense.

xylophone

I phoned on his behalf and the advisor I spoke to specifically said it would be 4 weekly, and I didn’t question that assuming it was the norm, so that makes sense.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs19_state_pension_fcs.pdf

When you apply for your State Pension, you are given information about the different types of bank, building society and Post Office accounts you can use. Your amount is usually paid four-weekly in arrears, although you can ask to be paid weekly or fortnightly.

Pollycat

Jay_1987 said:

He was born 6th February 1954, so turned 66 on that date. He did not receive his first state pension payment until July.

Don’t know why my phone keeps changing date to 3rd, sorry.

And that makes sense.

Those few days (between 3rd Feb and 6th Feb) meant your Dad got his state pension 3 months later than someone born a few days earlier.

Same thing happened to me.

The age your Dad turned 66 is not relevant.

He got his pension aged 65 years and 5 months - on 6th July 2019 so of course he wouldn't have received his first pension payment until July 2019.

Unfortunately, your Dad was too young to claim pension credit as a couple as the rules had been changed by the time he was in receipt of his state pension.

Lots of 'mixed age' couples are in the same position.

Jay_1987

Pollycat said:

Jay_1987 said:

He was born 6th February 1954, so turned 66 on that date. He did not receive his first state pension payment until July.

Don’t know why my phone keeps changing date to 3rd, sorry.

And that makes sense.

Those few days (between 3rd Feb and 6th Feb) meant your Dad got his state pension 3 months later than someone born a few days earlier.

Same thing happened to me.

The age your Dad turned 66 is not relevant.

He got his pension aged 65 years and 5 months - on 6th July 2019 so of course he wouldn't have received his first pension payment until July 2019.

Unfortunately, your Dad was too young to claim pension credit as a couple as the rules had been changed by the time he was in receipt of his state pension.

Lots of 'mixed age' couples are in the same position.

I assume nothing can be done then. I will look in to contacting a local MP regarding the issue. I understand he is not alone in this situation, and thank you very much for taking the time to reply to me.