Mixed Age Disabled Couple - Retiring, what benefits?

Furzeguy

Hi,

Sorry this is complicated but I cannot cannot contact either CAB or the DWP to get any answers and online searches bring up conflicting results.

The situation is - We are a married disabled couple. Live in Supported Housing with 14 hours visiting care a week. (Paid by LA with contribution from us). Benefits are - Myself Age 65 - ESA Support group (inc) Severe Disability Premium (single) and PIP - Enhanced rate care. (Ongoing)

My wife, age 57 receives Carers allowance for me plus PIP for herself at Enhanced rate for both care and mobility. (Ongoing) We receive full housing benefit at present.

I will be 66 and officially be a pensioner and entitled to OAP on 20 November this year.

I read on a forum that as we get severe disability premiium now and would not be able to claim UC or Pension credit due to mixed age I would stay on ESA rather than get pension. However today I got the benefit uprating letter from DWP for ESA and it says from Nov 20 I will get £%% a week ... about £90 a week less than now but does that mean I will not get pension and we will be about £90 a week worse off. Or Maybe it means I get the reduced ESA PLUS pension? I cannot find out and I am getting very worried in case we are going to be a lot worse off.

I hope someone can help, I know you are very well clued up on this site lol. Sorry if I have rambled a bit.

Furzeguy

I should add my ESA is a mix of Income related and Contribution based

calcotti

Furzeguy said: I read on a forum that as we get severe disability premiium now and would not be able to claim UC or Pension credit due to mixed age I would stay on ESA rather than get pension. 

That is not, and never has been, correct.
ESA is not payable beyond pension age - it is a working age benefit. Your ESA will end and you will receive your State Pension instead.

Your PIP and your wife’s PIP and CA are unaffected.

The rule that prevented people with SDP claiming UC ended on 27th January.

The first issue to consider is around your help with rent. The normal situation for a mixed age couple  such as yourselves is that Housing Benefit would end and to continue to get help with rent you would need to claim Universal Credit. However you mentioned that you are in supported accommodation, this may fall into one of the exempt categories of accommodation which would allow you to continue on Housing Benefit.

I would suggest you contact your local authority benefits team and ask them to advise whether you will be able to stay on HB. If possible get that confirmed in writing.

If you cannot stay on a HB and need to claim UC then you should do this just before you reach pension age. This will ensure you get extra money in the UC calculation from the start of the claim - if you claim after reaching pension age there will be a gap between the ESA and UC claims and would have to wait three months for the extra to be included.

Even if you can stay on Housing Benefit for help with rent you may still be entitled to some UC. This will depend on how much State Pension you get. Again however if you will be claiming UC it is to your advantage to claim UC before your birthday. You will not have access to Pension Credit until you’re wife reaches pension age.

You would both have to claim UC and the claims will be linked so you are assessed as a couple.

There is another possibility provided your wife has worked at some time in her life and made NI contributions for at least six months within a single tax year. She could claim new style ESA. Normally this would depend on her NI contributions in 2018-19 and 2019-20 but, assuming that these two years are complete because she was getting CA throughout them the requirement to have paid some contributions will be relaxed to look at any year.

Whether ESA or UC is more beneficial depends on some number crunching and how help with rent is provided in the future. First step is to clarify your Housing Benefit situation in respect of the supported housing beyond pension age.

Furzeguy

Hi Calcotti

Thank you very much for your clear help. I am assured that our accomodation does fall into the "exempt" category so I have no real worries there ... unless my council messes up lol.

I am puzzled though as I keep reading that UC cannot be claimed if you are over pension age, as I will get (apparently) £175 a week full pension according to DWP calculator, I doubt this will be an issue as we would have too much income to qualify.

If though we both did apply, would either of us have to prove we had LCWRA as I did with ESA but my wife doesnt get that just PIP

One final question if I may. In regards Council Tax benefit .. would be assesed as being under the pensioner scheme (so get max rebate of 100%) as set by Govt, or working age local scheme, max rebate 65% here? I have a felling it will be latter ... its always heads they win lol. BTW my wife is exempt for Council Tax and we get 25% off the top of the bill anyway

Thanks for your help

calcotti

Looking at UC entitlement. At today’s rates you would be entitled to 
Couple allowance £594.04, LCWRA element £341.92, carer element £162.92 and SDP transition element £120 = £1,098.88/month maximum amount (excluding any housing element).
if you get the full new State Pension of £175.20 there would be a deduction of £759.20 and there will be a deduction of £291.42 for the Carer’s Allowance. This would leave UC payable as £168.26/month. If Housing Benefit will continue then if your wife is able to claim new style ESA that will be worth more than the UC.

Have you asked for a pension forecast? https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

calcotti

There is a case that your wife should try and claim new style ESA now. If she is successful she would no longer be paid CA and your income based ESA would then include a double SDP. This in turn would increase your maximum UC amount, should you have to claim it, by £285/month because you would get a higher SDP transitional element.

(I am of course assuming that as your wife has enhanced awards for both components of PIP that she would be put in the ESA Support Group which is not necessarily the case.)

Furzeguy

Thanks so much for the detailed info. It certainly is complicated but you explain it so well. Many thanks

calcotti

I’m pleased if it makes sense, I was beginning to confuse myself! It's an unfortunate fact that mixed age couples can be disadvantaged through not knowing their options. Particularly for those on ESA who will need to claim UC it is not logical that whether or not they claim before or after reaching pension age can cost them £1000.

Key points for you now are I think

• speak to your local authority to confirm whether you can continue on HB after pension age
• get a pension forecast if you haven’t had one

The second point is simply to inform any calculations to work out what is likely to be best for you. When I have a bit more time I will run through the numbers if your wife were to claim new style ESA.

Furzeguy

Hello again. I just spoke to the council who confirmed that HB will continue after pension as we live in an exempted property. I couldnt do a pension check online as it kept asking for passport details and I dont have one, so I am going to do a postal application next week. Thanks again for your help.

calcotti

Furzeguy said:

Hello again. I just spoke to the council who confirmed that HB will continue after pension as we live in an exempted property. 

Good to have that confirmed.
I will run some numbers on the assumption that you will get the standard new State Pension rate and see whether it makes sense for your wife to try claiming ESA (if she is willing to be assessed for it). How long has she been claiming CA and did she previously work?

Furzeguy

Wife has been claiming carers allowance for about 5 years, she would be unlikely to be able to apply for ESA new style as she has not enough working years contributions, having not worked for over 10 years