State Pension & pension credit

gletley

I'm hoping someone can advice me.
I've had a letter inviting me to get my state pension, I'm 66 next March and apparently will be entitled to it. My husband gets his state pension and the amount paid is for a couple, to bring it up to a liveable amount we get pension credit, which means we can just about keep our heads above water buy food and pay the bills, that's about it. 
If I claim my state pension, which will not be much, I know my husband's will go down, but will we lose our pension credit and any of the benefits that go with it?   I've tried to phone the pension people, but it's hopeless trying to get through for an answer. Can anyone advice us on this please? 

p00hsticks

You might be better off asking over on the benefits board,  although they'll probably want to know the exact figures to say for definite whether your Pension Credit will stop - I imagine that if the amount of your State Pension is greater than the amount of Pension Credit you currently get then it would. but I might be wrong.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/benefits-tax-credits 

One thing I am pretty sure about is that that you can't simply not claim your State Pension in order to continue receiving Pension Creidt - when you become eligible I think that your Pension Credit claim will automatically be recalculated on the assumption that you be claiming your State Pension. However, if your pension credit does stop you may stil lbe eligible for other benefits such as counci ltax reduction based on low income - the people over on the benefits board should know more.

xylophone

See

 https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/large-print-factsheets/fs48-lp-pension-credit.pdf

Alice_Holt

Once you know the amount of your SP, you can input your details into a benefits calculator to see if you still have any entitlement to PC.
https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator

If it turns out that your entitlement to PC ends, you will need to check your eligibility to Housing Benefit & Council Tax reduction and apply to your council for these benefits. When PC ends, so will your automatic entitlement to HB / CTr.

No-one can give you a definitive answer until you know the actual SP payable and your household income.

QrizB

gletley said:

If I claim my state pension, which will not be much, I know my husband's will go down, but will we lose our pension credit and any of the benefits that go with it?

As other people have said, if your SP is enough to affect your PC your PC will be adjusted, whether you claim your SP or not. Better to claim it than not to.

Do you know how much your SP will be? Do you have a forecast from https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension ? What exactly does it say?