OAP Pension and Carer's Credit . 18 January at 10:34AM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 2 replies 89 views

alfmurph

My wife will be 66 in april 2023 and able to claim her oap .
In november she applied for carer's credit to top up a year for her oap as she has been caring for her dad with dementia .
She should have had a reply in 3 weeks but we have learned it now takes 3 months due to staff shortages so she has had no decision .
Last week she was sent a code to apply for her oap and today we received the letter telling her the amount was £796 every 4 weeks .
When the decision on her carer's credit is made will the two departments communicate with each other to hopefully increase her pension slightly .
We have only one month to appeal the decision on her oap amount and if the carer's credit takes longer we are out of time .

Marcon

alfmurph said:

My wife will be 66 in april 2023 and able to claim her oap .
In november she applied for carer's credit to top up a year for her oap as she has been caring for her dad with dementia .
She should have had a reply in 3 weeks but we have learned it now takes 3 months due to staff shortages so she has had no decision .
Last week she was sent a code to apply for her oap and today we received the letter telling her the amount was £796 every 4 weeks .
When the decision on her carer's credit is made will the two departments communicate with each other to hopefully increase her pension slightly .
We have only one month to appeal the decision on her oap amount and if the carer's credit takes longer we are out of time .

I'd appeal now. Give details of why you think the amount is wrong. Point out that as she has not had a reply in relation to her claim for carer's credit made on [date] (and she understands the approach she made in November could take 3 months for a response), she will be out of time to appeal if she waits for that reply. 

alfmurph

We phoned pension dept and told them the story . Apparently you can still appeal after one month and if the decision goes in her favour the carer's credit team contact HMRC .