Lost Pension Credit - all for 15 pence

lost_pension_credit

I have received a letter advising that my Pension Credit has been stopped. I phoned and questioned why...

Because my State Pension is now 15 pence a week over the living allowance I can’t have pension credit. 

For the sake of 15p, I now lose benefit for TV Licence, Council Tax, Heating Allowances, certain healthcare, etc.

I am losing £1,000's for the sake of 15p. Can anyone offer advice  

Thanks

sammyjammy

Only that you aren't the only one impacted by this, unfortunately its policy,  The only thing you can do is lobby your MP or look at manifesto's and decide who to give your vote to in the GE.

Marcon

lost_pension_credit said:

I have received a letter advising that my Pension Credit has been stopped. I phoned and questioned why...

Because my State Pension is now 15 pence a week over the living allowance I can’t have pension credit. 

For the sake of 15p, I now lose benefit for TV Licence, Council Tax, Heating Allowances, certain healthcare, etc.

I am losing £1,000's for the sake of 15p. Can anyone offer advice  

Thanks

Not sure what sort of 'advice' you are hoping for?

Easyjet77

lost_pension_credit said:

I have received a letter advising that my Pension Credit has been stopped. I phoned and questioned why...

Because my State Pension is now 15 pence a week over the living allowance I can’t have pension credit. 

For the sake of 15p, I now lose benefit for TV Licence, Council Tax, Heating Allowances, certain healthcare, etc.

I am losing £1,000's for the sake of 15p. Can anyone offer advice  

Thanks

My advice is this: accept the situation and move happily on with your life with the knowledge that you are no longer reliant on further benefits. 
      Some people will be 15p over and some £15 over, or whatever amount over. An upper limit is exactly that, anything over is over for qualification purposes. 
     That's life, nobody said its easy!

xylophone

I'm afraid that it is one of those "cliff edge" situations.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs48_pension_credit_fcs.pdf

Presumably you are still on a low income = are you sure that you are not entitled to some discount on CT etc?

MK62

It seems the govt can taper withdrawal of benefits when they feel like it (rather than a cliff edge withdrawal).......it's a crazy system where someone with less income is far better off than someone with a higher one.......however, I fear there is little you can do under the current system, if your excess is due to standard state pension. 

artyboy

I speak from zero experience, but is there any way to gift some money to charity to reduce your taxable income? Or is it done purely on a calculation of gross pension paid?

Marcon

artyboy said:

I speak from zero experience, but is there any way to gift some money to charity to reduce your taxable income? Or is it done purely on a calculation of gross pension paid?

No - or a lot more people would do that.

MallyGirl

lost_pension_credit said:

I have received a letter advising that my Pension Credit has been stopped. I phoned and questioned why...

Because my State Pension is now 15 pence a week over the living allowance I can’t have pension credit. 

For the sake of 15p, I now lose benefit for TV Licence, Council Tax, Heating Allowances, certain healthcare, etc.

I am losing £1,000's for the sake of 15p. Can anyone offer advice  

Thanks

Whilst being on pension credit is the simplest way to qualify for other benefits, many of them are still available due to low income. Try putting your figures into https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/ to see what you can still get