Pension Credit - Savings issue -

[Deleted User]

A bit of advice please on pension credits .

Alice_Holt

[Deleted User] said:

A bit of advice please on pension credits and savings .. My neighbour is thinking of claiming for pension credit but I am not too sure he is entitled to it .

Around 4 years ago he opened a joint account with his daughter  with about 25k when covid happened to help with the bills etc , after two years he gifted the money to her and she transferred the funds out  into a singe account in her names ( and bonds).

He currently has in his name just under the  allowed savings to be eligible to for pension credit .

I know he does not want to get his daughter in trouble in case it is seen as deprivation of funds ?

 

     There is no absolute savings limit for PC.
     Rather any savings over £10k reduce PC entitlement by £1 pw for every £500 savings increment.

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


To be deprivation of capital, there has to be an intent to increase income-related benefits. I would doubt that was an intention 2 years before actually applying for PC.

I'm not sure how far back bank statements / savings need to be declared for PC. 

Spoonie_Turtle

[Deleted User] said:

He currently has in his name just under the  allowed savings to be eligible to for pension credit .

This is a bit of a misconception.  The £10,000 threshold is not a limit, rather the point at which they start to make deductions for savings - £1/week for every £500 or part thereof over £10,000.  In reality the limit for how much savings someone can have and still be entitled to Pension Credit will depend entirely on their income and what parts / premiums of PC would apply to them in their circumstances.

[I can't advise about the actual question though.]

HillStreetBlues

[Deleted User] said:

I know he does not want to get his daughter in trouble in case it is seen as deprivation of funds ?

 

The daughter can not get into trouble. Any DoC issue is just for the father, they can't claim it back from daughter.

[Deleted User]

Just put in the application.. ?

peteuk

I take it the £212 is weekly.

Pension Credit tops up:

• your weekly income to £218.15 if you’re single

So in the theory he will get £6.15 a week with a possible reduction due to savings.

Rubyroobs

[Deleted User] said:

He is currently receiving £212 in total including a small pension with currently £16k in savings with another 10k confirmed from a compensation claim which is arriving in a couple of weeks... The concern is the 25k ( now around 33k due to wins on premium bonds and interest )...

Is there anyway to know for sure or just put in the application.. ?

Use the Age Uk benefits calculator which is normally pretty accurate. No point filling out  a load of questions if you're not entitled.

[Deleted User]

Rubyroobs said:

[Deleted User] said:

He is currently receiving £212 in total including a small pension with currently £16k in savings with another 10k confirmed from a compensation claim which is arriving in a couple of weeks... The concern is the 25k ( now around 33k due to wins on premium bonds and interest )...

Is there anyway to know for sure or just put in the application.. ?

Use the Age Uk benefits calculator which is normally pretty accurate. No point filling out  a load of questions if you're not entitled.

hi the calculator says that he is but the concern is the gift which was given two years ago .

Robbie64

[Deleted User] said:

Rubyroobs said:

[Deleted User] said:

He is currently receiving £212 in total including a small pension with currently £16k in savings with another 10k confirmed from a compensation claim which is arriving in a couple of weeks... The concern is the 25k ( now around 33k due to wins on premium bonds and interest )...

Is there anyway to know for sure or just put in the application.. ?

Use the Age Uk benefits calculator which is normally pretty accurate. No point filling out  a load of questions if you're not entitled.

hi the calculator says that he is but the concern is the gift which was given two years ago .

I wouldn't worry about the gift from two years ago. If you're worried that it might be interpreted as deprivation of capital, as it was 2 years ago it's very unlikely this would be the case. It would be different if it was last month or even just a few months ago and if it had been done with the intention of reducing capital in order to claim benefit / claim a higher amount of benefit. This is obviously not the case here.

My advice would be to not even mention the gifting of money from a couple of years ago.

As he has already has above 10k in savings he will need to provide more financial information that someone with no savings. This includes sending in bank and building society bank and savings statements.

See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-claim-form--2

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the comments. 

Rubyroobs

He rings the pension credit claim line or completed an online Pension credit claim via the Gov.uk site. I don't think they will do it anonymously though as they need to check his state pension etc. 
You can ring somewhere like CAB or Age Uk who will do a benefit check but they only use the same calculator as the Age Uk one available to you one online.