Benefits Advice!

MoodyMand45

My grandad wants to go and sit down with someone to get one on one benefits advice to explain properly to him but unfortunately we are not having much luck.
The issues involve his pension and some other benefits so i thought Citizens Advice would be a good place to go.
The CAB office in our area are overwhelmed, They don't answer the phone or email so we waited five hours at their drop in centre to speak to someone.
The person gave us the contact Information for the Council Welfare Rights people who we contacted and waited 3 weeks for a call back, Unfortunately the call never came and eventually they directed us to the Citizens Advice which we had already been to.
We have since tried Age UK and some other Charities but they are unable to see us at the moment in person.
He is an old fashioned guy and wants to speak to someone face to face if possible to get another opinion about what the DWP have told him and likes to keep his problems private.
Anyone have any advice on places we could try to get advice?

badmemory

The problem all these charities etc have at the moment is that they have so many more people than usual, since the cut in winter fuel payment, wanting to use their services.  I think whoever anyone may suggest will be having the same struggles.  There are 800,000 people who could have claimed pension credit & many of them have seen red at the WFP cut.  Just 25% of them deciding to claim is going to completely overload any system.  All I can suggest is helping him through the 234 question form & getting it sent in.  The sooner the better as they will back date to a certain extent.  That 234 was not a typo, which is why many in the past have given up.  Good luck.

Rubyroobs

Some Age Uk's may have a drop in service I know our local one does or they will do benefit checks over the phone or their online benefit calculator is very accurate. Unfortunately at the moment all charities are facing overwhelming numbers of people needing help and are facing huge increases in bills to keep going due to the upcoming NI hikes. 

Grumpy_chap

MoodyMand45 said:

My grandad wants to go and sit down with someone to get one on one benefits advice to explain properly to him but unfortunately we are not having much luck.
The issues involve his pension and some other benefits so i thought Citizens Advice would be a good place to go.
The CAB office in our area are overwhelmed, They don't answer the phone or email so we waited five hours at their drop in centre to speak to someone.
The person gave us the contact Information for the Council Welfare Rights people who we contacted and waited 3 weeks for a call back, Unfortunately the call never came and eventually they directed us to the Citizens Advice which we had already been to.
We have since tried Age UK and some other Charities but they are unable to see us at the moment in person.
He is an old fashioned guy and wants to speak to someone face to face if possible to get another opinion about what the DWP have told him and likes to keep his problems private.
Anyone have any advice on places we could try to get advice?

I know that the senior generations can be very secretive and wish to keep their finances close to their chest, but would your Grandad open up to you enough for you to have sufficient insight and able to determine using available online tools as to whether he is likely to be eligible for any benefits he does not already gain?

He may be very far from the eligibility criteria and that would make further investigation fruitless.

He may be very much within the eligibility criteria and the support then would be in making the necessary application.

The real challenge is if he is a borderline.

Brie

There seems to be an assumption that grandpa wants to apply for Pension Credits but that's not been said explicitly.  Is it possible to get clarity?

Is there any other charities he could try?  Sounds like Christians Against Poverty might be a suitable one.  Many of them have a process that allows them to visit people in their homes or maybe on neutral territory - in a local cafe or a library.

badmemory

It might give you some idea if you knew if he was on the basic state pension or the new state pension & if he had the full number of years.  If all he has is the basic state pension with no serps then that is only about 75% fo the pension credit figure.  You should be able to work out which pension he is on by his age.

elsien

He may prefer face-to-face, but in the meantime if he’s querying what benefits he may be entitled to (DWP are notorious for for giving the wrong information) He could do worse than with your help using one of the online benefits calculators. Which would give him a starting point to decide whether he wanted to take it further or not.
Age UK might also be a possibility. 

OutdoorQueen

Which County does he live in?

Has he ever served in the armed forces, regulars or reserves?  If so British Legion have caseworkers and they may be able to help.

  https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-support/financial-and-employment-support/finance?_gl=1*1njvi8o*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyNXqkvfwiQMVOmhBAh1HXz2KEAAYASAAEgIMJvD_BwE&gbraid=0AAAAAD7umtJh-p-ieCaNrbXjcLGC1fAub

Brie

OutdoorQueen said:

Which County does he live in?

Has he ever served in the armed forces, regulars or reserves?  If so British Legion have caseworkers and they may be able to help.

  https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-support/financial-and-employment-support/finance?_gl=1*1njvi8o*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyNXqkvfwiQMVOmhBAh1HXz2KEAAYASAAEgIMJvD_BwE&gbraid=0AAAAAD7umtJh-p-ieCaNrbXjcLGC1fAub

Or Ssafa or the royal marines charities!