Pension Credit Criteria

grayjaybee

A very old female friend, now 76 faces a bit of a dilemma. I wonder if anyone here can advise...She exists on a state pension (the old amount) and because she only has less than the permitted amount of savings, qualifies currently for pension credit.
She also rents privately and receives about 2/3 (she says) of the total rent amount, due to the local housing allowance rules and also council tax in full.  Given the rent not covered by HB that comes out of her pension, significantly diminishing what is left for even her basic bills, life is pretty hard for her.
Her daughter, living overseas and about to acquire a significant amount of money post a joint house ownership sale following a relationship break-up, has offered to buy her Mother a small house/flat/park home in order to relieve her of the need to rent.
However she tells me she is reluctant to do this for fears that she might then be disqualified from receiving her pension credit going forward.
I have tried to assist and done a little investigating myself but cant find anything out that is precise enough to her situation.
I believe the idea put forward by her daughter is that she would pay in cash for a property, transferring the money at point of sale and it would be in her Mother's name.
Friend claims it would be impossible to manage if PC was withdrawn given the extra costs of being a home owner, ie council tax, water rates, etc etc.
So in essence she/we need to understand if she would in this scenario, once moved into a new place still be able to claim pension credit with just her existing 'old' state pension as sole income.
I would like to be able to advise this lady, because I know she worked hard all of her life, one that is now limited due to her small income and any advice is greatly appreciated.

Emmia

grayjaybee said:

A very old female friend, now 76 faces a bit of a dilemma. I wonder if anyone here can advise...She exists on a state pension (the old amount) and because she only has less than the permitted amount of savings, qualifies currently for pension credit.
She also rents privately and receives about 2/3 (she says) of the total rent amount, due to the local housing allowance rules and also council tax in full.  Given the rent not covered by HB that comes out of her pension, significantly diminishing what is left for even her basic bills, life is pretty hard for her.
Her daughter, living overseas and about to acquire a significant amount of money post a joint house ownership sale following a relationship break-up, has offered to buy her Mother a small house/flat/park home in order to relieve her of the need to rent.
However she tells me she is reluctant to do this for fears that she might then be disqualified from receiving her pension credit going forward.
I have tried to assist and done a little investigating myself but cant find anything out that is precise enough to her situation.
I believe the idea put forward by her daughter is that she would pay in cash for a property, transferring the money at point of sale and it would be in her Mother's name.
Friend claims it would be impossible to manage if PC was withdrawn given the extra costs of being a home owner, ie council tax, water rates, etc etc.
So in essence she/we need to understand if she would in this scenario, once moved into a new place still be able to claim pension credit with just her existing 'old' state pension as sole income.
I would like to be able to advise this lady, because I know she worked hard all of her life, one that is now limited due to her small income and any advice is greatly appreciated.

Does she live on her own? If so is she claiming the single person council tax discount of 25%?

grayjaybee

Emmia:  Thankyou....Yes to both, although she is excused from paying any CT atm. She says she understands that would change if living in her own place of course...her worry seems to be mainly with regard to her pension credit.

marcia_

grayjaybee said:

Emmia:  Thankyou....Yes to both, although she is excused from paying any CT atm. She says she understands that would change if living in her own place of course...her worry seems to be mainly with regard to her pension credit.

 Why would she think that? If she is still living alone she will get the 25% discount and council tax support based on her income for the remainder 

Voyager2002

Emmia said:

grayjaybee said:

A very old female friend, now 76 faces a bit of a dilemma. I wonder if anyone here can advise...She exists on a state pension (the old amount) and because she only has less than the permitted amount of savings, qualifies currently for pension credit.
She also rents privately and receives about 2/3 (she says) of the total rent amount, due to the local housing allowance rules and also council tax in full.  Given the rent not covered by HB that comes out of her pension, significantly diminishing what is left for even her basic bills, life is pretty hard for her.
Her daughter, living overseas and about to acquire a significant amount of money post a joint house ownership sale following a relationship break-up, has offered to buy her Mother a small house/flat/park home in order to relieve her of the need to rent.
However she tells me she is reluctant to do this for fears that she might then be disqualified from receiving her pension credit going forward.
I have tried to assist and done a little investigating myself but cant find anything out that is precise enough to her situation.
I believe the idea put forward by her daughter is that she would pay in cash for a property, transferring the money at point of sale and it would be in her Mother's name.
Friend claims it would be impossible to manage if PC was withdrawn given the extra costs of being a home owner, ie council tax, water rates, etc etc.
So in essence she/we need to understand if she would in this scenario, once moved into a new place still be able to claim pension credit with just her existing 'old' state pension as sole income.
I would like to be able to advise this lady, because I know she worked hard all of her life, one that is now limited due to her small income and any advice is greatly appreciated.

Does she live on her own? If so is she claiming the single person council tax discount of 25%?

The OP says she RECEIVES Council Tax in full. 

To address the substantive question: means-tested benefits generally disregard the value of the claimant's own home, so that should not be an issue. Obviously, if the (very generous) daughter transferred lots of money into her mother's bank account, she would have difficulty claiming pension credit and other means-tested benefits until the purchase had gone through, and even after that would face questions about the money that had been in her account. For this reason, it might be simpler if the daughter were to buy the property directly: she could transfer ownership later.

grayjaybee

Ah yes, that makes sense certainly. Friend says, if she moved in post purchase would she still be able to claim PC as she would neither be renting or the owner of home ?  At least until ownership had been transferred over, should your suggestion be the method used.

[Deleted User]

Also her costs would be less as she would no longer have to find one third of the rent herself from her state pension plus pension credit. Owning her own property I believe would not bar her from receiving pension credit. Far more secure to be in a place that is actually yours.

grayjaybee

marcia_ said:

grayjaybee said:

Emmia:  Thankyou....Yes to both, although she is excused from paying any CT atm. She says she understands that would change if living in her own place of course...her worry seems to be mainly with regard to her pension credit.

 Why would she think that? If she is still living alone she will get the 25% discount and council tax support based on her income for the remainder 

It is her pension credit she has concerns about...as previously mentioned.

grayjaybee

[Deleted User] said:

Also her costs would be less as she would no longer have to find one third of the rent herself from her state pension plus pension credit. Owning her own property I believe would not bar her from receiving pension credit. Far more secure to be in a place that is actually yours.

Thankyou, yes it seems she certainly feels her future would feel less uncertain in the proposed scenario.

Rubyroobs

She wouldn't lose Pension credit or council tax support. The only problem I can forsee is if the property is in mothers name then if she has to go into care the house would be sold to pay for that. So daughter potentially sees thousands of pounds  that she could have had for herself going to pay for care fees.

grayjaybee

Rubyroobs said:

She wouldn't lose Pension credit or council tax support. The only problem I can forsee is if the property is in mothers name then if she has to go into care the house would be sold to pay for that. So daughter potentially sees thousands of pounds  that she could have had for herself going to pay for care fees.

I dont think she has thought that far ahead.  I will mention this and thankyou for bringing it up.