Pension , Housing Benefit, DLA

afcdon

I'm looking for some help for my mum . She has contacted citizens advice but with long waiting lists and her 66 Birthday next week she is worried about rent money.

She lives in Scotland and is on ESA and housing benefit and council tax benefit. She lives with and cares for my disabled sister. Who gets Scottish Adult DLA , she also gets housing benefit and council tax benefit. Each of them get half of the rent and tax. Neither of them have any savings or other income. Mum has no private pension.

Mum applied for pension credit today but was told she couldn't get it because of my sister's income (SADLA) . The guy on the phone that told her this also said she would loose her HB and CTB, because you only get this if you get pension credit. I don't believe this but mum is in a panic now because she is worried that she'll have to pay rent and council tax out of her state pension money.

So I have two questions really.

Can you get housing benefit on a state pension without pension credit and do you have to do anything to make sure it's not interrupted through the transition from ESA to State pension.

If she's not entitled to pension credit because of my sister's benefit is there any other help she should know about. 

Mum worked all her life until a back injury a few years back , paid her taxes and ni and looked after my disabled sister. She doesn't deserve this stress 

Hopefully citizens advise will help, but not sure on the timeline . So any help would be greatly appreciated, please 

K

marcia_

afcdon said:

I'm looking for some help for my mum . She has contacted citizens advice but with long waiting lists and her 66 Birthday next week she is worried about rent money.

She lives in Scotland and is on ESA and housing benefit and council tax benefit. She lives with and cares for my disabled sister. Who gets Scottish Adult DLA , she also gets housing benefit and council tax benefit. Each of them get half of the rent and tax. Neither of them have any savings or other income. Mum has no private pension.

Mum applied for pension credit today but was told she couldn't get it because of my sister's income (SADLA) . The guy on the phone that told her this also said she would loose her HB and CTB, because you only get this if you get pension credit. I don't believe this but mum is in a panic now because she is worried that she'll have to pay rent and council tax out of her state pension money.

So I have two questions really.

Can you get housing benefit on a state pension without pension credit and do you have to do anything to make sure it's not interrupted through the transition from ESA to State pension.

If she's not entitled to pension credit because of my sister's benefit is there any other help she should know about. 

Mum worked all her life until a back injury a few years back , paid her taxes and ni and looked after my disabled sister. She doesn't deserve this stress 

Hopefully citizens advise will help, but not sure on the timeline . So any help would be greatly appreciated, please 

K

 She should not have declared her daughters earnings. They are not a couple and are 2 separate households living under the same roof. She should go back to pension credit snd explain that. 

Rubyroobs

If she is providing 35 hours of care for your sister then she should be able to have a carers premium added to her pension credit claim. Was she claiming carers allowance prior to turning state pension age? I suspect not if she was claiming ESA so she may need to make an application for carers allowance to be awarded the underlying entitlement to carers allowance which will then get her the carers premium on Pension credit. ? If she is receiving full new state pension amount and had a carers premium added then she should qualify for pension credit guarantee. 
Even if she was not eligible for Pension credit she can still claim housing benefit and council tax support..
If they both get a disability benefit then she may also qualify for the severe disability premium of pension credit. 
I would advise she calls somewhere like Age Uk for a benefit check to make sure she gets exactly what she is eligible for.

Newcad

You DO NOT need to be getting Pension Credit to get Housing Benefit and Council Tax reduction.

You can apply for HB on the same form when you apply for PC, but that is all.

If you are not applying for PC then you simply apply to your council for HB.

https://www.gov.uk/housing-benefit/how-to-claim

Check if you’re eligible for Housing Benefit before you apply. 

You can either apply: 

• through your local council
• as part of a Pension Credit claim, if you’re eligible for this 

You’ll need to provide evidence to support your Housing Benefit claim.

As she already has both HB and CTR then she has no need to apply for them again anyway.

The others are right, she seems to have made a mistake when trying to claim PC by including her daughters income.
She shouldn't have done that and it will be what has confused the person on the phone into giving the wrong advice.

afcdon

Rubyroobs said:

If she is providing 35 hours of care for your sister then she should be able to have a carers premium added to her pension credit claim. Was she claiming carers allowance prior to turning state pension age? I suspect not if she was claiming ESA so she may need to make an application for carers allowance to be awarded the underlying entitlement to carers allowance which will then get her the carers premium on Pension credit. ? If she is receiving full new state pension amount and had a carers premium added then she should qualify for pension credit guarantee. 
Even if she was not eligible for Pension credit she can still claim housing benefit and council tax support..
If they both get a disability benefit then she may also qualify for the severe disability premium of pension credit. 
I would advise she calls somewhere like Age Uk for a benefit check to make sure she gets exactly what she is eligible for.

Thank you. 
She did not claim a carers allowance, although there's a carers element on the ESA but noone seems to know what that's about. 
Contacting age UK is good advice , I think they are England and Wales but might be able to advise a Scottish alternative