Pension credit or stay on IS

*thedaughter*

Hello,

My Dad is a carer for my Mum. They are on income support, he gets carer's allowance and she also gets DLA. He's due to turn 60 this year and they've received a letter from Jobcentre Plus asking if they want to stay on Income Support or apply for Pension Credit. There is no additional information to help them decide and so I said I'd ask on here and see if anyone can help. Thanks

real1314

I thought he'd just have been moved on to pension credit automatically.

I'd suggest he rings the Jobcentre to ask what he will receive if he stays on IS and then ring the Pension Service to ask the same if he were to claim PC.


There may be some rare circumstance where people are better off staying on IS and so they have to offer a choice.

*thedaughter*

I don't know if it's relevant but my mum's actually 7 years younger than my Dad so I'm not sure if that has something to do with the offer of either IS or Pension Credit.

suelees1

Yes it is. If one is 60 and one under 60 they have a choice. They should do as real1314 suggests. No-one on here will be able to tell you as we don't know their full details.

lil_me

If you contact Welfare Rights they should be able to advise them with their income etc details.

Eager_Elephant

Usually people would be better off on Pension Credit as the couple rate is £189.35 whereas on Income Support the couple rate was (up until 6/4/08) £92.80.

The only difference will be the premiums - some you get with IS but not with PC

HTH

EE

suelees1

As said the premiums in IS will increase the basic rate substantially as it would include the disability and pensioner premiums (as well as the carers premium but that would be for both IS and PC)

I've not used entitledto.com but I'd give it a go so you can compare.

jul22

When your father turns 60 he will no longer be eligible for IS, but would be entitled to Pension Credit instead.
However, if your Mum is receiving IB (or has a credits only claim) then she can be the person who claims IS for them both.
It might be an idea as suelees suggested and look at the entitledto.com website so that you and/or your parents can see which benefit would be the best for them.

bigbill

Pension Credit is best.

*thedaughter*

If they choose to claim Pension Credit can my mum still get her DLA? For some reason I've got it into my head and I don't know where I've got it from is that once you get to a certain age you are not eligible for DLA anymore and it changes to something else?