Pension Credit - claim before October.

brodev

I do not know though I shall make enquiries

EdInvestor

These days they seem to get people sorted onto pension credit when they apply for their state pension if appropriate - the Pension Service people make the initial 'qualification' by asking you various questions, and the DWP takes it on from there. So random letters are probably no longer necessary.

Jennifer_Jane

Thanks, immoral_angelUK, for your useful and informative post. What is concerning me here, though, is that this is a reduction in benefit: "Currently you can have have your claim backdated up to 12 months. In October this is changing to 3 months". I am (once and yet again) appalled by Gordon Brown/Alastair Darling's or whoever's doing this with no media information at all. This Government is now planning to reduce/dilute an opportunity to claim a rightful benefit (which it appears is not being taken up to budget by thousands of people).

I hope that this receives publicity. Last year I did post about the 10% and this was only taken up by the public and media this year. Here's another example of how Gordon Brown is fitting things to keep the poor, poor. He won't remove the benefit because that would cause uproar, so he very gently removes the scope of the backdate!

Well done, immoral_angelUK, for bringing this to our attention.

Thanks
Jen
x

getting-sorted-sarah

As the application can be complicated, please get a full benefits health check from your local Age Concern or CAB - they can tell you quickly whether it is worth you making an application, and advise on other entitlements, for example Attendance Allowance, which is even more under-claimed!

I work for Age Concern and my priority is to get cash into the pockets of older people, there are still people 'slipping through the net' because the letters can often be confusingly worded and the calculation is not a simple one. (People want to know a cut off for income or for savings, but it doesn't work like that.) The Pension Service are not writing to or visiting everyone, this varies from area to area.

sparrer

I've recently retired and been placed in the 'system'. I find it laughable that I paid in to a private pension scheme which takes me over the threshold for pension credit, but this pension is taxed which brings my income down to a level where I am eligible to claim for pension credit. How ridiculous is that?! Jobs for the boys...:rolleyes:

tanith

Can someone just clarify wether you have to supply them with your bank statements when claiming pension credit? The elderly lady I referred to earlier, who tells me she tried to claim once and as soon as they asked for bank statements she stopped the claim.. she is happy to tell them her income but she simply won't let them look at her bank statements.. I know its silly and it is confiential but she won't budge... its simply her private business and she wants to keep it that way. She showed me how much she 'doesn't' have in the bank... I am sure she would qualify easily... she is just managing as far as I can see... and hikes in food and energy are going to push her over the edge moneywise...

Edinburghlass_2

From the website...

You will need the following details when you phone:

• Your National Insurance (NI) number. You can get this from your pension book, payslips, tax papers or letters from social security
• Information about any money you have coming in
• Information about any savings and investments if you have any

I'm guessing she would probably have to "prove" the income coming in and not what she doesn't have if you see what I mean and this would possibly be by way of bank statements.

http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/pensioncredit/form.asp

tanith

Thanks Edinburghlass, I guess I will just have to keep trying to convince her that it doesn't matter who sees her bank statements.. and I know she has no savings or investments of any kind... she is just adamant that her banking affairs are hers and hers alone . I guess many old folks feel this way about the intrusion of privacy...
She made me laugh when I was last chatting to her about this , she admitted that she sent them a bank statement but she had cut off the side of the statement with all the figures on. ... you can imagine what the letter said that they then sent her... :rotfl: She just didn't bother again...

Edinburghlass_2

:rotfl::rotfl:

Its a shame she feels that way, can you convince her she won't be dealing with anyone she knows like she might in the bank or PO. Does she attend any lunch clubs or similar where people there might be able to help or even better if they could get an advisor out to lunch one day to speak to everyone.

tanith

Edinburghlass wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl:

Its a shame she feels that way, can you convince her she won't be dealing with anyone she knows like she might in the bank or PO. Does she attend any lunch clubs or similar where people there might be able to help or even better if they could get an advisor out to lunch one day to speak to everyone.

I have tried so hard to convince her, she doesn't go out of the house unless I can take her so no help there.. she is convinced that someone will see all her bank details and what little money she has, can be 'got at ' is how she puts it... she won't be convinced otherwise and believe me I have been trying for 2 yrs...