Pension Credit Decrease For 2012 ?

I live in Scotland and currently get a pension of £522.40 every 4 weeks.

This is because i did not receive my pension when i hit 60 and received it around five years later.

I have been getting Pension Credit Guarantee of £23.22 every week.

I have just received a letter stating my pension credit will go down to £20.67 from April 2012.

I thought pension credit was going up by around £5 and not down, the letter does not really go into detail as to why it is going to be less.

Why am i receiving less pension credit. ?

Comments

  • molerat
    molerat Posts: 31,690
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    Pension credit is going up but so is your pension. You are guaranteed £137.35 this FY and it goes up to £142.70 next FY. PC is the difference between your actual pension and the guaranteed amount not a fixed sum.
  • anmarj
    anmarj Posts: 1,817
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    alos the savings credit element has gone down this year which will impact on the pension credit award
  • MM030538
    MM030538 Posts: 10 Forumite
    molerat wrote: »
    Pension credit is going up but so is your pension. You are guaranteed £137.35 this FY and it goes up to £142.70 next FY. PC is the difference between your actual pension and the guaranteed amount not a fixed sum.

    I get more than that due to missing almost five years of my pension, whether thats called a deferred payment or not i have no clue but i had the opportunity to take a lump sum of £22,000 pounds or a higher payout per week, i chose the latter.

    I am still not sure why pension credit guarantee drops for me since the formula you just said does not really apply to me because of the above, i was getting slightly more due to not getting my pension on my 60th birthday.

    I mean to say if i was getting the equivalent of £130.60 a week this year and a pension credit of £23.22 then that makes £153.87 a week.

    This year if pensions go up by a little over £5 then i would say i get around £136 a week and pension credit guarantee of £20.67 then its roughly £157 a week, thats a little over £3 a week increase, not exactly as promised by this government and thats not keeping up with inflation.

    So pensions may well be going up but so has everything you can buy including fuel and food, my shopping bill is 25% higher than two years ago, my fuel bills are also significantly higher.

    Putting pensions up and putting pension credit guarantee down seems to me like giving with one hand and taking with the other and i'm not understanding why that is happening, it was my understanding after the last budget that i would get around £10 increase thanks to the pension and guarantee going up, now i see its around £3 thanks to the give and take policy, seems wrong to me, an increase of £3 hardly pays anything now.
  • canaster
    canaster Posts: 57 Forumite
    MM030538 wrote: »

    I am still not sure why pension credit guarantee drops for me since the formula you just said does not really apply to me because of the above, i was getting slightly more due to not getting my pension on my 60th birthday.

    I mean to say if i was getting the equivalent of £130.60 a week this year and a pension credit of £23.22 then that makes £153.87 a week.

    Hi MM. Welcome to MSE.

    You dont get more pension credit because you were treated as deferring your pension. You simply get more state pension; and this reduces your pension credit, pound for pound.

    What is difficult to understand, from the figures you have given, is how you get a pension credit of £23.32 when the correct figure would appear to be £6.75??

    The obvious answer is that you also get a Premium of some kind but I cannot see any premium that correlates to the apparent excess amount of £16.42 that you currently receive.
  • canaster wrote: »

    What is difficult to understand, from the figures you have given, is how you get a pension credit of £23.32 when the correct figure would appear to be £6.75??

    The obvious answer is that you also get a Premium of some kind but I cannot see any premium that correlates to the apparent excess amount of £16.42 that you currently receive.

    Perhaps the OP is getting some savings pension credit as well as guarantee pension credit. This would explain the disparity.

    Guarantee pension credit is going up by 3.9% in April. As anmarj explained above, savings credit is being reduced.
  • canaster
    canaster Posts: 57 Forumite
    Perhaps the OP is getting some savings pension credit as well as guarantee pension credit. This would explain the disparity.

    Guarantee pension credit is going up by 3.9% in April. As anmarj explained above, savings credit is being reduced.

    Thanks SS That would explain it. The only mystery now, is why the o/p declined a lump sum of 22K in favour of an increased pension that is of no value to her since it just decreases her pension credit entitlement.
  • canaster wrote: »
    Thanks SS That would explain it. The only mystery now, is why the o/p declined a lump sum of 22K in favour of an increased pension that is of no value to her since it just decreases her pension credit entitlement.

    Not sure it would have made that much difference, as she would be assumed to have income from the lump sum after the first £10k. Too tired to work it out though (see username!)
  • canaster
    canaster Posts: 57 Forumite
    Not sure it would have made that much difference, as she would be assumed to have income from the lump sum after the first £10k. Too tired to work it out though (see username!)

    The lump sum payment is completely ignored for the purposes of claiming pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit.
  • meg72
    meg72 Posts: 5,164
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    canaster wrote: »
    The lump sum payment is completely ignored for the purposes of claiming pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

    This is quite true, I was offered a lump sum or higher pension on taking advice was told if Itook a higher pension it would affect HB PC and CC,so took the lump sum.
    Slimming World at target
  • canaster wrote: »
    The lump sum payment is completely ignored for the purposes of claiming pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

    Thanks, I had forgotten about that.
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