Can we get pensioner premium with my ESA?

calcotti

jaggededge said:

We dont know what my husbands SP is going to be, we havent applied for it yet. Still waiting for the application form to see if we want to fill it out.

I can't see any reason why your husband would be reluctant to claim his State Pension. He has reached pension age and is entitled to it based on his national Insurance history.
He can claim online. The new State Pension: How to claim - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

jaggededge

Thanks we know he can claim online, we  would prefer paper application.
His NI history hasnt been that good anyway due to ill health. Just NI credits from his ESA and before the ESA, he was getting SDA NI credits. So thiose probably do count towards the NI contributions.
We just dont like filling in intrusive forms all the time thats all. And if we feel we are getting enough to live on at the moment then we dont  absolutely feel the need to apply. Its just that simple.
Thanks for all your help.
Appreciate it.

calcotti

jaggededge said: His NI history hasnt been that good anyway due to ill health. Just NI credits from his ESA and before the ESA, he was getting SDA NI credits. So thiose probably do count towards the NI contributions.

Yes credits count towards State Pension, that is their primary purpose.

jaggededge said: We just dont like filling in intrusive forms all the time thats all. And if we feel we are getting enough to live on at the moment then we dont  absolutely feel the need to apply. Its just that simple.

The State Pension claim form isn't too intrusive because it isn't a means tested benefit. You can see the form here BR1NSP (publishing.service.gov.uk)

As advised, the rules say that if he doesn't claim SP he should still be treated as if he is receiving it. A claimant is expected to claim all non means-tested available to them rather than deprive themselves of income available to them to increase the amount of means-tested benefit they receive.

The main thing to note is that overall your income is almost certainly going to be higher than before as long as your HB is able to continue which it can if you are receiving some income based ESA, as seems likely.

jaggededge

Hello
Just looked at the state pension form online. i cannot believe how intrusive it is. It doesnt even give the option for a couple living together. Just married or civil partnership. Then they demand to see birth certificate, and marriage certificate as there is not option not to be married. 
Since my husband has been on ESA for years there should not be any need to see his birth certificate.They know how old he is, he got a letter stating that he should apply for state pension.
Then they ask questions that I have never seen on any benefits form before. Such as his fathers full  name and mothers full name and mothers name before marriage!!!!! Address where you were born!. Who can know what address they were born?
Asking for this information is ridiculous. Why on earth would they need to know any of this? This  is beyond me. What the hell has his dead parents got to do with anything?
I doubt very much if we can fill out this form. It is unreasonable and unjustified. There is no good reason why these questions need to be answered.

calcotti

Must admit I didn't actually look at the form. When my wife claimed a few years ago it was a short phone call and we certainly didn't send any documents to them. 
I can now also see that although that's the form that came up when I looked online it is clearly out of date because some of the information in it is incorrect. Perhaps the form you get will be different.

jaggededge

I hope so. I wish we could have just claimed over the phone as your wife did, it sounds a lot easier , So your wife didnt need to send her birth certificate or marriage certificate to them? Also on the form it says it needs to be the original, unless we go to all the trouble of asking our doctor to sign a photocopy. I do hope we dont have to do any of this.

calcotti

jaggededge said:

I hope so. I wish we could have just claimed over the phone as your wife did, it sounds a lot easier , So your wife didnt need to send her birth certificate or marriage certificate to them? Also on the form it says it needs to be the original, unless we go to all the trouble of asking our doctor to sign a photocopy. I do hope we don't have to do any of this.

Are they refusing to take claims by phone now? The advantage of phone claims is that it's possible to get clarification of what the question actually means. On the face of it, if the form is as it I found then if you are not married or in a civil partnership he would be single for claim purposes. These questions might relate to rules about inheriting state pension from a husband or civil partner - rules which would not apply to people just living together.
It's a few years ago but we don't remember sending any documents off - but then our memories are not always reliable!

Ross_Alumni

Hi @jaggededge

I just wanted to check in to see how everything is at the moment? How have you been getting on?

jaggededge

Hello

Still a bit confused by the whole process. Everything seems so complicated when it could easily be made simple.
Thanks for asking though.