Attendance allowance change of address

mattonlaptop

Hi,

My mum who is 79 receives the lower rate of attendance allowance and also guarantee pension credit. I am unsure if she has an open ended assessed income period. She is moving house and has accrued savings above the threshold due to waiting to move house and use the money to furnish as well as shielding due to covid she couldn't get out to spend money so the savings have grown. Question is will the house move trigger a benefits review or is that not considered a change of circumstances? Thank you so much for any advice.

woodbine

If she has savings above the limit she needs to inform them ASAP to avoid over payments.

mattonlaptop

woodbine said:

If she has savings above the limit she needs to inform them ASAP to avoid over payments.

If she doesn't have an indefinite AIP then yes. My question was is a review triggered by change of address? The savings above threshold is very temporary (a week perhaps) as she is using the money to furnish her new home.

mattonlaptop

Username_removed said:

Start here re: AIPs. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/assessed-income-period

There is no “threshold” for Pension Credit. The amount of capital which floats you off PC will vary from person to person. However, if it’s drifted over £10k then it ought to have already been notified. The house move in itself does not trigger anything bar a change of address. The point is that she may well have had to notify already.

Thank you for this Mike. I think I need to confirm if an indefinite AIP is in place. I'm pretty sure there is as she hasn't had a review for at least 10 years.

mattonlaptop

After talking to my Mum today, she told me she received a letter in 2012 that her AIP had finished. She cannot remember other correspondence after that other than to tell her when she started receiving AA that her pension credit had gone up. When her AIP expired in 2012 what should have happened then, a new one put in place or a review? Thank you.

mattonlaptop

Username_removed said:

Bad idea to speculate at this time. Better to contact DWP and establish exactly what happened. Doubt you’ll get sense out of an outsourced call centre bod but it may be worth emailing via correspondence@dwp.gov.uk. 

Thanks Mike will give that a go. Would like to establish what the procedure was then when an AIP runs out. 

mattonlaptop

Username_removed said:

Most were not renewed at that point but some ought to have been. So it really depends on what was advised at the time and whether that was accurate. 

Thank you Mike. Just one more question was it typical that when an AIP ended that a review form would have normally been sent out to update on the current situation after coming out of the AIP. Thanks for your help.

mattonlaptop

Username_removed said:

Well it ought to have been. At the time I was managing a small team of advisers doing targeted with older people. They would say that there was a gap between ought to have happened and what did in many cases. 

It’s a while back now, although thanks to the pandemic I probably have the files sat under my work desk at home, but as best I recall without ripping into a box, it wasn’t a review as such. My recall is that it was a reminder letter. My recall may be faulty though. 

Thank you Mike, I appreciate your insight and knowledge. I shall email and see what I can find out.