concerned about benefits. What will happen when my wife retires?
Comments
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Thank you. I have just read it and spoken to my wife. And as she said, even though she has been forced to retire from work due to her health, she does not think she will get attendance allowance as she does everything to look after me even though it puts her in pain. We are on a list for a downstairs toilet which will take about two years, so that will help makes things easier. She said if she filled in the attendance allowance form as advised more than once that there would be no point as she does everything even though she struggles and it puts her in pain.
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happyfella said: "I contacted a benefit advisor service and they .. are saying because my wife is 66 soon, and I am much younger, that she cannot claim her state pension until I reach state pension."
If that is what they said they have no right to call themselves a benefits adviser. It is complete nonsense. What is true is that you cannot claim Pension Credit (which in the past a 'mixed age couple' would have been able to do). Unfortunately this means you stay on UC which is meaner than Pension Credit was.
The advice you were given is so wrong that if that person works for an organisation I would consider flagging it up to them because it suggests a training need.
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As advised by poppy, if she wishes to claim PIP she must start the claim before reaching pension age. After pension age she would have to claim Attendance allowance instead. Also as advised by poppy, AA has no mobility component so if your wife's mobility is limited should cannot get any money for this on AA but might on PIP.
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Unfortunately you are a couple particularly badly impacted by the 2019 changes for mixed age couples. As mentioned earlier, in the past she could have applied for Pension Credit (if you were getting ESA you would have had a pensioner premium added to your ESA). When UC changes for MAC were introduced it was suggested that UC too should have additional money included when one half of a couple had reached pension age but the government refused to do that.
It is clearly absurd that one week when your wife is working you get one amount of money and the following week when she gets a pension you are significantly worse off even though the pension income is higher than the work income.
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Because i have no faith in the system. Even though my doctors kept on pushing me to apply for PIP in the first place i did not, but when they would not stop pushing me i did apply. It was the worst experience of my life as i have mentioned on here. The report had lots of lies into it, which after an MP got involved an investigation was launched, which the two investigations felt the person doing the report was not completly honest. They wrote it in a way to say that they did not believe the report without calling the person doing the assessment a liar. They basically said they got things wrong. But even though they found the assessor was wrong, they did not increase my points which were about four. I was advised to appeal but i did not have the energy.
Eventually my doctors who kept on telling me to appeal and I ignored them, then got intouch with an advisor who then dealt with everything and said we could appeal and win but it would take 12 months or more. They said it would be quicker to do a new claim and they would fill it in.
I had the assessment over the phone, and one of the first things the accessor said was that she was so sorry at how i had previously been treated and said people like that give them a bad name. They were really nice.
Even though my condition is getting worse and i struggle each day, when i am reviewed next year i believe that i will not receive full PIP. I always look at the negative of life. I struggle on a one to one basis and try to hide my pain and my struggles as it is embarrassing.
I was at the hospital today doing checks on my kidneys and end up falling because of my condition, even though i was trying my hardest to hide the pain i was going through. I am a proud person.
I do not trust the system, so the way i see it, when i a reassessed in person, i will lose my full PIP and lose my mobility vehicle which has helped improve my health. I hate being on a one to one and prefer things done over the phone
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happyfella - just to add that when making the comparison you need to make sure you don't mix up 4 weekly and monthly figures (a month is longer than 4 weeks).
At the moment you get (monthly)
£875.28 UC, £640 wife wages, £90 private pension
£1,605.28 Total income
In the future
£149.01 UC, £778.27 state pension, £90 private pension
£1,017.28 Total income
A loss of £588/month offset slightly by claiming CTR and getting all of your Council tax paid for you
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getting council tax paid for is not going to make much of a difference to be honest. with the rising energy bills and £600 less coming in every four weeks puts us in a situation where we would have to sell our house. after paying mortgage and bills we would be left with about £50 a month
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If you think your wife will qualify for PIP then it would be worth starting a claim before she reaches state pension age. I know you said she cares for you but people that are carers can also claim a disability benefit their self, i do. My caring duties don't contradict the reasons why i claim PIP.
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I think that the advisor may have been talking about claiming Pension Credit and NOT State Pension. A couple cannot claim Pension Credit until they have both reached State Pension age.happyfella said:can this be clarrified please. I contacted a benefit advisor service and they have told me something that has shocked me.
They are saying because my wife is 66 soon, and i am much younger, that she cannot claim her state pension until i reach state pension. I am 99% they are wrong.
This is what they have said:
When you have one who is below state pension and one who is above, for the sake of benefits, they go on the younger person and you cannot claim your pension until your husband is also state pension age. You would have to do a change of circumstances on your journal and do a joint claim as a couple for Universal Credits.
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Of course your wife can claim her State Pension when she turns 66 years old.0 -
As mentioned in my earlier replyShirleyW said:
I think that the advisor may have been talking about claiming Pension Credit and NOT State Pension. A couple cannot claim Pension Credit until they have both reached State Pension age.happyfella said:can this be clarrified please. I contacted a benefit advisor service and they have told me something that has shocked me.
They are saying because my wife is 66 soon, and i am much younger, that she cannot claim her state pension until i reach state pension. I am 99% they are wrong.
This is what they have said:
When you have one who is below state pension and one who is above, for the sake of benefits, they go on the younger person and you cannot claim your pension until your husband is also state pension age. You would have to do a change of circumstances on your journal and do a joint claim as a couple for Universal Credits.
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calcotti said:...What is true is that you cannot claim Pension Credit (which in the past a 'mixed age couple' would have been able to do). ..
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Sorry about that. I have just re-read the thread and somehow I have completely missed reading an entire page of comments and missed your post.calcotti said:
As mentioned in my earlier replyShirleyW said:I think that the advisor may have been talking about claiming Pension Credit and NOT State Pension. A couple cannot claim Pension Credit until they have both reached State Pension age.calcotti said:...What is true is that you cannot claim Pension Credit (which in the past a 'mixed age couple' would have been able to do). ..
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