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Pension tax credits
kas
Member Posts: 1 Listener
I am looking for advice on pensions and pension tax credits. My husband is 65 in august and is currently on esa and gets dla because he is severly partially sighted. I am his carer. We are worried about what happens next and will he have to put in for his pension or is it just worked out automatically ?
Replies
In the mean time I will be here, listening, in case I can be of any service to you.
Warmest best wishes,
Richard
https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-to-claim
cr
Do check out the Gov link provided by CR above as it has some great in-depth information on the process, and do let us know if you have any further questions.
When your husband reaches state pension age, his ESA will stop. DLA will continue, so don't worry about that.
Retirement pension is more or less automatic, but a claim still has to be made. The claim form is usually sent to you about four months before pension age - so if it's August for your husband, I would expect the form in about April.
Pension Credit (PC) isn't nearly as automatic, and I would advise that he claims this too. You don't mention how old you are, so I've assumed that he's the only one of you who is getting to pension age. Pension Credit replaces any income-related benefits he is getting, such as income-related ESA, but it doesn't replace Housing Benefit (HB) or council tax reduction (CTR), and you should make sure you tell the local authority that you are expecting to get PC so that your HB and CTR can continue (if you currently get these).
In fact, your husband could claim PC a little bit earlier than retirement pension. That's because you can get PC when you reach state pension age for a woman with the same birthday as you, which will be a few months earlier than August. You can check the age when your husband can claim PC online. Claiming PC means income-related ESA will stop.
Another option is that your husband can claim PC in advance anyway - just ask the DWP to award the benefit on the date your husband is old enough.
You can still get Carer's Allowance (this will be counted as income for PC), and there will be a carer element included in the PC if you meet the conditions for carer's allowance.
Finally, going back to the DLA, if your husband isn't currently getting the mobility component, asking for it before 65 makes sure that he doesn't miss out. It's not possible to get a mobility component (or a higher rate of mobility component) after 65. However, the problem with that is you ask for a change to his DLA, they are likely to ask him to claim PIP. And that claim would need to happen before he is 65. So, I'd only do this if you are sure he isn't getting the right rate of DLA for his circumstances and would get a higher award of PIP (12 points are needed for the enhanced mobility component, 8 for the standard, and you can check the points system here).
I hope this helps. Generally, moving to pension age benefits is easier than being on working age benefits, but if you have more questions, Age UK may be able to help, and there might be a local branch near you.
Will