pension credit

Currently you or your partner has to be over 66 to claim.

lascar1 said:

please explain to me how people over 50 are getting pension credit as i am new to all of this i just do not understand.

No idea to be honest. 
The following link will explain the eligibility criteria

https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/eligibility

For a start the DWP are aware that over £2.8bn a year is not being claimed by people entitled to it. The government have no intention of making people aware that they could get an award - instead this money at the end of the year is given back to the Chancellor who might decide that it is time for all MP's to get a pay rise!!

You don't need much knowledge other than be over retirement age or for a couple, either one is over that age.

You then have to tell the Pension Service what your income and capital is.

The rest is left up to the DWP to work it out.

Here is the Pension Credit calculator:   https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator

And contact details on how to claim it:  https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/how-to-claim

sue66 said:

All i know is that when i reached state pension age 6 yrs ago they took it all from my husbands pension credit to give to me!  And every time we get any increase they take that away from him till in the end he will have no pension credit left, then it gets even better, when he has lost all his pension credit so living on less has been told he will then be expected to pay some council tax on less money. Dont get it my mum gets guaranteed pension credit plus free dental plus help with eye tests and the glasses and can have as much savings as she wants. Yes has to pay no council tax at all. We have to pay for our dental and glasses because we arnt on guaranteed pension credit.  How does one qualify then to get this does anyone know please? Also does one get to have as much savings as they want without it affecting other help because of being a certain age or something, like over 75? Would love to know the facts about this one too.

Yes they will. When on guaranteed pension credit you are on a fixed amount of money. If you have an increase in the state pension, you get the increase but you also lose the same amount from the PC. You can't just increase your income AND get pension credit - you are not supposed to be better off overall.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/pension-credit

For those that were 75 previously you were allowed to keep what was known as an Assessed Income Period.
This guaranteed that no matter what savings you had or any increase in pensions you would get those increases as well as the full PC with no deductions.
Unfortunately this was being abused with multi millionaires claiming pension credit so it has all now stopped.

Now it is very much like Income Support. If you get extra income you must tell them and your PC will be reduced by the same amount of extra income.
Likewise the first £10,000 of savings they ignore. Anything over £10,000 you will lose £1 of PC a week for every £500 of savings over £10,000.

Also if you became eligible for the state pension after April 2016, you no longer get the savings credit that was worth approx an additional £35 a week.

You cannot compare someone who is a lot older than you - their pension credit was worth a lot more than it is today. Pensioners are too wealthy so they say.