Pension credit stopped

Hi Aidan,

It may be that if your PIP is different to your DLA, you don't have the same additional amounts in the pension credit calculation, meaning your income is now too high to get Pension Credit (PC). 

The PC calculation looks at a guaranteed amount (called the appropriate minimum guarantee) and compares it to your income. Neither PIP nor DLA count as income. But to get what's called a severe disability amount as part of the appropriate minimum guarantee, you'd need to get the daily living component of PIP (at any level), live alone (apart from a partner, dependant child or lodger, who don't count), and nobody must be getting Carer's Allowance for you.

Have you had a letter about the end of your PC? What does it say? If your income hasn't changed (apart from the move to PIP), and you are definitely getting the daily living component of PIP, then it's worth querying the PC decision, assuming none of your other circumstances have changed either. It could be worth asking for a mandatory reconsideration; if it is a mistake, benefit decisions can sometimes be changed very quickly.

Feel free to post back with more details and I or a colleague should be able to help.

Will