Mixed age couples benefit advice please
Hi sorry for another post regarding this issue but I got no further last year after submitting our Housing element amount. I hope you can help as its very worrying for both of us and will be upon us before we know it. Sorry to repeat myself but this is the situation.
My husband is 66 in May and I am 64 in June. We have a joint claim for UC. We both receive PIP. My husband receives ESA in the support group which is deducted from our UC. We both have LCWRA which we obviously only get one payment for. I care for my husband and I receive the Carer's element. As the prognosis for my Foramimal Stenosis is not good we will have to provide care for each other and I have an important hospital appointment at the end of the month about managing the symptoms as I cannot be operated on.
As we know his ESA will stop when he reaches retirement age. Can you confirm that his state pension will be deducted in full from our UC? Also will he lose his LCWRA as he has reached state pension age or retain it as we are a mixed age couple? or will we get it still for me. Also we don't understand the situation with the carers element. We will be contacting the pension service to find out if there will be a gap in payment when his ESA stops and his pension starts which will cause problems.
Lastly do we need to contact ESA and when do we contact UC. It's a gamble as to whether you get someone who knows their stuff at UC as we all know. We are still in the middle of our DWP Investigation as I was falsely accused of inheriting all my Mum's estate when I received nothing it's causing a lot of stress and I've tried to forget about the DWP but it spoilt Christmas and as we want to do everything properly some sound advice would be great.
Our Housing element is £574.29 but this will change in April.
I realise that everything might change after the Green Paper release but as his birthday is in May I can't see anything much happening until after consultation responses. Like everyone we are very worried but we need to take each day as it comes.
Peace for the new year
Comments
-
Once he reaches state pension age his pension will be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.
LCWRA element for him will continue as normal, same as all other elements.
Once he reaches state pension age he should report the changes to UC because they don’t always acknowledge you’ve reached this age.
You are correct that his ESA stops the day before he reaches this age. The deductions for that will also stop.
Council tax reduction will likely be recalculated too so he needs to report the changes to your local Authority.
1 -
Many thanks Poppy that's helped a great deal and has made that all clear.
Best wishes
1 -
You're welcome.
0 -
Hi sorry to bother you again but my Husband has discovered today he has an old workplace pension from 1991 of £1076.28p we have just had an overly complicated conversation with the pension people but it would be more beneficial for him to take it as a lump sum when he reaches 66 in May how will this affect our UC and as it is well below the allowance how do we declare it if he decides to go ahead. If he was to take it as a monthly payment it would be miniscule and deducted from our UC anyway. Hope you can help
0 -
Lump sums from pensions are treated as capital. If your total capital is less than £6,000 after taking that lump sum then it would be ignored. Yes, you still need to report that he took the lump sum.
If he decides not to take it and leaves it in the pot it will be treated as notional Income and will be treated as if he has an income from it. Hardly seems worth doing that for a such a low amount, if I'm honest.
1 -
Thank you Poppy as usual you make everything make sense, you are a star ⭐We are very grateful! 🙏
2 -
You're very welcome. Aww thank you so much! ☺️
0 -
I just wanted to say how lovely I found your message to Poppy. I wish you both a long and happy retirement!
1 -
🙏 Poppy always makes sense out of the madness! We just wanted Poppy to know how valued the advice and help is ❤️
3 -
Thank you for being so kind! As you probably know now, I’m always happy to help.
2 -
Hi sorry to bother you again but my Husband has just had his pension pack regarding the old workplace pension. As you advised he is going to take it as a lump sum. The pack might as well be written in Latin but it seems to say that 25% is taxed free and he will be taxed taken off on the remainder and if under or over payments have been made he will be contacted by HMRC later. As it is such a small amount we just hope that it won't cause too many issues. Our main concern is when he should ask for the payment to be made as he can do it straight away but as we are being investigated by the DWP which seems to be taking a long time considering the allegations were false will it put a spanner in the works as we need to report it. We can't understand why it is taking so long to as we submitted the information required on the 14th November.
Best wishes
0 -
If the lump sum doesn’t take your total capital to more than £6,000 it will have no affect on your UC. Taking that lump now shouldn’t cause any issues.
0 -
Thank you Poppy 🙏 That's great and a huge help once again ⭐ Many thanks again and for responding so quickly. You are such a help to so many ❤️
1 -
You're welcome, anytime. 😊 Thank you, also.
0 -
Hi thank you again for all your help so far 😊
My Husband has heard from DWP that he will get £9.65 state pension on the 12th May ( his birthday is 11th May then his full state pension not until 9th of June. Our assessment period is 28th of the month until 29th of the following. With his ESA stopping 10th of May how do we report this to someone ' sensible' at UC. As we are both LCWRA we don't have work coaches and I've always been confused as to who to direct notes to on our journal.
Also regarding his cashing in the old workplace pension that with all the tax deductions will be about £700 and not take us over £6,000 when it's cashed in I know you said to report it but what is the best way to to word it and to who as so many errors seem to be made and we are still trying to sort out the mess with the false allegations that were made last year that despite it being resolved on our capital still under £6,000 we have had no notification from the compliance officer.
Sorry to bother you again.
Best wishes
0 -
To report the changes to UC then he will need to ring the helpline because looking at my daughter's UC journal, there's not an option to report a change of circumstances for that. When he rings them he will need to tell them that he's reaching state pension age on 11th May.
I think the same would apply to the pension drawdown because there's no option to report that either and as it's not taking your capital to more than £6,000 it's not a capital change to report.
0 -
Ok Poppy sounds like a plan they don't make it easy do they? 😉 Thank you once more for your valuable help.
Many thanks best wishes ⭐
1
Categories
- All Categories
- 14.5K Start here and say hello!
- 6.9K Coffee lounge
- 77 Games den
- 1.6K People power
- 64 Announcements and information
- 22.6K Talk about life
- 5.2K Everyday life
- 110 Current affairs
- 2.3K Families and carers
- 844 Education and skills
- 1.8K Work
- 471 Money and bills
- 3.5K Housing and independent living
- 956 Transport and travel
- 676 Relationships
- 69 Sex and intimacy
- 1.4K Mental health and wellbeing
- 2.4K Talk about your impairment
- 853 Rare, invisible, and undiagnosed conditions
- 906 Neurological impairments and pain
- 2K Cerebral Palsy Network
- 1.2K Autism and neurodiversity
- 37K Talk about your benefits
- 5.7K Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- 18.8K PIP, DLA, ADP and AA
- 7.1K Universal Credit (UC)
- 5.3K Benefits and income