Pension Credit - Questions and AnswersPension Credit replaced Minimum Income Guarantee (Income Support for people aged 60 and over). It is a new tax-free weekly payment for people aged 60 or over. This could mean extra money for you each week. Plus, for the first time, people aged 65 or over will be rewarded for some of the savings and income they have for their retirement.
What are the Qualifying conditions?- You may be entitled to Pension Credit if you are:
- aged 60 or over (it doesn't matter that your partner, if you have one, is aged less than 60) and
- normally resident in Northern Ireland.
You may qualify even if you and /or your partner:
- WORK. There is limit on the number of hours customers or their partners work, although earnings will be taken into account.
- HAVE SAVINGS AND INVESTMENTS. There is no fixed upper capital limit. Savings investments of £6000 or less (£10,000 for those who permanently live in care homes) will be ignored. An assumed of £1 in every £500, or part thereof, of any savings or investments over these amounts will be taken into account.
How much Pension Credit could you get each week?The amount you can get depends on:
- your personal circumstances; and
- the amount of money you already have coming into the household; and
- the amount of savings and investments you have.
Single people may be entitled to Pension Credit if:
- you are aged 60 or over but under 65 and your total income, including assumed income from savings, is less than £124.05 a week; or
- you are 65 or over and your total income, including assumed income from savings is less that £173.33
Couples may be entitled to Pension Credit if:
- One of you is aged 60 or over but you are both aged under 65 and your total income, including assumed income from savings is less than £189.35 each week; or
- Either of you are aged 65 or over and your total income, including assumed income from savings, is less than £254.68
Entitlement may be higher if any of the following apply:
- you are severely disabled and live alone, or with another severely disabled person;
- you are a carer entitled to Carer's Allowance; or
- you have certain housing costs that are not covered by Housing Benefit (for example, mortgage interest payments).
We will look at the amount you have coming in each week and take account of State Pension and certain other income, such as second pensions, wages, Incapacity Benefit and assumed income from savings. However, we ignore certain types of income, for example, Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Child Tax Credit and Housing Benefit.
How do you apply for Pension Credit?You can apply for Pension Credit in one of three ways
- Phone the Pension Service where trained staff will complete your application over the telephone
- Phone the Pension Service and request form PC1 to be posted out
- Print out an PC1 application form from the Forms area of this site
A Phone call to The Pension Service
You can phone the Pension Service Application Line which is free.. Trained staff will complete the application form for you over the phone taking you through the form step by step. They will post you out the details to check. They will enclose an addressed envelope so you can send any documents we need to The Pension Service.
The envelope does not need a stamp.
In certain circumstances you can request a paper application form for completion from the Pension Service.
At the moment we can consider to backdate your application from a date up to twelve months in the past. From 6 October 2008, we propose to change this period from twelve months to three months. If you want to apply for more than three months in the past, please make sure we get your application before 6 October 2008.
If you would prefer, you can have someone else call on your behalf.
You can also get help from independent advice centres.
Who can you contact about Pension Credit? |
