This piece first appeared in the money section of the Saga website on 26 May 2010
The text here may not be identical to the published text

 

BILLIONS WAITING TO BE CLAIMED

It is one of life’s mysteries (to me) why more than a million – and it could be almost two million – people over 60 do not claim the extra weekly income that is due to them. It could be you, or a relative of yours. So read on.

If you are over 60 (see the box below for exactly what that means now) the government will make your weekly income up to £132.60 if you are single or £202.40 between you if you live as a couple. If your income is less than this then you can claim what is called pension credit to make your income up to this level.

And it gets better. If you are at least 65 and your weekly income (before pension credit) is more than £98.40 (single) or £157.25 (couple) the pension credit you get you will be more. It can be up to £20.52 a week extra (or £27.09 for a couple).  And you can claim a bit of pension credit if your weekly income is £183.90 (single) or £270.13 (couple).

There is, of course, one slight complexity. It’s called savings or to use the more technically correct term, ‘capital’. If you have savings over £10,000 then the way the calculation works is different. For example if you have £20,000 in the bank that will normally reduce the pension credit you get by £8. If your savings are very high (the top tens of thousands) then you will find it wipes out any pension credit you could get. Savings means money in the bank and investments. Not the house you live on or personal valuables like jewellery.

You can check if you are eligible here www.entitledto.com. If you are then you call 0800 99 1234 and a helpful person will deal with your claim. And while they are at it they will see if you can get money off your council tax and, if you are a tenant, your rent as well.

Age to claim pension credit

Until this April you could claim pension credit at the age of 60. But since April the age is being slowly raised to follow the age at which women can first claim their state pension. If you were 60 before 6 May you can claim now. If you were 60 on 6 May or up to 5 June you will have to wait until 6 July 2010 to claim pension credit. If you are younger than that you will have to wait longer. Find out the qualifying age here. http://pensions.direct.gov.uk/en/state-pension-age-calculator/home.asp – put your gender as ‘female’ even if it is not.

 


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