Can anybody help? We have a client on pension credit that is receiving a local authority grant and is having to make a contribution of their own of £3,000. Because of the urgency of the situation they plan on borrowing this money from a family member and paying them back when a loan has been organised and paid possibly 2-3 months time. Presuming the pension service acknowledge the works qualify for help with interest payments would they receive help based on the fact the loan has been taken retrospectively? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Depends on a number of things. Firstly are housing costs in payment as it may be a loan in a relevant period?

If you look at para 11 of Schedule II you will see that :
if you have a loan which you take out for a qualifying purpose; and
you take out another loan which you use to repay the original (and for no other purpose and no more than you need to do it;
then the replacement loan is itself a qualifying loan.

It's exactly the same as a remortgage.

So all you need to know now is (a) whether the loan was used for the purposes set out in para 11, and if so was all of it so used or only part; and as said above whether your client was claiming pension credit (or any other means-tested DWP benefit) at the time the loan was taken out (and that includes the original family loan.)