Hi, everyone,

Can anyone please tell me how a Councillors attendance and expenses payments are treated as income in a Pension Credit claim?

The payment slip he receives from the Local Authority looks very much like a monthly wage slip, with a figure for the allowance (not broken down to show how much is expenses) less tax, NI and pension.

Many thanks.

The following is taken from the CPAG handbook page 884:

"If you are a local councillor, travelling expenses and subsistence payments are (and basic allowances may be) ignored as expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incured in your work."

Thank you for that, bensup, certainly looks pretty conclusive. I've just spoken to the Pension Service, but they say they take all of a Councillors payment into account when calculating entitlement, so I guess we'll just have to apply and argue if they refuse payment.

Sounds l ike a plan!

If you have access to a CPAG handbook or other reference materials i would suggest that you research this a bit more - the paragraph i quoted was the first thing that i came to when i looked for councillors expenses and i didn't then look any further which i would have done if this were my client.

Regards

Nicky

Good advice, Nicky, I'll certainly do that and thanks again for your help.

John