Good afternoon all!

I have a client who is 89 and her husband is 90 who are currently in receipt of Pension Credits, claim first made in 2003.

On looking into their benefit entitlement i have been told by Pension credit that my clients current entitlement is £125.05 per week, taking into account savings of £33,854.18.

Having looked at my clients current savings there appears to be a slight overpayment of PC as my clients current savings equate to approx £70,700.00!

My question is, do PC do annual reviews on clients savings? When i used to work on Income Support (many, many years ago!) we used to do a case check each year on the anniversary of the initial award to check what the current savings were, thus ensuring all details of the claim were correct - does this still happen?

My client states she has never been asked for information and her son (who does not live with themand not an appointee) states he has never seen any documentation regarding this matter.

The money saved appears to be just from their benefits!

Any advice on this would be appreciated as the possible OP could be quite frightening for such a frail couple!

Cheers.

Looks like you're in the realm of Assessed Income Periods. My CPAG book suggests they've probably got an AIP of five or seven years, from 2003, before they're assessed again. If the increase in capital was since the assessment was done in 2003, there's no problem as far as I can see, as they're under no obligation to report changes. If initial assessment was wrong, that would be a different matter.

Mind you, I try not to have much to do with that Pension Credit, so there are probably finer minds than mine sharpening their pencils, so to speak.

assessed income period - I'm getting feedback on my training courses this is causing concern to staff who work with older people.

Example - person goes into sheltered housing and their former home is sold for £165,0000. Told pension credit on the phone and they said "we don't need to know - this won't make any difference to your pension credit until the end of the assessed income period"

This is someone getting full housing benefit too. So at the end of the assessed income period this person, if they still have the £165,000, is not going to carry on getting pension credit or housing benefit but will not have been overpaid. I have worked out the tarif income as £318 a week.

Ok this is what will happen. But my question is this. What if this person wants them to take the saving into account now. Can they request that? The regulations and guidance don't seem to say they can.

In reply to Penny's question. I have been working with someone who is in exactly this situation. The lady moved into sheltered accomodation and applied for Pension Credit whilst her house was on the market. She got PC(Guarantee Credit) and on the back of that HB & CTB. When she got her letter and it showed an AIP of 5 years she rang and asked them to reduce this as she would sell the house shortly. The Pension Service refused to amend the AIP saying an increase in capital is not a relevant change of circs. When she sold her house, after all legal expenses, she was left with £210,000 from the proceeds of the sale. Again, she rang, this time asking to withdraw the claim as she had the increased capital so she felt guilty by receiving PC, HB & CTB. Once again, Pension Service said they could not amend the AIP and as a result PC, HB & CTB are still in payment and will continue to be in payment for the next 4 years despite the lady having total savings of £220,000!

Which is why you make the claim before the house is sold!!!!

Remember going through such scenarios when we did initial training to Social Work staff and it's fair to say this tactic did nor mean with universal approval!

That should say 'did not meet with universal approval'

On a serious note though why are we worried about this? Our job is to advise and maximise income and to use the system to work to our client's advantage. It may seem 'wrong' to us but the legislation was written and presumably such scenarios were taken into account. On of the principles behind AIPs is to stop elderly people being inundated with forms every year.

As Ian McCartney, the Pensions Minister, told the Standing Committee during the committe stage of the Pensions Bill:

"Let us be clear about this. If a pensioner wins the lottery in the second week of his or her assessed income period, the increase in capital, be it £10 or £1m, will not be reflected in the pension credit entitlement until the end of the AIP in four years' and 50 weeks' time...We can live with ignoring a few individuals' good fortune for the sake of simplification for the overwhelming majority of pensioners."