We have been coming across people left with no income when they reach 60 ,because their Income Support has stopped and they have not been advised by Jobcentre Plus to claim Pension Credit. We have been told that Jobcentre Plus should be writing to people approaching 60 to tell them that entitlement to Income Support will end at 60 and they should claim Pension Credit , but this is not given high priority by Jobcentre Plus and often doesn't happen. We would be interested to know if advisers in other areas are coming across this same problem.

We have received lots of reports of this problem from many parts of the country. As you say, JC+ is supposed to write to people on benefits 4 months before their 60th birthday to tell them about applying for PC. This is crucial for people on IS because they cannot receive IS after they are 60 and need to have PC in payment from their birthday.

I alerted senior managers in DWP to the problem of JC+ not writing to these clients back in February and was assured that things were being put right. How long is this going to take? This situation is particularly bad for people who are paid disability benefits on the same order book as IS as these benefits stop being paid as well and it can be very difficult to get JC+, TPS or DCS to take ownership of the problem.

If you have a client whose IS has stopped at 60, you should phone the pension centre, explain the position and ask for arrangements to be made for a priority application for PC to be taken. They should send someone from the local pension service to do a home visit to take an application for PC and verify documents. Then (they say) PC should be put into payment in 3 weeks.

All this could be avoided if IS clients could flow automatically from IS to PC, as they did for MIG. But DWP won't have this because "PC is a different benefit from IS and must be applied for"!

I get this iniquitous problem into the office regularly. Part is due to poor postal problems (royal mail has failed to meet all 18 of its targets- so it says)on housing estates. If you phone emergency payments at Pension Services they will send interim cheques usually.

If government refuse to to pay PC until application rec\d I think the IS should be shaded downwards gradually over 12 weeks until the clients are driven in for help. The stopping of IS without warning puts vulnerable tenants at risk of losing their homes essspecially if there is an unscrupulous landlord.