× Search rightsnet
Search options

Where

Benefit

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

From

to

Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Benefits for older people  →  Thread

Pension Credit - AIPs and recalculation of entitlement

Ianb
forum member

Macmillan benefits team, Citizens Advice Bristol

Send message

Total Posts: 958

Joined: 24 November 2017

Claimant received State Pension, occupational pension and small amount of Savings Pension Credit.

Benefits calculator indicates no PC entitlement unless occupational pension is ignored. Given age of claimant they may have an indefinite AIP so the award may be correct.

My question is about what happens if they do have an AIP and they become eligible to have Severe Disability Addition included in calculation of PC entitlement.

It doesn’t look as if this is a change that would end the AIP so I infer AIP would continue and pension will still be ignored but I have no previous experience of this. Is this correct?

Gareth Morgan
forum member

CEO, Ferret, Cardiff

Send message

Total Posts: 1995

Joined: 16 June 2010

I had some meetings with DWP on the ending of AIPs and my notes simply say ...“any indefinite AIPs for over-75s which were in place by 6th April 2016 will be respected until a major life event”.

Major life events traditionally include
Death of a loved one.
Divorce.
Moving.
Major illness or injury.
Job loss.

If qualifying for SDA follows major illness or injury, then ....

I’ll try to dig into the rules but I’m a bit pressed for time at the moment.

Gareth Morgan
forum member

CEO, Ferret, Cardiff

Send message

Total Posts: 1995

Joined: 16 June 2010

And then I turn over the page and find:
“Freedom of Information request 636/2014 Received 10 February 2014
....
It may be worth noting, however, that the Government is proposing to abolish assessed income periods. ...

The intention is that indefinite assessed income periods already in place at 6 April 2016 will continue until they end under the existing rules (for example, if a person enters a care home permanently).

The DMG lists those circumstances:

83050   An AIP of any length will end at any time at which

1.  the claimant becomes a member of a couple
2.  the claimant ceases to be a member of a couple
3.  the claimant attains the age of 65
4.  where the claimant is a member of a couple, the other member of the couple attains the age of 65
5.  the claimant no longer satisfies a condition of entitlement to SPC
6.    payments of an element of the claimant’s retirement provision
  6.1   stop temporarily or
  6.2   the amounts paid are less than the amount due and as a consequence the award of SPC is superseded
7.    a claimant who has no partner is provided with accommodation in a care home or an independent hospital on a permanent basis

Where the AIP (indefinite or fixed length) ends in such a manner as described in DMG 83050 and takes effect on, or after 6.4.16, a new AIP will not be set. In those cases a PCR will be set. There are no provisions for any linking rules and there is no right of appeal where an AIP ends through natural expiry.

and the regs simply say

End of assessed income period
12. An assessed income period shall end —
(a) at such time as the claimant no longer satisfies a condition of entitlement to state pension credit;
(b) at such time as payments of an element of the claimant’s retirement provision which is due to be paid to him stops temporarily or the amount paid is less than the amount due and in consequence his award of state pension credit is superseded under section 10 of the Social Security Act 1998;
(c) at such time as a claimant who has no partner is provided with accommodation in a care home or an independent hospital other than on a temporary basis

Ianb
forum member

Macmillan benefits team, Citizens Advice Bristol

Send message

Total Posts: 958

Joined: 24 November 2017

Thanks, Gareth. For some reason I didn’t think to look at DMG.
My interpretation of all that is still that qualifying for Attendance Allowance doesn’t appear to be a circumstance which ends the AIP and therefore the PC could be recalculated to include the SDA but the AIP would still be in place so the occupational pension would still fall to be disregarded (assuming that the current disregard is correct and just not ignorance of it).

 

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
forum member

Information and advice resources - Age UK

Send message

Total Posts: 3196

Joined: 7 January 2016

An award of AA and a resulting increase in entitlement to PC shouldn’t end an indefinite AIP as far as I know.

The position with the occupational pension however is odd - there is no obvious reason for this to be disregarded unless, perhaps, it came into payment after the PC award was initially made but in those circumstances, I would have assumed there might be questions around notional income if the pension was available but not taken up.

So there could indeed be a question of initial disclosure.

Ianb
forum member

Macmillan benefits team, Citizens Advice Bristol

Send message

Total Posts: 958

Joined: 24 November 2017

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK - 20 January 2022 09:14 AM

An award of AA and a resulting increase in entitlement to PC shouldn’t end an indefinite AIP as far as I know.

The position with the occupational pension however is odd - there is no obvious reason for this to be disregarded unless, perhaps, it came into payment after the PC award was initially made but in those circumstances, I would have assumed there might be questions around notional income if the pension was available but not taken up.

So there could indeed be a question of initial disclosure.

Thanks, Paul.

I am aware that the situation with the pension is odd and I do need to explore that further. Unfortunately I am not dealing directly with the claimant so don’t have all the facts.

It may be that Pension Credit are not aware of the pension (in which case there has been a massive PC overpayment, even though the PC is only a few pounds of SPC per week it will go back many years).

However I think the pension is an inherited pension so it is also possible that Pension Credit was claimed following bereavement but the sorting out of the pension entitlement only happened later (knowing how slow pension administrators can be) and claimant was not aware that they would have any entitlement at the time the Pension Credit was claimed.

[ Edited: 20 Jan 2022 at 03:10 pm by Ianb ]