Single Tier Pension white paper proposal query

Any idea what:

“... For a transitional period of five years from the implementation of single tier, support will be retained for those people who may have received more help with certain housing costs by virtue of the availability of the Savings Credit under the current system.”

means?

In general, while the proposals will lift the incomes of some people, particularly those who don’t claim PC even though entitled, advice provision will become more complex.

Take the example of a 64 year old woman in receipt of State Pension of £152.70 per week and who has eligible housing costs of £10.00 per week.  Result: no Pension Credit (Guarantee) currently payable.

When she turns 65 she can make a claim for Pension Credit.  Savings Credit only will be payable at £18.54 per week.  The Savings Credit includes an element of £4.00 which is attributable to the housing costs i.e. 40% of £10.00.

Could it be this £4.00 which might be transitionally protected if Savings Credit is abolished?

That would run smoothly wouldn’t it?  Savings Credit stays of course for people on the ‘old’ pensions but I read this as applying to people on the new scheme and wonder what income gets used.

I presume that under the new scheme someone with an income of £152.70 and elegible housing costs of £10.00 would be able to claim £4.00 per week.  That is they would assessed for savings credit in the same way as someone under the old scheme but would only be paid the housing cost element with the remainder (£14.54 in this example) being withheld.

What bothers me about the scheme as a whole is that it is intended to enourage saving, so people won’t need benefit support.  See the increasingly strident Mr Duncan-Smith’s recent comments that people should not expect means tested top-ups.

How well does this sit with an economy, possibly in the long-term, based upon short-term, part-time insecure work? How are people ever going to save sufficient money to cushion themselves?