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Complete speculation but they announced in the budget that housing costs wouldn’t move to pension credit until October 2023 (paragraph 5.39) - I wonder if they will leave making the mixed age changes till then too?
Complete speculation but they announced in the budget that housing costs wouldn’t move to pension credit until October 2023 (paragraph 5.39) - I wonder if they will leave making the mixed age changes till then too?
Thanks, Daphne. I hope you’re right.
The inclusion of support for children in pension credit (from 1 Feb 2019) could help some mixed-age couples avoid the 2-child limit - just possibly that points to an earlier changeover?
[ Edited: 23 Nov 2018 at 11:00 am by Jon Blackwell ]
Complete speculation but they announced in the budget that housing costs wouldn’t move to pension credit until October 2023 (paragraph 5.39) - I wonder if they will leave making the mixed age changes till then too?
Unlikely I’m afraid. We had a senior Pensions Service speaker at the last WRAC meeting and our minutes record
“LA’s have been asked to configure their systems to identify mixed aged couples in preparation for UC – once a mixed aged couple attains pensionable age, legacy claims close down and they will have to claim UC.
If PC claim closes down will have to claim UC “
That suggests that they are going to depart from the commencement routine that has been used for working age cases up to now:
- JSA(ib) and ESA(ir) abolished by making a claim for UC, JSA or ESA
- new claims for IS, HB and Tax Credits blocked by No 23 Order
It sounds as if the commencement of the abolition of all legacy working age benefits (including IS. HB and Tax Credits) will be triggered by the claimant reaching SPC age, irrespective of whether they have claimed anything or wish to claim anything. In effect, forced managed migration. But then the abolition of HB (and maybe tax credits) would have to somehow un-commence when the second member of the couple reaches SPC age.
Not an easy piece of drafting. Would be much simpler to commence the provision that requires both members of a couple to have reached SPC age to qualify for SPC, with a saving for existing claimants, and leave everything else as it is.
Complete speculation but they announced in the budget that housing costs wouldn’t move to pension credit until October 2023 (paragraph 5.39) - I wonder if they will leave making the mixed age changes till then too?
Unlikely I’m afraid. We had a senior Pensions Service speaker at the last WRAC meeting and our minutes record
“LA’s have been asked to configure their systems to identify mixed aged couples in preparation for UC – once a mixed aged couple attains pensionable age, legacy claims close down and they will have to claim UC.
If PC claim closes down will have to claim UC “
I wonder if this has been garbled somehow: presumably by “once a mixed aged couple attains pensionable age” they actually mean “when a couple becomes a mixed age couple” (otherwise it makes no sense - if they were referring to the point at which the younger member of the couple reached pension age - then they would both be too old for UC.)
The older member of a couple reaching pension-age doesn’t trigger the end of legacy benefits at the moment - as far as I can see that would require further legislation.
Did the speaker from the Pensions Service say when any of this was likely to happen?
The older member of a couple reaching pension-age doesn’t trigger the end of legacy benefits at the moment - as far as I can see that would require further legislation.
Could be done under existing WRA 2012 powers by:
- commencing the abolition of HB and Tax Credits if either member of a couple reaches SPC age, and
- commencing the SPC Act amendment that prevents SPC entitlement with a working age partner, and possibly
-commencing the abolition of IS if the claimant’s partner reaches SPC age
But all seems a bit over-elaborate to me. I would vote for commencing the SPC Act amendment, with a savings provision for existing claimants who have a working age partner.
But when? It seems like a huge political risk. I would have thought it makes sense to postpone until UC managed migration has finished and time it to coincide with SPC housing element.
No date given but if they’re asking LAs to make changes now, I’d expect it sooner rather than later
In our recent discussions with DWP policy colleagues, there’s still not been any sniff of anything happening with mixed-age couples currently.
DWP Partnership newsletter says:
Also mixed aged couples who can choose to claim Universal Credit or Pension Credits at the moment, will be only allowed to claim Universal Credit from 1st February 2019
We know that pensioners with children can make new claims for SPC with a child element from Feb, is the newsletter confusing it with that? I would have thought something so controversial would be very heavily trailed and scrutinised.
I don’t know but they have put it in bold after the Child Addition news…
[ Edited: 28 Nov 2018 at 05:08 pm by shawn mach ]As above, we’ve certainly not heard anythiing to that effect. We’ve just has a new UC factsheet peer reviewed by DWP UC people as well and they haven’t suggested the content on mixed-age couples isn’t correct.
I can’t see anything in the linked toolkit or the gov website that refers to mixed age couples being unable to claim PC as from Feb 2019, so this could be a mistake.
I emailed our regional partnership manager to enquire as to where this info had come from and why it had not been published anywhere else and I got this reply:
“The information is from an Universal Credit Presentation that was updated November 1st. It was always the intention for this to happen when UC full Service was rolled out nationally across the UK.
There should be something on the internet in the near future.”
We’ve contacted Pension Service colleagues to seek clarification.