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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Benefits for older people  →  Thread

DWP say you have to claim SRP in order to claim PC

EKS_COTTON
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Tax and Welfare Rights Officer, Equity

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Hi all

Looking at the CPAG advice (2020/21 handbook) p. 778-9.

Says that if you defer the SRP you don’t receive an increase for each week you claim pension credit.

So it is possible to claim Pension Credit while deferring the SRP - although doing so will affect your deferment.

DWP have said to my client she has to claim SRP in order to claim PC - this is not correct right?

EKS

Ianb
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Given that regulation 18 of the Pension Credit Act deals with calculation of national income to be used if pension has not been claimed it must be possible to claim Pension Credit without claiming SRP. The claimant will simply be treated as if they have claimed SRP.

Can’t think of why a claimant would want to do this though. They appear to just be giving up SRP to which they are entitled for no current or future gain..

[ Edited: 11 May 2021 at 07:05 pm by Ianb ]
Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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This is the second time recently we’ve heard about this i.e. Pension Service telling people they can’t claim PC if they haven’t claimed SP (in our case, client had no entitlement to SP due to insufficient NIC’s).

As Ian says, in your client’s case, there is no reason why they couldn’t claim PC without making their SP claim but there is absolutely no benefit in doing so - they will be paid less PC and their entitlement to SP won’t increase either.

EKS_COTTON
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Thanks guys - I was missing the fact that SRP is treated as notional income.

Ianb
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Just to add a further comment on the ‘gatekeeping aspect of this.

https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/how-to-claim
“You can use the online service if you have already claimed your State Pension”

which clearly implies that if you haven’t claimed SP you can use an alternative method of claiming.

AndreaFB
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Hi   Our client has now reached pension age, has not claimed SRP , says she has not received an invite letter, but from what she says she should be entitled to some SRP but not the full amount.

She will get a form and phone call about her SRP, but PC say that she cannot claim now and that they would not assess her claim anyway without knowing amount of her SRP. They say they would not be able to obtain information about rate of SRP she will be entitled before her SRP claim has been decided.

Is it worth downloading the PC1 claim form anyway?
And is there any way to get a PC (or SRP) advance payment/payment on account or something like that, as client won’t have any money coming in after her final UC payment on 4 11?

Thanks in advance

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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We has a meeting with DWP officials yesterday who assured us that this isn’t happening.

So if you can download the form and make the PC claim, then yes I think it is worthwhile doing this and if they don’t make a decision within a reasonable time scale, then you can either try to escalate or complain or sent a letter before action and your client could also ask about a short term benefit advance in the mean time (although we’ve also had reports about DWP call handlers denying these exist).

Be good to know how your client gets on Andrea, good luck.

Mairi
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Paul_Treloar_AgeUK - 27 October 2021 11:59 AM

We has a meeting with DWP officials yesterday who assured us that this isn’t happening.

If this isn’t happening now that’s a very recent development.  Someone I’m working with received a letter in February 2021 advising that she didn’t have entitlement to state retirement pension (SRP) as she hadn’t paid enough NI contributions.  When she reached retirement age in June 2021 we submitted an application for pension credit (PC).  When we chased the application up in July we were advised that she needed to apply for SRP and be refused this before PC could be awarded.  By the time the SRP refusal came through (October) the application for PC had been closed (a decision that was maybe / maybe not notified to the claimant) and we were told she needed to re-apply for PC. 

All of which is not entirely unexpected as how things go but leaves her in a position where she can now claim PC again (and has) but can’t have that claim backdated to the date she first qualifies.

The fortunate thing in this case is that the PC is only a top-up to other income already being received and not her whole income.  Obviously we’re also challenging the cancellation / closure of the initial PC application but it all feels a bit unnecessary with additional processing of applications being required - 2 in this case.

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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Don’t get me wrong Mairi, we’ve had numerous reports lately of exactly the kind of problem you’re describing, it’s been driving me crazy, hence why we arranged the meeting to try and highlight these type of issues and seek reassurances that they won’t keep happening.

AndreaFB
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Thanks, Paul. Turned out my client had claimed SRP after all, she just did not remember.  She had phone call from them day after we called them and was informed of date and amount of her first 2 payments.  I don’t understand how the State Pension helpline people could not see on the system when we called them with the client.

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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AndreaFB - 29 October 2021 10:31 AM

Thanks, Paul. Turned out my client had claimed SRP after all, she just did not remember.  She had phone call from them day after we called them and was informed of date and amount of her first 2 payments.  I don’t understand how the State Pension helpline people could not see on the system when we called them with the client.

That is certainly very strange as all the call handlers should have access to the CIS which shows other benefit awards as far as I’m aware.

AndreaFB
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Unless they actually made the claim with her on the phone when they called her, under hardship provisions? But I cannot imagine it would be that quick, just one day after we spoke to them, they even gave her dates & amounts for payments.

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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AndreaFB - 02 November 2021 01:33 PM

Unless they actually made the claim with her on the phone when they called her, under hardship provisions? But I cannot imagine it would be that quick, just one day after we spoke to them, they even gave her dates & amounts for payments.

Couple more things I’ve become aware of since posting last.

First of all, at the meeting we had with DWP officials last week, that I mentioned above, they were very confident that they were just about on top of things with the State Pension claim delays and in particular, have a four-week ahead rolling grid to try and ensure everyone due a payment is given a payment - so maybe your client was lucky in that respect?

Also, another adviser has told us that she finds when the PS phone lines are busy, the call are redirected to the general benefit enquiry line (which I don’t know anything about) but in those cases, the caller is speaking to someone who doesn’t have access to the relevant information about clients so maybe your client was unlucky enough to speak to one of these call handlers who could simply have been guessing?

We’ll be monitoring how things are over next few weeks and we’ve got another meeting scheduled for early December so hoping things are back to normal to a large degree but let’s see.

bristol_1
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Claiming Pension Credit where someone hasn’t claimed State Pension yet: Any tips -?
client is a Swedish national and has never claimed SRP because he has never worked in the UK and therefore has nil entitlement, also he lived in the UK for some years without claiming anything at all, just living off F&F. He has Settled Status. He’s way past his SRP date (age 70) so he won’t have an SRP invite letter.
Reason for claiming PC now is that he’s in a mixed-aged couple and on UC and AA, but his wife has just stopped working to care for him, she only has Pre-Settled Status and no other RTR so she’s just about to fail the HRT.

Will I be able to help him claim PC on the phone and say he knows that he doesn’t have any entitlement to SRP, therefore proceed with the PC claim? This thread suggests otherwise, and the online PC form won’t let you go forward if you say you’ve not applied for your SRP, or if you say you’re not getting pension-age HB

Best route is try on the phone, submit a complaint if gatekept and send in a PC1??