Hey Mike,
Another query for you.
I am currently supporting a couple. Kevin will be 66 in May. Maria is aged 58. They rent a two bedroom council house.
Kevin has received a letter about claiming State Pension.
He currently gets income-based ESA as a joint claim with his wife.
Kevin gets PIP standard mobility and enhanced daily living.
Maria gets Carer’s Allowance
What’s the situation now he’s turning Pension Age?
Many thanks
Rachael
Hey Rachael,
The non-means-tested benefits – State Pension, PIP and Carer’s Allowance are individual entitlements.
Income related ESA is a means-tested benefit and it covers both members of a couple, but it’s not strictly a joint claim. Kevin is the claimant on behalf of Maria and himself.
Age Limits
The top age limit for income based ESA is pension age – 66 – so the claim will stop around Kevin’s birthday.
At one time he could then have claimed Pension Credit for Maria and himself, but that was stopped in May 2019.
Since then, the younger member of a mixed-age-couple has to claim Universal Credit for both.
What Will Kevin and Maria Get From UC?
The good news is that although UC won’t allow as much money as Pension Credit would have done, it’s still an improvement on income-related ESA.
ESA thinks that they need £219.10 per week to live on – not counting rent and Council Tax. This comes to £949.43 per month.
The equivalent amounts in Universal Credit come to £1,098.88 per month so they gain £149.45 per month by migrating to UC.
Or a more negative way of looking at the same thing would say that they have been missing out on £149.45 per month by not knowing that they would be better off on UC
However – these Universal Credit amounts include a £20pw/£86.67pcm covid-bonus.
The government has said that this will end in April 2021, but they are under pressure to maintain it for another year.
How Does UC Work?
Universal Credit will ignore the PIP.
UC will work out a monthly equivalent of the State Pension and the Carer’s Allowance and any private and work pensions that they have.
If this total comes to less than the UC needs level – which is the amount above plus a Housing Costs Element – UC pays the difference.
The needs level is officially called a Maximum Amount of UC
In Maria and Kevin’s case the Housing Costs Element will be 86% of the rent. There’s a 14% bedroom tax reduction because of the spare bedroom.
Things to Check
If Kevin’s disability means that he and Maria cannot reasonably share a bedroom then they should not be bedroom-taxed.
Is Kevin’s walking is limited to less than 20 metres before he gets severe discomfort, pain, fatigue or breathlessness? If the answer is yes, most days, then they should ask for high rate PIP mobility. He must do this before he turns 66.
They probably get Council Tax Reduction (aka CT Support) but even so , it may be worth checking whether they can get a disability discount on their Council Tax?
A Warning for Mixed Age Couples – Unrelated to Kevin and Maria
Mixed-age-couples who were already getting Pension Credit in May 2019 continue to get it, so long as they keep the claim going.
But if, for some reason, the claim stops, they can’t reclaim. The younger member has to claim Universal Credit instead. And that usually leads to a big drop in income.
One common reason why this happens is where a mixed age couple go abroad for more than the Pension Credit time limit, which is usually four weeks.