pensions

[wendilla]

A friend of mine has been on dissability allowance for few years now and her husband claims carers allowance.She is due for her normal pension in oct as she is 60 then .Her husband is due his in January as he is 65 then.They seem to think they will both claim pensions in there own right plus still claim disabillity allowance.I said she would claim hers till january then it would be a joint pension.Is this so . Thanks.

[THECORBYLOON]

Yir friend will get a pension based on her National Insurance (NI) Contributions when she reaches 60 and her Disability Living Allowance (DLA) will be paid with it (it saves the Government money to pay benefits together rather than separately.) When her husband reaches 65 in January, her pension will be topped up using her husband's NI but it will ber HER pension and will be paid to HER.

Assuming her husband's pension will be more than the Carer's Allowance (CA,) the CA will stop because you can't get both Benefits at the same time.

[THECORBYLOON]

Soz, meant to add some rates for examples. The current maximum Basic State Pension rate is �85.25 per week and the maximum rate based on a husband�s, wife�s or civil partner�s NI is �50.50. As long as yir friend�s Basic rate is less than �50.50 a week, it will be topped-up to �50.50 when her husband retires.

[wendilla]

Right I can understand what you are saying so does this mean it will be the basic of �85.25+�50.50 in january. and it will be in his wifes pension.They seemed to think they would be getting �85.25 each + disability allowance +careers allowance. Thanks for your reply

[THECORBYLOON]

Yir friend may well be getting "bits" on top of her Basic Pension (Additional State Pension or Graduated Retirement Benefit) but it's the rate of the Basic State Pension that's important.

If her Basic is �50.50 a week or more, that will not increase when her husband retires. If, for example she gets �40 Basic Pension a week, that will be topped up by �10.50 so that she gets �50.50. She will still get the DLA but he will not get the Carer's Allowance because his pension will be higher than the Carer's Allowance rate.

[Yorky Lass]

Your friend or her husband could apply for Pension Credit when he reaches 65. Her DLA will not be taken into account and the Carers allowance will be classed as Underlying entitlement and this increase the rate of Pension Credit should they qualify.

[wendilla]

Thanks for you time in explaining this .I think she understands it a bit better now .

[chimpydoodle]

A little late to add this in now but having read the other comments I wanted to clarify this for you -

The figures quoted for State Pension Before are only correct if the husband has got a 100% basic pension, meaning he will have to have paid NI (national insurance) for 49 years in his working life, or have been credited with NI while he has been receiving CA, which will be the case.

The correct state pension figure is 84.25 from 10.04.06. If Mr has only paid enough NI to receive 90% of the basic pension then assuming Mrs isn't receiving more than 90% in her own right then hers would only be increased to 90% upon Mr reaching 65.

check out

http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk

this site and

http://www.direct.gov.uk/Homepage/fs/en

should help answer any other queries or call 0845 6060265 for the Pension Service.