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Backdated pension credits - make sure you claim what's yours
The Government will save £170 million next year from people over 60 by cutting the time it will backdate claims for pension credit, council tax benefit and housing benefit, writes Paul Lewis
At the moment people over 60 who claim these benefits can get them paid for up to 12 months before the date they make the claim. So not only do they get more money each week but they get a lump-sum back payment too.
But anyone who makes their first claim on October 6 or later will only get the money backdated for three months. The loss of nine months' backdating will cost more than £1600 on an average claim for pension credit and council tax benefit. That loss will almost double for those who pay rent and claim housing benefit as well.
The change was announced last December. But the Government has only just released figures admitting that the change will save £170 million a next year from all three benefits and will continue to save more than £120 million a year into the future.
The admission comes just months after it was revealed that the Government had abandoned its target of increasing the take-up of pension credit (click here to see my column from March 26, 2008). As a result more people than ever fail to claim what they are entitled to.
The latest figures, published over the summer, show that in 2006/07 nearly two million people who could claim extra money each week through pension credit failed to do so, a rise of 80,000 on the year before. The maximum saving to the Government from over-60s not claiming their pension credit and money off council tax and rent rose by around half a billion pounds to £5 billion a year.
The Government says the money saved from the October changes will "go towards" the extra cost of some improvements. Anyone claiming pension credit from October 6 will automatically make a claim to pay less council tax and, if they pay rent, money off that too. At the moment the final stage of these claims has to be made separately and the Government says about half do not go on to claim those other benefits.
Another change means that people over 80 will no longer have to report changes of circumstance and people who go abroad will be allowed to keep their pension credit for 13 weeks, instead of the four weeks currently allowed. Altogether the Government says these changes will help 50,000 people.
Anyone over 60 who thinks they could claim pension credit to boost their income or money off their council tax or rent should call 0800 99 1234 now – and certainly before 1pm on Saturday October 4 – to make sure they get the 12 months backdating.
* Paul Lewis is the editor of Saga Magazine's Money News section and the presenter of BBC Radio 4's Moneybox. Paul's opinions are his own and for general information only. Always seek independent financial advice.
