retiring soon

dgranger

Hi ,At the moment my disabled wife is recieving ESA and claims for me as a dependant (the job center did it this way because its not safe for her to be left for hours while i get 2 buses to the local job center and 2 back approx 5 hours under the jobseekers allowance criteria)
In a years time i reach retirement age so ofcourse she then cannot claim for me as a dependant because i will be recieving the state pension.
But what happens (local job center cannot advise!?!) ?
At the moment she gets her ESA and DLA but despite epilepsy its for high mobility but low care so i cannot claim carers allowance.She gets full rent and CT allowance.
The trouble is despite asking a couple of online orgs no-one can advise what to do .
I ofcourse dont have a clue what pension i will be getting i have only ever not worked or claiming JSA for 10 months so i guess it will be a full basic pension? (Since 2003 she has claimed for me )
I have tried two online benifits calculators using the same answers but both come out with different figures.
If i am receiving an 'income' IE a state pension will i have to support us both and pay the rent and CT out of it ? I presume she cannot claim ESA if her partner has an income? Thanks

CockneyRebel

Hi dgranger and welcome

Can you clarify
Is your wifes claim income related or contribution related ?
Has your wife been invited to claim PIP ?

You can check your state pension

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

CR

dgranger

She hasnt been invited to claim PIP yet
It must be income related she last worked when she was 17 in 1974 .She like many looked after the kids supported by me working

dgranger

Hi ,the question isnt about if i get a pension but what happens after i retire .
How do i proceed once i get it?
Will my mrs lose here ESA because i have this income?
As i said this is now the third forum that cannot answer this question.
CAB hasnt a clue if its not on the computer they're clueless,the last person i spoke to had to be shown the screen contradicting everything she said was correct in the last ten minutes.
Just a hint who to ask would helpful and being deaf phones are not much good .LOL
Simply put once i retire do i have to pay the rent ,CT etc from my pension as the mrs will lose her ESA ?

CockneyRebel

Sorry I haven't been able to give a firm answer to your question

You could try email to Scope help line
 helpline@scope.org.uk

Hope fully one of the advisors will be able to find the answer for you.

I think that as you suspect your pension will be deducted from your wifes ESA

Age Uk might be worth trying

I will keep looking to try and get a definate answer for you

CR

dgranger

Thanks its nothing personal but the government agencies give no clue at all .would it be best if the mrs continued going through the rigmarole of the ESA minefield and continue to  claim for me ?
Or would it be easier for me to claim for her as an unworking spouse once my pension arrives?
As you can amagine its better to get a grip on it before it actually happens .
PS Age UK were the first stop!

CockneyRebel

Have you tried
moneysaving expert  forum ?
or Benefitsandwork ?

CR

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @dgranger, sorry to hear you're having difficulties finding advice. CR has given you some good tips above, and I've also moved your post to the Ask A Benefits Advisor category to see if they can advise you any further.

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi @dgranger

The DWP work out how much income-related benefit (in this case ESA) you can receive as a household based on certain criteria, age being one of them - they call this your 'applicable amount' - then deduct any income (State or other pensions included) from this.

Therefore whether or not your wife can continue to receive ESA will depend on (a) what the applicable amount is for your household, and (b) whether your pensions income exceeds this and therefore reduces the amount she can receive to nil.

Once you reach pension age (and possibly now if you are over the pension credit age(?) the applicable amount is normally 243.25. Therefore if your pension is less than this she can continue to claim ESA.

A relevant point however, is that if your pensions do not exceed your applicable amount for income-based benefits, it may be more convenient for you to claim Pension Credit to bring the total to 243.25, rather than ESA, as there are far less hoops to jump through and the rate is the same.

If you receive Housing and Council tax benefits, Pension Credit is a 'qualifying benefit' for these, whereas State Pension is not - therefore if your pension is more than 234.25, your HB and CTS will need to be made as 'income based' claims, and you will probably have to contribute towards your rent.

Does this answer your question?

Kind regards,

Mary