Once we successfully claim Pension Credit, a whole range of other benefits and supports often come with it. Many of us don’t realise what we could be getting.
Pension Credit is more than just a top-up. For many retirees, it acts like a gateway that unlocks several supports, such as free health care, discounts, help with bills, housing, TV, heating. Losing out on these could be costing us far more than we think.
If we or someone we know is over State Pension age, it’s well worth checking whether we qualify. We should use the GOV.UK Pension Credit calculator, gather our recent income/savings info, and make the claim. We might get more help than we expect.
Extra! Extra!
Often pension credit awards can be low, sometimes as little as just a few pence. But they’re still worth having as they act as a gateway to all sorts of other benefits:
- Free TV licence if we’re aged 75 or over
- NHS dental treatment, sight tests, vouchers for glasses/contact lenses
- Travel costs to and from hospital appointments
- Winter Fuel Payments, Cold Weather Payments, Warm Home Discount
- Housing Benefit or help with mortgage interest if we own or rent a home
- A discount or full relief on Council Tax (often called Council Tax Reduction)
What is Pension Credit?
Pension Credit is a benefit designed to help people over State Pension age with low incomes. It has two parts:
- Guarantee Credit: tops up our income to a minimum level.
- Savings Credit: for those who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016, and have some savings or modest pension income.
We can still qualify even if we own a home, have some savings, or get other pensions or benefits.
Who is eligible?
So who can apply for Pension Credit? Well, one of the reasons not enough people do is that it is a bit complicated. But, if we live in the UK, and are over pension age and don’t get much more than basic state pension each week we could be eligible. Even if we think it is unlikely it is well worth checking to see if we can access those extra benefits. Use the handy online calculator mentioned above.
How to Apply & What to Do Next
If we feel we might be eligible we can apply online via the GOV.UK service.
apply-for-pension-credit.service.gov.uk
Pension Credit can be back-dated by up to 3 months if we were eligible during that time. So applying later doesn’t necessarily mean we lose out on earlier help.
Image: Age Without Limits/Elliot Manches
