State Pension -V- Pension Credit - only £3 difference!

[hoarderofthedough]

Why do the Government spend money monitoring and recording whether people have paid enough to receive a full State Pension (at £241 per week), when people who have paid no stamps at all get Pension Credit (of £238 per week). What's the point? May as well just pay everyone £238 per week and stop recording who has paid what.

As someone who has paid my full stamp - and I am still paying, as I have now been working for 40 years, honestly I'm a bit miffed that someone who has never wored will only get £3 less a week than me. Where's the incentive?

If everyone got £230 a week whether they paid in or not then nothing needs mean testing on either side. If it is because if you are on pension credit you can also have other mean tested benefits but if you have full state pension then you have the opportunity to have additional pension or income then it seems extremely unfair. Many people won’t have private pensions, paid off homes, savings over £10k or investments and even if they did those things can run out. What’s very unclear to me is what happens to someone with a full stamp but nothing else - can they get housing benefit or not?

If you have missing years and haven't got much or any private pension it is not recommended that you do NI top ups because of this, you could end up being worse off because of the extra benefits pension credit brings

You usually can’t get pension credit if you have significant savings - if you have over £10k in savings, the amount you receive in pension credit will be reduced. If you have more than £10,000, every £500 over £10,000 counts as £1 income a week.

The state pension is paid to those eligible regardless of how much you have in savings.

So if you have significant savings you would not be eligible for pension credit if you don’t qualify for state pension.

My mum was on pension credit because she was separated and she was able to have lots of work done on her house that she owned, stuff like damp proofing, building repairs for not very much as she got a large grant or something, this was quite a few years ago so may not be available now

Pension credit is paid on the household income not the individual unlike the state pension

If two people live on their own and have no income other than a state pension or a pension credit income - who is better off? I’d wager the person on pension credit. I believe just being eligible for £1 of pension credit opens up additional benefits you are not entitled to otherwise? Happy to be proved wrong but it’s a bit shit to be like well if you have a partner, or own a home or have a private pension you’re better off with your state pension when many people on state pension don’t have those things.

In my experience yes they would get housing benefit.

This is Labour's Britain, though. Hard work and thrift are considered vices, not virtues.

Well it is because you get a letter saying you’re entitled to the full state pension due to your NI contributions. If you’re not entitled to it you can apply for means tested benefits like pension credit.

It is the number of years you paid NI (or were credited) though, not the amount of NI you paid.

Labours Britain? It was Tory Britain for many years hence why the country is up to its eyes in debt.

I see what you mean op

Jump through one set of hoops- you get £240 state pension

Jump through a different set of hoops - you get £238 pension credit

We could maybe remove all the hoops and just give everyone the 240

Depends how many people are eligible for neither?
It seems unlikely that many people have not worked enough to be eligible for SP but have too much money to be eligible for PC, i suppose if you'd inherited or were a recent immigrant?

You can.

Completely off topic, but in terms of qualifying years of NI contributions, and certain people having them credited despite not working such as those claiming CB, what happens about people in prison? Do they get NI contributions credited or are they likely to have missing years? It's something I've never thought about until now.

Info related to Pension Credit
This is means tested

https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit

State Pension info

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

My Mum never worked (a few cash in hand jobs here and there) and gets full state pension, pension credit, her rent paid, and get attendance allowance. Nobody would wish to be in her position as the years pre pension were tough, she was in poor health and living and £70ish a week. Now she has plenty of money but can’t really use it due to health issues.

However, it does feel wrong that I work, but yet my work place pension will be tiny (due to starting very late) and I will be worse off having worked full time for 40 odd years, because I won’t get it tension credit or my rent paid. Yet my private pension and state pension will barely be enough to surviving on.

How does she get full state pension PLUS pension credit?

Funny but i thought you had to find an NHS dentist first. Or is that only the case when we are not berating pensioners.

I suspect it’s because she’s pretty elderly and under the state pension level ‘as it is now’ as is the case I believe with many who got pensions pre 2016 and with next to no assets either that or she calls it pension credit , but it’s made up mainly of her rent allowance -

Yep this my husband has never really worked but has always been careful about NI so he'll get the state pension. Otherwise he'd get nothing as I have a big pension and we have masses of joint savings.

Why are ppl peddling the myth that all on Pension Credit have never worked when its utter bullshit.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2003/jun/07/pensions.jobsandmoney2

Read Peter Humphrey's story that we publish today on page three. He dutifully paid into his pension plan for more than 30 years. But because his employer, Dexion, has gone into receivership, he can now expect to receive only a fraction of his pension entitlement.
By a cruel irony, Mr Humphrey is a victim of the very legislation brought in after Maxwell to protect pensioners. The new rules were framed to secure the pensions of people already 'in payment'. It is they who stand at the front of the queue when the pension pot of an insolvent company is shared out.
Next in line are workers who have not yet retired, but who may have paid in contributions for decades. Sadly, they can be left with practically nothing once the existing pensioners are looked after.
The despair and poverty that now faces Mr Humphrey wasn't supposed to happen after Maxwell. A new watch dog, the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (OPRA), came into being in 1997, with far reaching powers to search company offices, seize documents and encourage whistleblowers. Its new sister authority, the Pensions Compensation Board (PCB), would bail out workers if their bosses stole from the firm's pension fund.
But for Mr Humphrey and his fellow workers these ferocious watchdogs have been as useful as a toothless mutt.

She’s 69. I believe it’s to do with attendance allowance. I don’t really know. I just asked chat gpt and it said it’s a top up as she gets attendance

Pension credit is a gateway benefit.

My MIL needs a new boiler, she can get a free one as she is on pension credit She also pays zero council tax.

She worked PT after she divorced for 20 years as has been a Lady that lunches for 30 years with a housekeeper. FIL had paid huge amounts of tax as earned mega bucks.