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£1.7 billion in Pension Credit unclaimed
Jun
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£1.7 billion in Pension Credit unclaimed
This week, UK financial security charity Turn2us today launched its ‘don’t rule it out, discover’ campaign, which urges squeezed pensioners to ascertain if they might receive pension credit. It might be value a mean of £3,500 a yr.
This Pension Credit Awareness Week (12-16 June), the charity urges anyone over 66 on a low income, or their family and friends, to spend just ten minutes on its free online advantages calculator or call its information line on 0808 802 2000 if accessing the web shouldn’t be an option.
The fast, free and confidential online calculator helps people discover in the event that they are eligible for all varieties of state advantages, including pension credit, which is paid along with the state pension and is obtainable even when you’ve gotten savings and own your personal home.
Up to now yr alone, greater than 300,000 people over the state pension age of 66 used the Turn2us advantages calculator to seek out out what additional support they could be entitled to. One in seven of those (39,235 people) came upon they were eligible for Pension Credit which, at a mean of £3,500 per person per yr, adds as much as greater than £137million in extra state advantages found by pensioners on low incomes.
Turn2us director of impact and innovation Michael Clarke says:
“Research shows a lot of pensioners don’t know pension credit exists, and lots of others rule out checking out as they assume they’re not eligible due to their savings or owning their very own home.
“The fact is a single pensioner getting by on an income of lower than £201.05 per week, or a pair with under £306.85 per week, might be eligible even in the event that they’re homeowners with savings of as much as £10,000.”
Often called a ‘gateway profit’ receiving Pension Credit means you may robotically be eligible for other support, resembling free dental care, extra payments to assist with heating, rent or mortgage interest and a free TV license (the latter being available in case you’re also over 75).
Last yr during Pension Credit Awareness Week, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said that while 1.4 million pensioners in Britain receive it, £1.7bn remains to be left unclaimed. DWP reports persons are postpone for a spread of reasons, from wrongly considering they’re not eligible due to savings or owning their very own home to not wanting to be seen as needing to say, or considering the method might be complicated or confusing.
Sarah Pennels, their head of economic capability at Royal London, says:
“The very fact so many pensioners are missing out on Pension Credit in the course of a cost-of-living crisis is worrying. This profit provides much needed additional income but additionally means people qualify for help with rent, council tax and other bills and advantages because Pension Credit is a gateway profit to other support.”
In case you think you may be eligible – don’t rule it out, discover – through the use of the Turn2us free online advantages calculator on our website, turn2us.org.uk, or, in case you don’t have access to the web, call the Turn2us information line on: 0808 802 2000, 9.00 am – 5.00 pm Mondays-Fridays.
