How To Claim Pension Credit

Hello, my name is Lee Healey, and I am the Managing Director of Income Max, the entitlement experts. We help people to make sense of and to understand the benefits and tax credit system. Today, we are going to tell you lots about the benefits and tax credits that are available.

Now, pension credit is a means tested benefit, assigned to older people. Basically, in order to qualify for pension credit, you or your partner, are going to have to be basically what's called "pension credit qualifying age." This can be anywhere from 60 upwards, but it just depends basically on when you were born.

Now, to find out if you are actually eligible for pension credit, and what your pension credit qualifying age is, you will need to visit the direct gov website. On the direct gov website, they have what they call a calculator, a pension age calculator, and that should actually tell you when you should be eligible for both state pension or pension credits. So what is pension credit? It is a means tested benefit.

It is designed to top up your income to a government set level. Interestingly enough, pension credit also has another element to it as well, called the savings credit. You won't actually be eligible for that until you are 65 and over, but it is still worth noting that the Savings Credit, even though it is a means tested benefit, it is designed to reward you for the savings and pension provision that you have got.

So it is a little bit different from the other element of pension credit, which is called Guaranteed Credit. Best not to worry about it too much. Generally, if you think you are eligible for pension credit, it is probably worth making a claim.

Now, to make a claim, you need to normally kick start it off on the telephone. The number to call is 0800-99-1234. Again, that is 0800-99-1234.

That is probably the best way to get your pension credit claim start. So once again, just to recap. Pension credit is a means tested benefit designed to top up your income level to an acceptable level.

And also, for some customers, to reward you just slightly around the pension because of the pension provision and the savings that you got. That is a quick guide to the Pension Credit. .