One consequence of running a blog that is widely noticed by the financial services industry is that I am inundated with press releases most days, the vast majority of which end up in my email bin without much thought being given to the process.
But there always have to be exceptions. This press announcement turned up in my inbox yesterday, and I felt the service being offered might be of interest to people here and could even be a direct benefit. So, I thought this one was worth sharing, not least because I think the government's lack of effort in ensuring people receive all the benefits to which they are entitled is a scandal.
A stress, I take no responsibility for the content, but if you're interested, it might be worth exploring. I have, obviously, checked that the site is genuine.
NATIONWIDE has launched a free calculator to help people discover unclaimed benefits with a tool experts have hailed as “great for people who are unaware of what they might be entitled to” – and it could get you £560 extra per month.
The bank claims it has helped discover £75 million a year in unclaimed benefits through a free eligibility calculator it launched just seven months ago.
The ‘Better Off' calculator, the first to be offered over the telephone as well as online, helps people understand what benefits they may be entitled to.
The calculator – available to anyone, not just Nationwide customers – was launched in partnership with social policy data experts Policy in Practice, at a time when an estimated £24 billion in benefits goes unclaimed each year.
Since its launch last June, over 18,000 people have submitted a calculation, with over 11,000 households discovering they could be entitled to an average of £560 extra per month – totalling £75.3 million annually in potential support.
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Under claiming is a well known issue among students and professors of social security systems.
Did you know that a person of working age living with a partner who gets the new state pension is automatically barred from claiming Universal Credit? Even if that single person’s state pension is the only income they have as a couple, they have no savings and the working age person is actively seeking work? The person receiving pension is not eligible to receive any pension increase either as they could if they were supporting a partner of retirement age. The couple may be eligible for Housing and Council Tax Benefits, that is all.
I thought I would mention this as you said in a previous post how inadequate the state pension was. But in some cases the government considers it enough for two to live on.
I was not aware of that
Yes, it is scandalous. I had read about it, but saw it happen to a couple of neighbours. He (a builder) had been told he must wait until age 65 for a knee operation, and was unable to work, and in a lot of pain. His wife retired from nursing and claimed her pension. He lost his benefits. She had to go back to work.
This is incorrect. “Mixed age couple” as they are referred to (one State Pension Age and the other Working Age), if they are no low income are not able to claim Pension Credits since mid-May 2019 and must claim Universal Credit if they are seeking additional financial support because of this low income. Don’t get me wrong, this has been a massive blow for many financially, some losing access thousands of pounds a year through the impact of this policy change. The problem here, is that the Personal Allowance for a couple (at current rates) in Universal Credit is £628.10 /month which is well below the value of the New State Pension. This Personal Allowance is the baseline of the calculation against which ‘income(s)’ (from both parties) are taken into consideration to calculate whether they have an entitlement. The New State Pension is ‘unearned income’ . It calendar monthly value is fully deductible to complete this calculation. This means that a couple, who own their house (to simplify) even if they have no savings over £6000, and just the New State Pension to live on, do NOT have an entitlement to Universal Credit. The monthly value (not its 4-weekly value) £997.75 is fully deductible from the Personal Allowance. Therefore, the entitlement is NIL. Clearly there would be a variety of circumstances to consider in calculating a ‘mixed-age’ couple potential entitlement to UC, e.g. rent for example as UC includes Support with Housing Costs.
Almost impossible to think anyone believes you can live on that.
I had recently read with distaste of the salary the chief executive of Nationwide receives. It is good to hear the organisation has done some good. Very good that the service can be accessed by telephone, 10/10, as for some people, online doesn’t work or is inaccessible.
Well done the Nationwide!
Can I add that if you are on Universal Credit quite a lot of places eg Tower of London, HMS Belfast, Colchester Zoo etc offer reduced rate tickets to Universal Credit claimants
You usually need to pre book and provide evidence of the award
They may also be available to some other benefits as well such as Pension Credit
Basically either look on the attraction website eg
https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/visit/tickets-and-prices/one-pound-tickets/
or do a general internet search
Also if you get a disability benefit – PIP, DLA or Attendance Allowance a lot of places offer free or reduced rate Carer Tickets they are not always advertised and do not usually need pre booking. I did ask the Purser on PS Waverley and was told ‘We dont do Carer Tickets but I can put you through as a pensioner’ needless to say my teenage son who describes himself as ‘a walking discount’ was much amused
Some places like Theme Parks do also offer things like Priority Passes so you dont have to queue
I do like that there is a telephone option for the benefits calculator as you can get far more information on the phone or in person, in particular about potential entitlement to disability benefits – I can also add that even when disability benefits are awarded claimants are not advised about things like Carers Allowance, Carers Element in Universal Credit, the Local Offer for families with disabled children etc.
Finally, Pensioners.
In the good old days when the oldest member if a couple reached State Pension Age they became entitled to ‘Pensioner Benefits’ which are more generous than ‘Working Age’ A few years ago the rules were changed so you didnt get Pension Age benefits until both members of a couple are pension age. Secondly unlike ‘Legacy’ benefits where a taper was applied in Universal Credit unearned income reduces entitlement pound for pound so claimants dont get any benefit from State or Occupational pensions.
I understand that the average age gap in a relationship less than two years in the UK but clearly some couples lose a lot as a quick search suggests that there are about 8% of heterosexual couples with an age gap of 10 years or more.
Thanks
Citizens Advice https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/benefits-introduction/what-benefits-can-i-get/ has extensive information and links to 3 different, confidential calculators including the Policy in Practice one which has actually been around for about 8 years or so in its various iterations.
Different calculators suit different circumstances, and people should be aware that they are a guide only – good, but a guide nonetheless.
Anyone who thinks they may be eligible should contact their local Citizens Advice, or equivalent, who can do an accurate calculation and support them through the process – and to appeal as well – if turned down unfairly. Note when reading the CAB site make sure you select the right country through the link in the page as benefits & eligibility are slightly different in the 4 countries of the UK.
Thank you.
Good advice from Vicky G to which I’d add that the charity turn2us (https://www.turn2us.org.uk/, formerly the Distressed Gentlefolk’s Aid Association, of all things) is a very good and thorough source of practical support for those requiring a bit of guidance through in particular the minefield that is dealings with the modern DWP.
Thank you
Sadly being party of a mixed age couple, losing your job and expecting help is a bit like being told to muster at lifeboat 22 on the titanic. Finding work is not always easy later in life or after a long illness. The way the system works can be seen as rather unfair. Also the state pension age threshold rising means you manage on single state pension for longer.
I’m all in favour of the principal of this but there is a flip side to this.:
Approximately 45.8% of people in non-retired households are net recipients of benefits receiving more in cash benefits and benefits in kind than they paid in direct and indirect taxes.
The rentier landlords and the poverty wage employers are the real beneficiaries of much of these benefits. I’m all for socialism, just not socialism for the rich.
Agreed
There is only limited state help for home owners with mortgages but plenty of help for Landlords to pay their mortgages via Housing Benefit
What a useful tool! If so much is unclaimed, why do politicians spend so much time and energy trying to convince us that too many people are on benefits or that we’re over budget? And why are they taking away benefits from vulnerable people? (Rhetorical questions!) Do they budget for this and then have an underspend?
They rely on the underspend and never refer to it. The approach is utterly hypocritical. They should be advertising what is available and should provide the help to claim it.
The Nationwide is doing a good job in this regard. So many Citizens’ Advice offices have closed over the last few years, and the other main source of help and support – Job Centres – have been turned into places of oppression. Not only are they now geared to forcing as many people into work (however unsuitable) they are significantly understaffed. Additionally, the hostile rhetoric emanating from every Government orifice demonises people who are sick or disabled.
I have used the following website for a number of years. I recommend it to anyone who is uncertain about how to complete the DWP forms, which seem designed to confuse:
https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/
Thank you.
Jason Matthews correctly quotes ONS data on the 45% of working age households who are net recipients of benefits. This of course is a calculation of a single years tax / benefits. The figure over a life time would give a different picture. The ONS figure for benefits includes in kind benefits: education, childcare and NHS services which is a very broad definition of benefits. Receiving health care is a benefit but is often associated with loss of income.
I am confused by your comment. Do you really think that you have to be the first, direct, the recipient of the benefit to be the beneficiary of the payment in question? I may no longer receive a direct benefit from education, but I receive a massive indirect benefit from the fact that younger people are educated. I make no demand on the NHS at present, but the reassurance I get from now that it is available if I require it, is enormous. What is the point you’re trying to make?
I took Jason Matthews post to be an argument that 45% of work age families being net recipients of benefits was excessive and I just wanted to make the point that over time households may be net recipients or net beneficiaries depending on their circumstances. From each according to their ability to each according to their needs.
I took Jason Matthews post to be an argument that 45% of work age families being net recipients of benefits was excessive and I just wanted to make the point that over time households may be net recipients or net beneficiaries depending on their circumstances.
Inadvertent or not, I love the “pressure release”!
Oops.
Edited.
Thanks.
Be careful when dealing with DC or private pensions.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-freedoms-and-dwp-benefits/pension-freedoms-and-dwp-benefits
It happens quite often. Or, perhaps worse, people just don’t know the onus is on them to tell the DWP.
You asked, “How can anybody live on that?”
The Beveridge Report’s outcomes were “fiddled”.
“[B]oth the war-time coalition and the Labour government had fiddled the indices and the benefit rates actually set were nearly a third below those that Beveridge had recommended [**Abel-Smith 1992]. Furthermore; […] and by design; the National Insurance benefits paid little more than national assistance. Unemployment Benefit was paid for only a year – not indefinitely as Beveridge had recommended.
[…]
“The State pension was also set low, with more people than originally assumed needing national assistance to top it up. By 1954, The National Assistance Board had 1.8 million on its books, though the majority were pensioners.”
Nicholas Timmins; 2003; IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities: “Why has the UK’s social security system become so mean-tested?”
https://academic.oup.com/ooec/article/3/Supplement_1/i1274/7708100?login=false
**Brian-Abel-Smith; 1992; The Beveridge Report: Its Origins and Outcomes.
The only original sources I could trace for the Abel-Smith and Townsend work were paywalled by academia. The validity of their original work from 1965; “The Poor and the Poorest: A New Analysis of the Ministry of Labour’s Family Expenditure Surveys of 1953-54 and 1960” was proven, with a few minor caveats, in “The poor and the poorest, 50 years on: evidence from British Household Expenditure Surveys of the 1950s and 1960s”; 2016; by Gazeley, Rufrancos, Newell, Reynolds, and Searle; which has tabulated figures of Abel-Smith’s work supporting Timmin’s assertion.
https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/publications/the-poor-and-the-poorest-50-years-on-evidence-from-british-househ-2
Many thanks, and appreciated. It seems politicians have never embraced the reality of poverty and its blameless nature.