The charity Independent Age says more than a million people in the UK are missing out on pension credit payments they're entitled to.
If you’re eligible, the amount you receive will be based on:
There are 2 types of pension credit:
This is a payment that tops up your income to a set amount for single people and couples.
Savings credit is available to people who reached state pension age before 6 April 2016 and have some savings.
You can find out how much guarantee credit and savings credit you’ll get at the moment on the GOV.UK website.
To find out if you’re eligible for pension credit and see how much you could receive, you can use the government’s pension credit calculator. Before you start, make sure you have details of:
If you’re eligible for pension credit and have less than £10,000 in savings or investments, the amount you receive won’t be affected.
If you have more than £10,000 in savings or investments, every £500 above that counts as an income of £1 a week. So, if you had savings of £12,000 – this would count as £4 income a week.
If you receive pension credit, you may be able to claim other benefits such as a free TV Licence and a council tax reduction.
You can use a benefits calculator on entitledto.co.uk to see what else you may be able to claim.
You can apply for pension credit online, over the phone or by post, up to 4 months before you reach state pension age.
If you’re over state pension age, you can apply at any time.
Your application can also be backdated 3 months – so if you were eligible during that time, you could get up to 3 months’ worth of pension credit in your first payment.
If you’re eligible for pension credit, think about what you want to do with that money. You could look at using a portion of it to build your savings.
