Benefit rule changes for pensioners with younger partners
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2019
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
New rules are set to change access to pension credit. At the moment the benefit can be claimed to top up income when the older partner in a couple reaches the qualifying state pension age. From May 15th it will switch to when the younger person in the relationship qualifies. Pensioners with younger partners who are already on pension credit or pension-age Housing Benefit will not be affected by the change while their entitlement remains. The announcement was made via a written statement by pensions minister Guy Opperman which was published on Monday. Guest: Gareth Morgan CEO of Ferret Information Systems.
Money Box listeners who took out student loans in the 1990s have received letters offering to settle the debt if they agree to pay a percentage of their outstanding amount. Some of these former students are approaching the point where their loans will be written off anyway. Guest: Martin Lewis, Founder and Chair MoneySavingExpert.com
Sorting out a £51 tax refund ended up costing one man £137 after he searched online and dialled a number listed on an official looking website which he thought belonged to HMRC. It wasn’t and the line he called which connected him to HMRC was a premium rate one. Guest: David Hickson of the Fair Telecoms campaign.
Reporter: Dan Whitworth Presenter: Paul Lewis Producer: Charmaine Cozier Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers. |
| 0:08.0 | But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA |
| 0:12.0 | was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife. |
| 0:18.0 | Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? |
| 0:21.4 | When lies are still being told to this day, who do you believe? |
| 0:25.1 | I wouldn't even know where to start, and I'm with the IRA. |
| 0:28.5 | Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.5 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:43.1 | Hello, thousands of low-income older couples will be thousands of pounds worse off under changes announced this week. |
| 0:46.9 | Pension credit will be paid to them much later if they claim from May. |
| 0:51.9 | The offer to cancel half your student loan, that is not quite what it seems, we discuss. |
| 0:55.8 | And beware the phone connection services that charge you premium rates for calls that normally cost nothing. |
| 0:58.4 | A phone call, unknown to me, has cost us £137, which I'm going to have to find from somewhere. |
| 1:04.2 | I'm going to have to say I'm going to have to do some more of it, I'm trying to find the money. |
| 1:07.3 | More on that later, but first, thousands of older people who claim means-tested help with their income will face delays sometimes of many years before their claim can be considered. |
| 1:17.0 | In a ministerial statement released on the eve of the key Brexit vote sneaked out, some say, the government announced rule changes that will limit access to pension credit for couples. |
| 1:27.4 | At the moment, the benefit can be claimed to top up income when the older partner in a couple |
| 1:31.6 | reaches state pension age, currently about 65 and a quarter. |
| 1:35.5 | But from May the 15th, it will switch to when the younger partner qualifies, and that |
| 1:40.2 | will delay their claim for years in some cases. |
| 1:43.4 | The Department for Work and Pension says it has no figures about how many will be affected |
| 1:47.3 | or how much the government will save, but it's certainly thousands of couples a year |
... |
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