Pension Credit ..please Help !!!

[lucy.c40]

hi all my o/h applied for pension credit 11 wks ago and it was only last week we had someone out for home visit ,all went well and chap said we should recieve payment within 10 days ,anyway phoned them up this morning and everything has gone through but just waiting for it to become LIVE before they could issue payment ,when i asked how long she said approxmiately 2-3 weeks .i asked if this could be pushed thru as emergency and she said no. Why the hell does it now take 3 weeks to issue payment ??? Im so cross becoz we are really struggling have 2 school age children {partner is older than me ) and can hardly put food on the table let alone pay bills and have already had 2 crisis loans so cant ask for more . can someone please advise as to what i should do im so desperate and bloody angry ,it will be almost 15 weeks if i go by what they say !!

[ErikaPNP]

If the decision has been made then it is already live, and payment shouldn't take more than 3 working days to be released from DWP and credited to an account (for Pension Credit, and of course if you are paid by direct payment rather than by giro). Something doesn't sound right here.

 

15 weeks is also totally unacceptable from the date of claim to the date of payment. I would suggest MP but as Parliament is dissolved for the elections, it is less likely that you would illicit a response from the MP.

 

The payment when they issue it should be backdated to the date you originally claimed so you will receive a lump sum but that is of little use to you at this precise moment. Are you claiming all of the other benefits that you are entitled to? Child Tax credit for example?

 

You can ask for another Crisis Loan, for this purpose (alignment to benefit) they are expempt from the three applications rule. The beauty of asking for a Crisis Loan as well is that if you are due benefit, the Crisis Loan DM's will contact the benefit section (in this case pensions) and speak to a manager to get them to release payment as a Crisis Loan should not be awarded where a benefit payment is due. This, or contacting Pension Credit and asking for a manager to explain to you why payment is going to take a further 2-3 weeks or if (s)he (manager) will direct a payment as a matter of urgency is all I can suggest in the interim.

 

I would be tempted to continue to follow this up with a strongly worded letter of complaint - it is far from an acceptable situation.

[lucy.c40]

Thank you Erika for your very helpful reply , i thought i would ring pension credit this morning before crisis loans ,anyway spoke to a nice man who said our application is live and saying pending payment , he seems to think that as soon as application is finalised we should get payment within 2-3 days , if by tuesday i havent recieved anything then too give them another ring ,so im pretty hopeful we should have it by the wkend , if not we can last till tuesday even thou it will be tight ,dont really want another crisis loan unless absolute emergency . Thank you again for your advice most greatly appreciated and fingers x we get paid x