Receiving Pension Credit and Living with Unemployed Woman who is not eligible for benefits

[People First]

I am a 64-year-old man who is unemployed and receiving Pension Credit. I have a partner who is also unemployed but she is not entitled to receive benefits because she is a Romanian citizen and does not qualify. I understand that, normally, I should inform the DWP that I have a partner and that my Pension Credit would then be readjusted downwards, but as my partner has no income or savings and cannot receive benefits, and I am paying for both of us, I am reluctant to notify the DWP of my change of circumstances in case they unfairly penalise me by reducing my Pension Credit entitlement. What should i do? Surely the law is flexible enough to take accoun of exceptional cases such as my own!

[ashmk]

The law is not flexible, if they find out they will make you pay.

[antone]

First off, ashmk is basically correct. It is a bad idea to withhold information about the situation - when they find out, and sooner or later they will, it will be worse for you as it could look like fraud.

 

Secondly, your case is not all that common but it isn't exceptional. I don't know about Pension Credit rules specifically, but I've encountered this situation when I worked for the DWP processing ESA, and several years before that when I had to claim JSA for a few months. My late wife was American and as such, had no recourse to public funds.

 

In the case of ESA or JSA (the means-tested variants) what happens is that the claim is paid at the single person rate. The idea is that your partner with no recourse should not cause any additional drain on public funds, over and above what you would be entitled to. But if you're currently being paid at the single rate, I'm not sure why it should make a difference.

 

So key questions: are you being paid at the single rate right now? Do you have any particular reason to think that having a partner with no access to public funds would reduce your benefits?

[People First]

First off, ashmk is basically correct. It is a bad idea to withhold information about the situation - when they find out, and sooner or later they will, it will be worse for you as it could look like fraud.

 

Secondly, your case is not all that common but it isn't exceptional. I don't know about Pension Credit rules specifically, but I've encountered this situation when I worked for the DWP processing ESA, and several years before that when I had to claim JSA for a few months. My late wife was American and as such, had no recourse to public funds.

 

In the case of ESA or JSA (the means-tested variants) what happens is that the claim is paid at the single person rate. The idea is that your partner with no recourse should not cause any additional drain on public funds, over and above what you would be entitled to. But if you're currently being paid at the single rate, I'm not sure why it should make a difference.

 

So key questions: are you being paid at the single rate right now? Do you have any particular reason to think that having a partner with no access to public funds would reduce your benefits?

 

I AM BEING PAID at the single rate. Logically and morally speaking, I see no reason why having a partner with no access to public funds would reduce my benefits, but at the same time I have no reason to believe that the law is either logical or fair! I am still confused as to what I should do.

[Zamzara]

I looked into this the other day. Normally you would be entitled to a higher (couple rate) of pension credit, less any income your partner has. In this case you cannot get the couple rate and just get the single rate.

[antone]

I AM BEING PAID at the single rate. Logically and morally speaking, I see no reason why having a partner with no access to public funds would reduce my benefits, but at the same time I have no reason to believe that the law is either logical or fair! I am still confused as to what I should do.

 

As I said, the idea is that you can't receive any additional public funds because of your partner - but you can still receive what you would be entitled to as a single person. The only situation in which your benefit would be reduced would be if your partner had any income or large amounts of savings. In your original post you said this wasn't the case, so it won't be an issue.

 

So basically, my view is that you should tell the DWP about your partner and that it won't change the amount you receive. I'm basing this on my knowledge of how other means-tested benefits (such as JSA) are processed - comments and corrections from others are welcome.

[Nystagmite]

My opinion is, that you should tell them if you're unsure whether it's relevant.

[Zamzara]

So basically, my view is that you should tell the DWP about your partner and that it won't change the amount you receive. I'm basing this on my knowledge of how other means-tested benefits (such as JSA) are processed - comments and corrections from others are welcome.

 

Agreed.

[People First]

Agreed.

 

OK, that sounds reasonable. I'll let them know and, hopefully, they will be sensible about it

and not try to reduce my benefit!