Age needs one voice. Now it has:
Age UK is the new force combining Age Concern England and
Help the Aged in England.
About 4 million older people are entitled to Pension Credit, yet about 1 in 3 of those eligible are still not claiming it. If you’re one of them, you could be missing out on hundreds or even thousands of pounds a year.
There are two parts of Pension Credit - you may be eligible to receive one or both of them.
Guarantee Credit tops up your weekly income to a guaranteed minimum level set up by the Government.
Savings Credit is extra money for people who have an income higher than the Basic State Pension or who have a small amount of savings.
Pension Credit includes help towards mortgage payments and service charges for home owners, and extra money for people who receive Carers Allowance or disability benefits.
It's worth claiming Pension Credit even if you are only entitled to a small amount, as it can help you qualify for other benefits.
Use our online benefits calculator to find out whether you could be eligible for Pension Credit.
Call the Pension Service on 0800 99 1234. They will ask you questions over the phone and fill the form in for you. Or visit the GOV.UK website to download a claim form.
Download More money in your pocket: a guide to claiming benefits for people over pension age (PDF 3 MB)
Download our Pension Credit factsheet (PDF 538 KB)
Find out more about our benefits campaign
Sixty-four year-old Terry had no idea he and his wife were entitled to Pension Credit and full payment of their council tax bill. That was until the lads at the working men’s club told him to go see Amanda at Age Concern.
'I’d worked nearly all my life in the building trade and I just couldn’t do it anymore because it took its toll on my body.
'So I went to work at a recycling plant instead‚ picking things off the line‚ but the conditions were terrible. My skin was coming out in a rash all down my back‚ arms and legs. I was scratching all the time.'I knew I had to pack my job in but I was worried because I was only 60 and couldn’t claim my pension yet. But Amanda took care of me. She filled in some forms and helped me and my wife claim Pension Credit of £202.40 a week. We also got full Council Tax Benefit so we save over £1‚000 a year.
'When I was working I was taking home about £150 a week. I had hit my savings because the money I was getting wasn’t enough to live on. I’m much better off now. It is easier to make ends meet.
'If you’re like me and you don’t have a lot of money you should go and speak to Age Concern*. They are always there to help you and give you good advice.”
*Age UK was previously known as Age Concern.
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Direct Gov provides details of state pensions, including forecasts and how to claim your pension.
Downloads
A download is a document (like a research report, a leaflet, or an application form) that can be transferred from our website to your computer. You can download a file, view it on your screen, print it, or save it to your computer.
PDF stands for ‘portable document format’.
Most downloads on this website are PDFs. We use this format to ensure that the document looks the same on everyone’s computer (website pages, by contrast, appear differently depending on how people have set their computer up).
Computers use a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader to download PDFs. If you try clicking on a link to download a PDF and it doesn’t work, you will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader onto your computer.
The process is quite straightforward and is free.
PDFs cannot be changed. If you need to be able to type into a downloaded document (for example, if we are offering a letter template that you need to put your name on) we will provide it as a Microsoft Word document rather than a PDF. You can then download it, type into it and save it to your computer.
Downloads will open on your computer in a new browser window.
Inside this window (below all your web browser menus), there will be a toolbar with options for you to print or save the document.
Close the browser window to return to the Age UK website.
We have made every effort to make our PDFs accessible to screen readers. Here is an overview of your accessibility options available in Acrobat Reader. Please ensure that you have downloaded the latest version of Acrobat Reader from the Adobe Reader website to ensure that they are included in your version of the programme.
You can use Adobe Reader to read a PDF out loud with the following shortcut keys:
You can also convert a PDF into a web page by following these steps:
You can convert a PDF document into a text file for use with other software and hardware such as Braille printers by opening the PDF and choosing ‘Save as text’ from the File menu.
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