Welcome to your new board - Pensions & benefits advice

Thank you

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Oh! Great stuff. Think this will be really useful ?

I'm sure it will prove useful, thank you.

Thank you Gransnet for listening to requests and responding.

This will be a real help to many. Thank you.

Thank you

Thankyou AnnieGransnet

Brill I will start off.

Remember if you have not reached Pension age yet, you can still apply for the Warm Front Grant (around £140)

You have to fit the entitlement Criteria. Good luck.

Brilliant idea, so many struggle not knowing what they are entitled to. You can also find benefits calculators online like entitled.to

Great idea . Having recently retired I will be reading with interest .

I applied online last week for the warm home discount. I’ve attached the link I used which was for British Gas. But most of the main providers participate. It was easy to apply. There are several possible criteria to qualify. Eg attendance allowance, Carer Allowance or low income which I think was under £13,400 p.a. I’m not in receipt of any qualifying benefits but was entitled under the low income category.

I applied online, it only took a few mins. Have your NI number to hand. If successful £140 is credited to your fuel account in January. You can choose gas or electricity account.

www.britishgas.co.uk/energy/energy-saving/warm-home-discount.html

Amazing thank you GN.

Some years ago I helped a friend sort out her finances. She is on Pension Credit.
She owns her own flat but has to pay Service Charges to the managing agents. I discovered that these charges could be paid as a benefit.

Such a useful resource. Thank you Gransnet.

Great news , but i suggest putting actual advice or questions into a separate thread, as they will get lost in this one.

Thank you - it will be an invaluable source of information for us.

Excellent news thank you HQ. Only yesterday I was trying to sort out eligibility for pension credit. I thought it might be for us but apparently not any more if only one of a couple is of pension age.

Just in case anyone is not aware , as you now have to have more NI years of payments and you have left work to care for a relative , you can apply to have your NI paid even if you are not claiming Carer Allowance. Age UK will be able to help . My brother applied as he left work at 60 to help my 90 year old mum. He didn’t want to claim carer allowance but didn’t have enough NI to get a full state pension when he was 66 .

Thank you GN

Great AnnieGransnet much appreciated.
Grannynannywanny Thought i should let you and others know, I've received the Warm Discount for few years but the credit of 140.00 doesn't appear in your account in January, more like end of March.

MerylStreep

Some years ago I helped a friend sort out her finances. She is on Pension Credit.
She owns her own flat but has to pay Service Charges to the managing agents. I discovered that these charges could be paid as a benefit.

Merylstreep Are you sure about this. I have always understood that the Maintenance Charge in flats are NOT eligible for any benefit assistance.

Franbern
I’m absolutely sure. Of course insurance wasn’t paid but service charges were. But thinking about the time this was paid ( 15? years ago) it’s more than likely that with cuts this might have stopped.

Thanks to GNHQ for giving us this board. I've always thought GN is at its best when members are helping one another. Benefits are complicated so this may well be one of those areas.

I agree with Cabbie21, that putting topics under (clearly titled) separate threads will help others find them.

So, hoping it's okay with MerylStreep and Franbern, I will start a new thread about maintenance charges