If you are awarded Pension Credit it is likely (but not necessarily the case) that you will be asked about areas that would qualify you for housing benefits.
Service Charges are not so obvious as say, Council Tax. If you are getting Pension Guarantee Credit (PGC) and paying service charges, which haven't been taken into account, you should ask. If you are getting Pension Savings Credit (PSC) it is still worth asking. It may be that you will then get a payment made up of both PGC and PSC.
Firstly, there is what is called an "overriding rule" which you will be asked about. It is "is your service charge payment a condition of occupying the property". This will generally be the case with property owned on leasehold and council or housing association property.
If it is a condition, the second area that will be looked at is which of your service charges are eligible. Generally, anything that is part of your daily living cost (your electricity, gas, water, etc.) will not be eligible. However, you should have a list of your service charges from the service provider, broken down into what is paid for each. Some charges may be included and paid for by the service provider that aren't eligible. The obvious ones are:
*Care charges
*Support charges, including the provision of a social alarm system
*Gardening of private areas (communal landscaping/gardening is eligible)
I'll stop here as that is quite a bit to take on board and I am not always as succinct as I would like to be. I hope this is a start. It's always worth asking the question and the DWP are usually very helpful.
