retirement age

Will people whose pension ages been changed really be expected to look for work if found fit for work until they reach the new pension ages? (64½ at present unless they change it again)

My friend (male) reached 60 recently and claimed Pension Credit, and so no longer is assessed for sickness claims. I notice that the Pension Credit is now the same date as state pensions, before it was 60 for both men and women.

summertrain wrote:

Will people whose pension ages been changed really be expected to look for work if found fit for work until they reach the new pension ages? (64½ at present unless they change it again)

My friend (male) reached 60 recently and claimed Pension Credit, and so no longer is assessed for sickness claims. I notice that the Pension Credit is now the same date as state pensions, before it was 60 for both men and women.

Hi ST,

I'm afraid that I can only comment as to the current rules, as here :

Who will be transferred?

Whether I agree with them, or think they are sensible, is of course a different matter.

bro58

Is this right about Pension Credit no longer being made available from 60 onwards? I'm surprised as I was under the impression that it was this government's way of massaging the unemployment figures, getting people off the numbers claiming JSA. Longer serving mods may remember this subject coming up before here and there was no suggestion then of eligibility dates changing.

Milly wrote:

As I am 58 next May surely I am too near retirement age to be going through all this IB-ESA trauma. Am I right in thinking that the transitional period has not yet been approved in parliament yet but the DWP are already acting on it ?

Milly, I suspect you are mixing up the current debate on the transition from DLA to PIP (which is still very much up for discussion in Parliament) and the transition from IB to ESA which is established law and very much under way.

The one thing which might be relevant, which is being debated in Parliament, is the idea that people who are claiming ESA and are put in the WRAG group will only get money for 12 months, unless they qualify on means-tested grounds. That's a bit convoluted, but is discussed elsewhere on this site.

I am 58 already I had to fill in the ESA form just before christmas