Reply To: Child Benefit on SC only claims
AnonymousI see no-one has replied, so I am a bit nervous about saying this in case I have forgotten some obvious complication. But here goes.
I’m not aware of any reason why the Pension Service would need to hold Child Benefit (or indeed Child Tax Credit) details, because there isn’t any way at all that the receipt of this income, and/or the responsibility for children that goes with it, can affect Pension Credit.
As far as I can tell, collecting Child Benefit and modifying the AIF accordingly are activities that take place 100% at the Council’s end. It’s as if you were dealing with a pure “standard” case when it comes to income streams that modify the AIF.
By the way, did you hear the one about the Housing Benefit officer who found a lamp and when he cleaned it up a genie popped out, offering to grant him a wish? Like all HB officers, he was a caring person who didn’t want to use the wish selfishly. So he showed the genie a map of the world and pointed out all the places where people’s lives are blighted by war and hunger. He asked the genie to heal these conflicts and make sure that people had enough to eat and lead happy lives.
“But Master” the genie protested “these conflicts have their roots in thousands of years of history. I don’t have the power to change the world. I can only grant you a wish that affects the things in your own life: untold riches, a beautiful house, ask and it is yours master”.
“Well, what I could really do with” said the HB officer “is a clear, simple guide that makes sense of all the difficult points arising from the effect of Pension Credit on the HB scheme and liaison with the Pension Service: give me a set of notes that make sense of it all”.
And the genie says “OK, let me see that map again”