Terms & Conditions

[dp66]

Hi
Apologies for appearing really thick here but we have suddenly confused ourselves as a result of some work done by agency staff.
If a single customer is in receipt of AA which shows on the ETD should we be inputting the AA as a separate item of income to award the SDP.
We have been awarding the SDP but our agency staff beg to differ and say that you should just input the AIF and the savings credit figure as the SDP has already been included as part of the PC calculation.
Hope someone can enlighten me as I can’t find a hard and fast answer.

Thanks
Debbie P

[Anonymous]

That’s a new one!

The AIF exists for the purpose of calculating income and it doesn’t affect the applicable amount at all.

If you don’t include the SDP in the HB applicable amount you will be clawing back most of the advantage the claimant gained from having the SDP included in their Pension Credit.

For a person with an SDP to have an AIF, they must be in the income range where their non-AA income is just a bit higher than the standard GC rate plus the SDP. If you apply that income, plus SC, against the normal HB applicable amount, they will have a hefty contribution to make towards their rent which will leave them with less money to live on than GC including the SDP.

By awarding the SDP in HB, you ensure that they only contribute to their rent out of any income they have in excess of the GC+SDP rate.

So you were right all along

[Anonymous]

Probably depends on the way your system works Debbie.

We would input the AA / DLA seperately in order for the SDP to be put into the calc (if appropriate).
If you use Northgate, there is a code PCMAIF (modified AIF) which our staff would use and then enter a seperate code for AA / DLA.
Tell your agency staff that Pension Credit is a compltely different Benefit to HB / CTB, and we can award the SDP as well. 8)
(posted before I saw the above note from Peter B)

[Anonymous]

Hmm, my last contribution looks a bit complicated doesn’t it?

How about this instead:

The claimant gets Incapacity Benefit plus a small private pension. They don’t qualify for IS. The IS applicable amount does, of course, include the Disabiloity Premium.

If you follow your contractor’s logic, you should not award the DP in the HB claim, because the claimnant has already been awarded the DP for IS purposes. That approach would leave them worse off than their IS applicable amount.

The Pension Credit example is exactly the same.

[dp66]

Thanks for the replies -I was just starting to think I had lost the plot on even the basics!

Debbie P

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