All advice is free and confidential
The Drop-In Advice Service
The service is available to people of pensionable age and their carers who live in the inner west of Newcastle. The opening hours are Monday to Thursday from 10am to 1pm and our advice workers are happy to help you with any query you may have. This includes filling in forms, benefit checks, heating and housing problems and debt. If we can't help you we will direct you to someone who can.
Home Visiting Service
If you have difficulty getting out of the house we may be able to make a home visit to help you with your enquiry.
Appointments
We operate
an appointment system for more complicated problems and lengthy form filling, such as for Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance.
Telephone Enquiries
The office is normally staffed from 9am to 4pm and during that time we will try to help you with your enquiries or arrange to phone you back at a time that's convenient to you.
Carers Allowance
Changes in the law mean that people of pension age can now claim Carers Allowance as long as the person they are caring for is receiving either Attendance Allowance or middle/high rate care component of Disability Living Allowance. Qualifying for Carers Allowance could mean that you quality for Housing and Council Tax Benefit. If you think you may be entitled to extra benefits let us do the calculations for you and we can help with filling in the forms if necessary.
Pension Credit - extra help for pensioners
Are you single and have a weekly income of less than £137.75 or £209.70 if you have a partner? If so you might be able to join many people who are already receiving Pension Credit.
Pension Credit is great news. For people who have reached the qualifying age, it guarantees a contribution to bring weekly income up to £137.75 for single people or £209.70 if you are a couple.
The Pension Credit qualifying age is gradually increasing from 60 to 65 alongside the increase in women's State Pension age.
And if you are aged 65 or over you may be entitled to extra money if you have made some provision towards your retirement such as savings or a private pension. This is called Savings Credit and could mean up to an extra £20.52 per week (for single people) or £27.09 per week (for couples). So you are likely to be entitled to some Pension Credit even if your weekly income is £184 (single people) or £270 (couples).
Even if your income is more, for example, you or your partner are severely disabled, are a carer or have housing costs such as mortgage interest payments, you may still be able to get Pension Credit.
To help further, if you apply for Pension Credit, you may be able to get up to 3 months backdated payment from the day you were first entitled up to the date you apply. Some people have received as much as £1000.
To make applying easy, The Pension Service has a dedicated freephone application line. Just call 0800 99 1234 (text phone 0800 169 0133) and an adviser will fill in the form with you. They'll then send it back to you to check it's correct and to sign.
A face-to-face service is also offered through The Pension Service's Local Service Team for people who require further assistance in applying. When you call, the adviser will arrange this if it's relevant for you. Or if you prefer, you can ask someone else to call on your behalf.
Over 2.7 million people are already in receipt of Pension Credit and you may be able to join them. So call today on free phone 0800 99 1234 (text phone 0800 169 0133). For more information visit: www.direct.gov.uk/mypensioncredit.
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