News3 mins ago
State Pension
I have read that one if the benefits that DWP will be able to investigate is state pension by accessing people's bank accounts. I am confused as to what they would be looking for. I thought everyone with the total NI years is entitled to it regardless of any savings. I do not receive state pension as yet but hoping someone can explain what I am missing.
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by Karamia. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.And as you say, it is not means tested, so I don't know aht else they need to know.
HMRC need to know because the State Pension forms part of your taxable income. But they know anyway because the DWP informs them round about February each year. Recipients are then told of their new income tax code (thus learning how much their pension will be before the DWP tells them) in readiness for the following April.
There are two rates of pension now I get paid at the old rate, my daughter gets the higher new rate. When fill ing forms in to make a claim for pension credit some people might say that they are getting the lower pension when actually they are getting the higher rate. That's probably why proof is needed. Just a thought.
It's Pension Credit and other means-tested benefits that are under scrutiny, not State Pension or Retirement Pension.
Although DWP knows what benefits are being paid, it relies on claimants telling it if their savings reach a level affecting the rate of benefit they're entitled to.
The proposal is the banks notify DWP if the savings are above the amount allowed by DWP.
They will also notitify DWP if transactions suggest the claimant is outwith Great Britain as that might affect entitlement to certain benefits.
To provide some clarification here . . .
If the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill gets through Parliament in the form that's currently proposed by the Government, the DWP will have the power to monitor the bank accounts of anyone who is in receipt of any form of 'benefit' (including the State Pension), even where such benefits are not means-tested:
https:/
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride, has stated that, in practice, such powers would only ever be used where there is a suspicion of fraud:
https:/
However, given that the DWP can already obtain information about benefit claimants' bank accounts when they have reason to suspect that fraud is taking place, it seems hard to work out why they should need any new powers unless they actually want to access such information under other circumstances.
CHRIS, the link you gave is misleading since both state pension and retirement pension are not means-tested, it's just that pensioners might also have entitlement to Pension Credit.
HMRC is notified by banks and building societies about interest on money held and that is then passed to DWP.
The problem with that is HMRC is telt only annually so by the time they tell DWP, there could have been a whole year's worth of benefit overpaid and HMRC would not be aware of any money in current accounts if it attracts no interest.
DWP can already ask for financial information about that is only if they already have a suspicion of fraud.