Widows Pension

[mayennaise]

My father in law died recently. He and my mum in law were receiving Attendence Allowance for each other as she is ill too. How does she now stand regarding pensions and benefits. They each had their individual state pensions as well the AA's. What pension/benefits can she now expect to receive? We are in the process of notifying all the relevant authorities via the 'Tell Us Once ' service but she is understandable worried that her income is going to be drastically reduced and I wondered if could we could reassure her whilst it is all getting sorted out.

[factor-fiction]

There is a website that acts as a benefit calculator- it may be worth seeing what that shows. But I can't immediately see that she'll be worse off as effectively they were getting individual amounts. She may also be now entitled to pension credit or housing benefit, and a council tax reduction

[factor-fiction]

I'm not sure about AA though. I can guess it will remain but I'm not sure

[woofgang]

you don't get attendance allowance for another person, you get it based on your own illness or disability so hers will continue.

[factor-fiction]

Thanks woofgang- that's what I recall happened with my grandmother- she got AA and used it to pay for a helper but I suppose she could have used it to pay family members/neighbours for running errands and cleaning etc if she's wanted

[THECORBYLOON]

Attendance Allowance will remain in payment as that is paid to the disabled person. With regard to the State Pension there are various categories, the common ones being A,B and BL. The Cat A is based on personal National Insurance (NI) Contributions and the B and BL are based on the spouse's NI. The chances are, the MIL receives a Cat BL pension which is about 60% of the full basic pension. If the late FIL had a full contribution record, the widow will be awarded a Cat B pension and receive the full, basic pension rate.