deprivation of income

malka wrote: My brother is due for his ESA (support group) reassessment in October when he will be 64yrs old. He also claims pension credit, can he close down his ESA claim when this happens instead of going through the reassessment process and transfer fully over to pension credit without being accused of deliberately depriving himself of income? He will then only be 1yr away from state pension.

We don't advise on Pension Credit on the forum but as far as I am aware it should not be a problem but I would still advise you to get face to face advice if you can, do an internet search for "welfare advice" with your postcode, town or county.

There are lots of changes happening in the benefit system at the moment, many of which will occur in the next year or so and you need to be properly informed before making a Decision to change.

Gordon

malka wrote: it's very hard Gordon to get the right advice from the right person, although i've tried many avenues of investigation. the issue of deprivation of income and how it applies to ESA is hard to get a definitive answer on, but it's crucial to a decision which i may have to make. Thanks anyway........

There were some discussions, a couple of years ago, on other forums where it was suggested that the DWP would treat this as deprivation of capital, but I know of no one who has had this actually happen to them.

If you were found Fit for Work tomorrow, your PC would increase to make up the difference for your ESA(CB) ceasing and I cannot see any difference between this and your closing your claim.

Gordon