Pension Credit: Armed Forces
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to review the inclusion of military compensation as income in the means test for Pension Credit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds
There are no plans to change the way in which military compensation such as War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) awards affect Pension Credit.
When calculating a Pension Credit award, the first £10 of any War Pension payments or AFCS award made due to injury or disablement is disregarded.
Four additions to the War Disablement Pension are completely disregarded: Constant Attendance Allowance; Mobility Supplement; Severe Disablement Occupational Allowance; and dependency increases for anyone other than the applicant or her/his partner.
War Pensions and AFCS awards are a qualifying income for the Savings Credit element of Pension Credit, which is available to those who reached State Pension age before April 2016. Armed Forces Independence Payments are fully disregarded in Pension Credit and can also allow the recipient to qualify for an additional disability amount.
In contrast, payments from other schemes with a disablement element are fully taken into account as income for example, other public servants’ schemes, such as the Fire Service, (Firefighters Compensation Scheme), or the Police Service, (Police Pension Scheme), have no income disregards applied at all, as any disablement elements form part of their occupational pension and so these are taken fully into account.
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