Care and support

• State pension

  For people who have reached retirement age

• Pension credit

  Means-tested top up for people aged 60 or over

• Housing benefit

  Help with paying your rent

• Help with council tax

  Help with paying your council tax

• Winter fuel payment

  Extra help with winter fuel costs

• Extra money for people with an illness or disability

  Attendance allowance & disability living allowance

• Carer's allowance

  Help if you look after someone else

• Other help for pensioners

  War pensions; help from the social fund; heating and insulation grants through the warm front scheme; health benefits

• Challenging decisions

  If you are unhappy with a decision

• Further help
• Employment and support allowance

  Extra help if you are under pension age and have limited capability for work

The Pension Service (part of the Pension, Disability and Carers Service) provides information about extra money and pensions for people aged 60 and over. It is part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) providing a single point of contact with a number of regional centres across the country. Although there is a ‘face to face’ local service which is able to provide home visits to people’s homes, there is no local office open to the public.

The pension centre for Hertfordshire is currently based in Burnley. The Pension Service can be contacted by telephone, post, fax, e-mail and digital TV. However, the main point of contact is by telephone, and the staff are trained to deal with most enquiries in this way. In addition, the Pension Service will offer a home visit to help claim any extra money or pensions if necessary.

The Pension Service has a national telephone line - 0845 6060265 for any general enquiries but see below for claim line numbers which may be free depending on your telephone service provider.