People in polygamous marriages
A polygamous marriage is where a person is married to more than one partner and the marriage was registered or contracted in a country where this is legal.
If your customer has entered into a polygamous marriage and is living with more than one of their partners:
- only one partner can get Pension Credit at any one time and all partners need to agree who should apply. If they cannot agree who should apply, we can decide for them,
- when we work out Pension Credit we add together the income and capital of all the partners.
Your customer’s Pension Credit ‘appropriate amount’ is made up of:
- the standard amount for couples, for your customer and one partner, plus
- the difference between the standard amount for a couple and the standard amount for a single person, for each of their other partners, plus
- any extra amounts (for example, for severe disability or housing costs) for your customer or any of their partners.
More information on the standard amount for Pension Credit.
The rules for the extra amount for severe disability are also slightly different. For example, your customer can only get the higher amount if all of them are getting Attendance Allowance, or the middle or highest rate of the care component of Disability Living Allowance, and no-one is getting Carer’s Allowance for caring for any of them.
The Savings Credit starting point is the same as for a couple (£164.55).
The Savings Credit maximum is the same as for a couple (£27.09).
An assessed income period may apply if your customer or any of their partners are 65 or over and everyone is aged 60 or over.
