Q I am 62, my wife is 56 and I will soon face redundancy. My age and arthritis mean I will not work again. I have savings of £6,000 but will have nothing else. What can I claim?

A Claim Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG). This will give you £155.80 a week plus a full Council Tax Rebate. MIG would be less if you get redundancy pay that would take your capital over £6,000. If it goes above £12,000 you cannot get MIG, so claim Incapacity Benefit instead.

Q My State pension is £79.80 and mineworkers' pension £24.02 weekly, with £3,767 in savings. Will I get Pension Credit?

A Your income is just £1.72 above Income Support level. The maximum extra Pension Credit is £14.79 a week. Forty per cent of your £1.72 is deducted from this maximum, giving you £14.11.

Q You said there is no upper capital limit for Pension Credit, but there surely must come a point where someone has too much in savings to qualify. Our only pension income is £150.23 a week, but we have considerable capital. Could we possibly qualify?

A Every £1,000 of capital above £6,000 is treated as an income of £2 a week. So in your circumstances, you would be counted out for Pension Credit with capital above £33,000.

Q I have a State Pension of £101.39 and Income Support of 71p weekly. I do not pay rent or council tax. I have been told I will get an extra £14.36 when Pension Credit starts in October. How much of this will I have to pay for rent and council tax?

A None of it. It is all yours. There is no catch. Honest!

Q I have a State Pension of £91.45 a week and Attendance Allowance (AA) of £57.20. My wife's pension is £46.87 and she also has Industrial Injuries payments of £11.68. My mineworkers' pension is £262.20 a month and our savings are £10,000. Can we get Pension Credit?

A Not as things stand. But, as you get AA, your wife could claim underlying entitlement to Carer's Allowance. This would give you Pension Credit of £4 a week because of the more generous rules for carers.