Retirees checklist...

MSE_Martin · 23 July 2008 at 2:41PM

I was doing some mulling after writing the new Childcare article and i thought something similar would be good for pensioners/retirees.

It's the main cash things / help /issues that are being missed out on. My idea is short notes which can then link elsewhere on the site (or bigger notes if there's no 'elsewhere' on the site)

In my head are

Pensioners Tax Credit
Winter Fuel Allowance
EHIC cards
Travel Insurance

and what else - in the 'getting what you're entitled too - specific issues' type stuff.

Any suggestions more than welcome

Edinburghlass_2 · 23 July 2008 at 3:26PM

Financial benefits or not of deferring state pension?

missile · 23 July 2008 at 4:04PM

Great idea Martin, may I suggest the following>

Bus pass
Rail pass / discounts in some areas
Pensioner Discount @ a.n.other stores e.g. 10% @ B&Q on Wednesdays
Free prescriptions
Care needs assessment
Funding schemes / scams to be avoided, for care homes

libra10 · 23 July 2008 at 4:38PM

It would be great if you could do an in-depth article regarding income-tax reclaiming when your income is close to your personal allowance.

For example, at 62 years of age I am allowed to earn just under £6000 (I think) before income-tax is chargeable. My earnings (reduced state pension plus savings account interest), take me over this amount.

Obviously any ways to avoid paying income tax would be very interesting to people in my situation. ISAs already invested in.

Thank you

Errata · 23 July 2008 at 5:38PM

What comes up very regularly on this board are questions about paying for residential care. This would need a chapter, rather than a short note, so what would be helpful would be a comprehensive list of agencies who can give people the information they need eg Age Concern, Help the Aged, Civil Service Welfare Fund, DWP, Hospital Social Work dept.

seven-day-weekend · 23 July 2008 at 8:39PM

Thanks Martin for not forgetting about us.

I'm particularly interested in making sure women have their full entitlement to State Pension, although I feel that today's young women will not suffer the same as my generation (60 in 2010) and older, due both to the recent changes and also different perceptions.

Other than that, how to keep your home so you can hand it to your kids.

Thanks once again.

EdInvestor · 23 July 2008 at 10:06PM

Getting the state pensions sorted out can be quite a major issue,with some people benefitting a lot from paying up back years, and pushing the DWP to give them the right credits. Many people are due much higher state pensions than they expect due to SERPS/S2P.

Getting tax sorted out is another one - many people are used to PAYE and then have to deal with multiple sources of income and different tax rates. Finding the right tax office alone can be quite difficult. People are unfamiliar with the age tax allowances, which are now high (9-10k pa.)They also often don't realise that all pensions (including the state pension) are taxable.

Whether or not to take pensions early, plus how to decide whether its better to take a larger cash lump and smaller pension (check the "commutation rate") comes up a lot, plus how to deploy quite large tax free cash lump sums.

Paying off mortgages, whether or not to surrender endowments early, plus the pros and cons of equity release as a source of extra income crop up quite a lot.

And then there's annuities, not to mention income drawdown.... :eek:

There's no doubt people are hit by a barrage of financial decisions, many of them complex, when they retire.The baffle factor is pretty large.

Farway · 24 July 2008 at 12:53PM

Agree with EdInvestor on the baffle factor, as someone who for 40 years has been PAYE I am now faced next year with having to complete a tax return for the first time in my life

ukmaggie45 · 29 July 2008 at 12:55PM

Attendance Allowance and how to claim - as we age we are more likely to need more help!

Errata · 29 July 2008 at 8:41PM

A really useful link would be one to the thread "What to do when someone dies".

Savvy_Sue · 3 August 2008 at 11:27PM

The bee I often get in my bonnet is that if your hearing starts to go (as it often does), then your best bet is to go to your GP and ask for a hearing test via your local audiology clinic. If you need a hearing aid or two, you'll get them FREE. Yes, there will be a waiting list, and yes, it may be long, and yes, you may be able to get a better hearing aid by paying £000s. BUT if you don't get yourself used to wearing a free one, you may not get on with one which costs you £000s.