Wanting to save, but I'm not allowed too!

john_s_2

One other thing that should be mentioned is whether it is worthwhile your friend saving for a pension. It may be that they will save so little that their private pension (when it pays out) won't be more than what they'd be entitled to for Pension Credit. So they'll merely be topping up their private pension with pension credit - and might as well have not bothered with saving up for it.

Martin does have a page about private pension saving, although I can't see that he mentions it on this page. Although I've definitely seen him mention it on his TV programme.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/discount-pensions

This is a catch-22 when it comes to pension saving- unless you're confident your pension saving will take you way over the means benefit threshold, there's little incentive to save up for one. The Government, in fairness, has recognised this and does pay a little extra pension credit to those who have saved up something towards retirement - but I don't know much about this or how it works. CAB will definitely be able to give more information about this.

~Chameleon~

How old is your son and is it likely he will never work again? I wonder whether it would be worth him paying into a private pension if he might be able to claim PC at retirement age