What happens when IB stops but nearing retirement age.

TomsMom

Thanks Ed. I've made a note of that too.

Oldernotwiser

TomsMom wrote: »

It's not enough to give us a good income but too much to claim a means tested benefit. Makes you wonder if it's worth saving doesn't it?

But surely this sort of difficult situation is what you've been saving for?

TomsMom

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

But surely this sort of difficult situation is what you've been saving for?

Like most people who can afford it we were saving to make our post-retirement years more comfortable, and like most people we were hoping our post-retirement years would be in the region of 20 years plus, taking us both to at least the ages of our parents now (a history of long-lived family of healthy older people of 85 years plus). No guarantees of that, of course, but one hopes. I do not have a private pension to help out and OH has just a couple of very small ones, so savings are in place.

Our savings would hopefully mean that at the time when we only have our pensions coming in, there would be a bit extra to help out with the bills (if they increase as much as they have done this year) and help us to be independent and not reliant on any handouts from state or otherwise.

So fate decrees that OH is dealt a bum hand - no problems, life sucks at times but you just get on with it. But this comes at a time when it is pre-retirement and during the normal working lifetime.

We would have no problem with this situation if it had come post-retirement as that is exactly what the savings would be for.

BUT, it has come at a time when OH is still of working age, may come off Incapacity Benefit and may find himself unemployable due to his age and medical history plus the fact that employment is hard to find where we live.

All I am asking is what is available for someone of this age in this position. From what I understand state retirement pension cannot be taken early so if an older person under 65 cannot find employment I am trying to find out what the options are. Surely it's not a case of "use your savings" when you are still of an employable age when your contributions are up to date.

The whole thing hinges on work. If he is well enough he would like to work, if he can't find work then what happens? That's all we want to know.

Oldernotwiser

TomsMom wrote: »

Like most people who can afford it we were saving to make our post-retirement years more comfortable, and like most people we were hoping our post-retirement years would be in the region of 20 years plus, taking us both to at least the ages of our parents now (a history of long-lived family of healthy older people of 85 years plus). No guarantees of that, of course, but one hopes. I do not have a private pension to help out and OH has just a couple of very small ones, so savings are in place.

Our savings would hopefully mean that at the time when we only have our pensions coming in, there would be a bit extra to help out with the bills (if they increase as much as they have done this year) and help us to be independent and not reliant on any handouts from state or otherwise.

So fate decrees that OH is dealt a bum hand - no problems, life sucks at times but you just get on with it. But this comes at a time when it is pre-retirement and during the normal working lifetime.

We would have no problem with this situation if it had come post-retirement as that is exactly what the savings would be for.

BUT, it has come at a time when OH is still of working age, may come off Incapacity Benefit and may find himself unemployable due to his age and medical history plus the fact that employment is hard to find where we live.

All I am asking is what is available for someone of this age in this position. From what I understand state retirement pension cannot be taken early so if an older person under 65 cannot find employment I am trying to find out what the options are. Surely it's not a case of "use your savings" when you are still of an employable age when your contributions are up to date.

The whole thing hinges on work. If he is well enough he would like to work, if he can't find work then what happens? That's all we want to know.

I really wasn't having a go at you, just making a point; it always surprises me when people save for a rainy day and then object to using their savings when it starts raining!

I too have a husband with a severe chronic health condition and we're certainly spending the little savings we have so that he can have as happy and easy a time as is possible; as his doctor says "he won't make old bones" so there's no point in planning for a lengthy retirement. Given his prognosis (which I'm sure we all hope is wrong) wouldn't it be better to use your savings now so that you can both relax and enjoy the time left to you?

I do sympathise, really.

TomsMom

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Given his prognosis (which I'm sure we all hope is wrong) wouldn't it be better to use your savings now so that you can both relax and enjoy the time left to you?

I do sympathise, really.

The point being that my OH is doing his best to provide for me IF he doesn't survive the original prognosis. Whether he is here or not in 5 years time, there will still be bills to pay on the same house. There will be less food to buy if I'm on my own but the house will still have to be heated and maintained however many people live in it. So the savings are the backup, as planned all along.

He might be the first person with his condition that survives the norm for it. He is fortunate to be part of a trial treatment in addition to the chemo, a trial that has worked for other cancers which they are now trying out on his condition. Maybe this will be the breakthrough. If not, we go with the flow. But that's not the issue.

It's not a case of spending what we have now to enjoy the time we have left. We're not thinking of what time he has left, we will think about that when he's been given something more definite.

So we're back to the years between now and his retirement age, i.e. just over 3 years as he is 62 in February. If he is well enough and can find work, great, that's what he wants. If he can't find work then there is still the question of what he's entitled to until he's 65. If it's JSA then fine, but I don't know anyone in his position who claims JSA to know what's involved if there are no jobs. If it's not JSA at his age, then I'm wondering what it is. That was all I was asking in the first place, if there was anyone who knew anything about this type of situation who might point me in the right direction, and a few suggestions have been forthcoming which we will look into.

zzzLazyDaisy

EdInvestor wrote: »

See 2.3 - 2.4

http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/Documents/FS19The_State_Pension.pdf

I'm not sure that this help TomsMum because, if I understand it correctly, the qualification requirement is that she must have been in receipt of IB before retirement AND in receipt of the IB dependent's allowance for her OH. But if he was either working or on IB at that time, this sounds unlikely?

TomsMom

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

I'm not sure that this help TomsMum because, if I understand it correctly, the qualification requirement is that she must have been in receipt of IB before retirement AND in receipt of the IB dependent's allowance for her OH. But if he was either working or on IB at that time, this sounds unlikely?

Looks like you're right LazyDaisy.

"She can only get this increase if she was receiving IB with an addition for you before she starts to draw the State Pension"

I changed from IB to state pension in January, OH was diagnosed around May/June so we don't meet that criteria.

Oldernotwiser

We all approach these things differently; I was just trying to share a viewpoint with you. Hope all goes well.

EdInvestor

Actually there are a lot of people in this position - not necessarily through serious illness, but often through early redundancy or inability to find work after the age of around 55, but with too much money to claim basic benefits.

This was actually why there was such a fuss earlier in the year about the removal of the 10p tax band - many of these people were affected.

The problem is to bridge the gap between loss of mainstream work and pay,ent of pensions.

There are various approaches
-Doing part time work
-Spouses working
-Taking some pensions early or taking just the 25% tax free cash and using that for living costs, not the pension itself *
-Spending interest from savings
-Claiming IB/DLA (carer's allowance is not available to people getting state pension AFAIK) These aren't means-tested, at least not for you
-Trading down to smaller property to reaslise cash equity for investment
-Equity release on the property to obtain an income through a "drawdown mortgage"


* Anyone who has a short life expectancy and a spouse should take professional advice about what to do with pensions - annuities are often the wrong choice for the spouse in this situation

chesky369

Have you considered Earnings Support Allowance - ESA - it's for those who would be eligible for work as far as age is concerned, but have either physical or mental health problems. It only came in on 27 October but your local Job centre should be able to help. But I would go to your local CAB first, to get their backing beforehand.