Retirement dilemma

chesky369

Of course, your husband's pension might be like Sir Fred Goodwin's (the ex head of RBS). Just heard that because he retired "At the request of their employer" his pension was paid IN FULL at the age of 50.

But probably not.

jm2153

Thank you chesky369 and eskil. Unfortunately I somehow don't think we'll have in a year what Sir Fred gets in a week!!

The forecast we got was his employers pension. It's a low as it is because he didn't have a pensionable job till 1997, so he's bought AVC's with employer in order to try and bump things up a bit. He does have full NI contributions (as do I). I'm a bit away from retiring yet though as only 55. Afraid I gave up with the small print of the NHS pension scheme - it all got too confusing with the best X years salary of the last Y years & whether overtime, unsocial and availability payments were included or excluded.

It does rather sound as if the suggestion to keep up the mortgage until the state pension kicks in (claiming Pension Credit) and then use savings to pay off any outstanding mortgage is probably our only option at the moment especially as the mortgage protection people are now wriggling to find a small hole they can crawl out through >o( Yet more stress just when we don't need it!!

usignuolo

I just wondered, didn't you say you had inherited 50 thousand? That might affect your eligibility for Pensions Credit.

chesky369

Usignuolo -

.....Unfortunately your savings will affect the amount you can claim.... exil

.....as well as his savings, he wouldn't be likely to have much success in claiming... chesky 369

cyclonebri1

As Chesky says, find out the exact terms and requirements of early retirement on ill health grounds under the company scheme.
I would however say don't do anything about it untill you have to. Companies sometimes use voluntary redundancy and compromise agreements to resolve issues like this. It can sometimes be the best alround option. This if fine when it works in your favour.
So the advice is while he's still in employment, don't jump;)

mangrego

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

As Chesky says, find out the exact terms and requirements of early retirement on ill health grounds under the company scheme.
I would however say don't do anything about it untill you have to. Companies sometimes use voluntary redundancy and compromise agreements to resolve issues like this. It can sometimes be the best alround option. This if fine when it works in your favour.
So the advice is while he's still in employment, don't jump;)

Hi Chesky i am in the same situation i have been off work sick for along time now and most probably will be going down the Ill health retirement route, although there may be talk of taking Early voluntary retirement instead, could you tell me if this would be a better option or not? i have no clue as to how all this works.
Any help would be great

chesky369

First of all, what kind of pension is this - Defined Benefit (or final salary) or money purchase? I think it might make a difference. In a final salary scheme, if you choose to leave work before your normal retirement date (NRD), then there is usually a penalty - can be 4% less for each year. I think most of these schemes would also have a minimum age at which you can retire. Retirement through ill health is usually at the discretion of the employer and the terms of the pension in that case are laid out in the rules. You have to read them or contact the administrator of the pension scheme, and discuss it with them. Don't do anything in a hurry and get proper advice first. Get the rules of the scheme and understand what you're doing first.

D1zzy

"if you choose to leave work before your normal retirement date (NRD), then there is usually a penalty - can be 4% less for each year"
- unless you're a banker in which case they top up your pension pot!

mangrego

chesky369 wrote: »

First of all, what kind of pension is this - Defined Benefit (or final salary) or money purchase? I think it might make a difference. In a final salary scheme, if you choose to leave work before your normal retirement date (NRD), then there is usually a penalty - can be 4% less for each year. I think most of these schemes would also have a minimum age at which you can retire. Retirement through ill health is usually at the discretion of the employer and the terms of the pension in that case are laid out in the rules. You have to read them or contact the administrator of the pension scheme, and discuss it with them. Don't do anything in a hurry and get proper advice first. Get the rules of the scheme and understand what you're doing first.

Hi Chesky thanks for your views the pension i have i think its now a CSDB it was changed from the end of March 08 it states that benefits up intill then will be calculated on a final salary basis.that gave ne 19 years and 2 hundred days.I pressume since then it is a CSDB scheme which its just short of a year at present. any views?
Sorry but i have no knowledge of pensions at all.

chesky369

"benefits up intill then will be calculated on a final salary basis"

yes, but only up to the normal retirement date - if you go before, there is sure to be a penalty and that's what you have to find out by looking at the rules. Nobody can help you unless you know them.