looking for ideas might be in wrong place

patty65

Hi, I have just retired and along with my partner, who is also retired, our total income is £15000 per year made up of private pensions and our OAP.

And we have just under £10,000 in savings. We own our house outright, mortgage paid of last month:j and it is worth £150,000, one up the road sold for that and it is identical type house to mine.

Reason for so little in the bank is we had a large shortfall in the endownments but I was determined to be mortgage free when I retired.

Our total outgoings including food is approx £9000 though that is to be confirmed, so we have £6000 a year for holidays and treats.

We have no children so no one to leave the house to so we have to decide what to do with it when we go.

Do we sell the house and rent somewhere and live off the proceeds or do we keep the house and if either one of us or even both of us have to go into an old folks home then sell the house?

As I said, since no children we are not concerned what happens to the house after we go.

It has been suggested to me that we could claim benefits but since we had over £25000 in the bank just before I retired and used £15000 to help pay of the mortgage could that not be considered depriving of assets and anyway since we got rid of the mortgage our disposable income is actually more than when I was working and paying the mortgage.

So ideas?

Thanks for reading so far typing this out helps me to put things in perspective

Patrick

00ec25

not goning to offer answers but here's some food for thought

deprivation of assets - what you have done is not deprivation. you have merely converted cash into another form of asset, ie a capital asset. Where it is relevant to a means test then the value of your capital will be counted, however few will include your house in that category except as you already klnow when it comes to care home costs

renting - you have worked hard to get this house, why sell it now at the bottom of the market and go into renting. Yes you may have a higher disposable income than ever before but why spend it on rent, enjoy the house and your spending power while you can.
How about continuing the rigours of the mortgage discipline and simply save that money into a savings account to rebuild your depleted savings?

Looking forward how good is your house? Obvioulsy one of the renting benefits is you are not responsible for maintenance and that is potentially a big issue in retirnement, but if your house is in good condtion why rent if you will not have to do much maintenance work on your house in the next 5, 10 - 20 years? My father had 26 years of retirement and loved every minute of being in the home he had worked for.

I'm no expert but think very very carefully about any of the equity release schemes, you are prime candidates for some smart salesman pulling a fast one in your circumstances, only consider it if you are really desparate and even then walk away from it, they are universally disliked and not recommended.

As I am sure you appreciate the biggest poblem with retirement is playing the gussing game of what will happen in 5,10,20 years!
Sell up now and what? You will have double your current income for 10 years £15k +£15k then what????????? Make the £150k last longer? £7.5 extra for 20 years? A sizeable part of that £7.5K may have to be spent on rent so you'll not be much better off that way

Sorry for lackof answers but my view at the moment is don't sell at the bottom of a market, you can only sell the house once and you need to time is right

amcluesent

>It has been suggested to me that we could claim benefits<

Err, for what? You're income means you are still a basic rate tax-payer!

Presumably you live in England? If so, your biggest problem will be some rat-faced socialist in the Council stealing your house to pay for long-term care. I'd take legal advice on tying up the house ownership to make a forced sale impossible.

And being quite serious, have you considered how to fund and arrange for a trip to Dignitas to avoid a miserable end?

atypical

amcluesent wrote: »

>It has been suggested to me that we could claim benefits<

Err, for what? You're income means you are still a basic rate tax-payer!

He said their combined income was £15,000 annually. Assuming they're 65 or older they have a combined tax free allowance of at least ~£19,000 so shouldn't be paying tax.

What relevance that has to benefits I don't know.

patty65

It has been suggested to me that we could claim benefits

Council tax benefits, pension credits etc. What if anything are we entitled to?

I am not claiming for anything, I have never claimed any benefits in my life.

Just friends and aquaintances saying so what are you claiming for?

I would not even know where to start claiming benefits.

your biggest problem will be some rat-faced socialist in the Council stealing your house

If we have to go into care if we still have the house then so be it.

There is not anyone we want to leave the house to if we still own it when we go, I suppose we could leave it to a cousin rather than let

some rat-faced socialist in the Council stealing your house

Anyway decided to keep the house for the present

Patrick

dunstonh

I would not even know where to start claiming benefits.

Your income appears to over the threshold to claim for pension credit. For a couple, pension credit can be used to bring your income up to £10319.40 a year (over 60s). So, £15k is well through that.

Savings credit is calculated on savings and investments over £6000. Every £500 above that is treated as £1 of income.


However, you can check the online calculator to make sure:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsandretirementplanning/PensionCredit/DG_180167

patty65

The people suggesting benefits do not know what our income is, they just think 2 retired people living on their OAP should be claiming benefits.

So if someone whose mortgage is coming to an end and there is a shortfall in the endownments uses their savings to pay it off and their savings drop below the level for claiming benefits that is considered deprivation of assets.

There was no way I was going to keep paying an interest only mortgage which was finished because it had run for 25 years and the endownments did not cover it. That is why I had the money in savings for this event

Patrick