whooppee!! extravagant pension increase

chesky369

Could be that the extra payment is because the personal tax allowance increases at age 65. But I'm not 100% sure without checking it out. Might be best for her to ring the Pensions Office and ask.

AirlieBird

This extra amount is likely to be the savings credit part of pensions credit. You only become eligible for this from your 65th birthday. The maximum amount of savings credit for a single person in 2009-10 is £19.71 and you get this maximum amount if your income is around the pension credit minimum guarantee. If your neighbour's income is above the basic state pension but less then about £173 then she should get some savings credit.

Every £500 of savings above £10,000 counts as £1 of income.

Lost2

chesky369 wrote: »

Just received notification from the pension service about the coming year's increase to the state pension.

A whole £1.92p per week!

Champagne's on me!!

:eek: Will you be buying second home in France

Jennifer_Jane

lilac_lady wrote: »

If you reach pension age with no debt or mortgage payment I'm sure that retirement is easier, especially when an large bill arrives.

Yes, agree, and examples of large bills are: dentist/new laptop/having to buy new clothes/car servicing and other costs/TV licence and so on.

Yes, you have to save monthly to allow for these costs, of course. But expenses are different when you retire, and large bills do come in despite best efforts.

For the record, my state pension was £85.15 per week and will be £86.63 per week from 12th April an increase of 1.7%. The Basic State Pension side of this is £60.54 and the rest is the deferred pension and other bits and pieces. My Company pension did not increase at all, and yes, I'm grateful for the small increase, but not ecstatic! My company pension and State Pension mean I have monthly income after tax of £882.85. Am managing fine by being very careful.

I don't have the bus pass as I don't need to get around town on the bus (can walk if required) and want to keep the car to maintain independence of going to see friends/go to shopping centre/go to cinema etc. Petrol has increased (£1.16 here also), and actually so has food (thanks be to Aldi!).

Chesky - agree with your posts, in fact you could have been me when you were talking about your MP's. I thought you were living in my town until you said about your local MP's being so close to Westminster! We have exactly the same situation here in the North West.

Jen

zygurat789

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

I don't have the bus pass as I don't need to get around town on the bus (can walk if required) and want to keep the car to maintain independence of going to see friends/go to shopping centre/go to cinema etc. Petrol has increased (£1.16 here also), and actually so has food (thanks be to Aldi!).

Jen

There comes a time when it is cheaper and safer to make friends with a local taxi firm, and chat them up for a regular user discount, than to actually own a car yourself.
The only time a car costs really big money is when you change it, then is the time to do the sums.

pollypenny

One expense that we don't have when retired is the buying of smart clothes for work.

I quite miss the excuse actually, tending to live in casual trousers and tops now. Looks like my two suits will last me forever.

Jennifer_Jane

zygurat789 wrote: »

There comes a time when it is cheaper and safer to make friends with a local taxi firm, and chat them up for a regular user discount, than to actually own a car yourself.
The only time a car costs really big money is when you change it, then is the time to do the sums.

Thanks for the advice, zygurat. I retired in September and changed car then, so have brand new car meant to be my last one, and am worried about the servicing cost + insurance in 6 months' time. I'm heartened that you don't feel that these costs are not big money.

Re the taxis, I have never heard of taxi companies giving discounts, despite having friends who run a taxi company in another town.

Re the other big bills, of course, I forgot house maintenance, plumber and so on. The point I was making was, of course, that no matter how much you use Quidco and change your gas and electricity, there are still big bills.

Re pollypenny's post about clothes, I am just changing my wardrobe to cope with the new lifestyle. There is clothes maintenance as well as every other kind of maintenance. Am just trying to make the point that there are still lots of costs surrounding living, and just because you are retired, a lot of those costs continue.

By the way, regarding the pension increase, I was told when I deferred my pension, that the annual increases on the BSP would include the deferred amount, so am a bit miffed that this hasn't happened with this increase.

Jen

zygurat789

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

By the way, regarding the pension increase, I was told when I deferred my pension, that the annual increases on the BSP would include the deferred amount, so am a bit miffed that this hasn't happened with this increase.

Jen

The annual increase you were told about were RPI linked this years RPI linked increase should have been -1.9%, that's minus 1.9%, you should be really grateful that a) your pension went up by 2.5% ie an increase of 3.41% and that this minus increase was not (not) applied to your deferred pension bit. Pensioners have done well out of this it's a shame that they don't feel that they have

zygurat789

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, zygurat. I retired in September and changed car then, so have brand new car meant to be my last one, and am worried about the servicing cost + insurance in 6 months' time. I'm heartened that you don't feel that these costs are not big money.

Re the taxis, I have never heard of taxi companies giving discounts, despite having friends who run a taxi company in another town.

Jen

Tell me, how much did you fok out on a car and how much do you expect the sevice to be. I bought a new car 10 years ago, the first service was just over £100 followed annually by £200 £300 etc until the sixth year when it went back down again (not to £100 though).
I'm sure anyone with a name like Jennifer Jane would be able to cghat up a taxi co. You know regular weekly visit to Aldi etc etc.

Errata

I've just ski-ed my increase for the next two years on a very cheap and cheerful dishwasher :j