Pension -v- Benefits

medper

Hi all...

I wonder if anyone has been faced with the same dilemma as i'm faced with?

I am in receipt of an NHS Pension since the mid 90s after taking an ill health retirement (was 42yrs at the time). Having returned to work in a lesser capacity i was able to provide myself with sufficient income to live quite adequately. Whilst the pension provides me with a low income of just below 800pcm, I am now faced with unemployment and real difficulties in finding work (at 54yrs of age some will know what i mean!!).

I believe it's called the "poverty trap": I am unable to get any benefits or income support, jobseekers, etc because the pension i receive takes me slightly over the threshold.

After doing a quick calculation i established that i would be better off than i am now by nearly 100pcm if didn't receive any pension at all.

How can this be? Should i say to the paymaster general.. "stuff your pension" and then live off the taxpayer?

As you can guess, i'm deeply frustrated by this considering i have a mortgage to pay, negative equity, council tax, blah blah blah...
Even the Citizens Advice Bureau can't offer me any words of encouragement.

karenx

if you don't take the pension as its still money available to you you would be assesed as if you still got it. So that won't help your situation at all

wildbri

I wish I had £800 pm pension, the basic oap is about £400pm with top ups mine is £540 all we get is some discount on our council tax. I think you are very lucky to have had such a pension for so long. I worked for over fifty years. regards bri:)

medper

The point i'm making Bri is that the amount of benefits that i would be entitled to (given my own circumstances) far exceed the amount that the benefit agency deem as their benefit threshold.
Slowly, i'm being forced into a situation whereby i have no option but to either default my mortgage payments, request reposession, declare bankruptcy, etc...

I don't consider myself lucky at all but rather victimized for trying to own my own home, contributing to a good pension scheme and abiding by the rules of our beaurocracy!

btw.. my mortgage, council tax and service charges alone are as much as my pension! Hopefully that puts it into perspective??

Regards

nannytone_2

how would you get over £800 a month in benefits? are you including housing benefit and CTB too (i know you said you had a mortgage but were you comparing it to you living in social housing?)

karenx

Unfortunatly thats the way it works out. This is an income to you and meny people who become unemployed dont have an additional income of a pension of £800 per month coming in. Do you expect to get your pension PLUS JSA of £64 per week PLUS mortgage interest payments after 13 weeks? For majority who end up on JSA all they have is the £64 per week. Think yourself lucky you have this to fall back on

nannytone_2

off topic a bit but i do see why people dont bother with an occupational pension. ( my husband does have one)
my aunt and uncle never had kids and both worked full time and managed to save for a comfortable retirement. my uncle sadly died about 15 years ago and my aunt gets no help at all and her savings are almost depleted (shes 88 now , luckily has no health problems other than normal wear and tear)
she lives as frugally as if she were on pension credit.
i suppose my point is that she and her husband could have had a far superior life while they were younger, but instead chose to prepare for old age.
she now says she doesnt know why they bothered!

tanith

nannytone if your aunt now has no savings then she should look at claiming , her circumstances are now different , in that she has no savings and I am sure there are some benefits that she could possibly claim, someone will know which ones I am sure...

nannytone_2

shes looking into it at the mo.
all i was saying is i can understand why people just spend what they earn as in the long run, unless youre wealthy, making provision for old age makes little difference to how well you live!
you just have a poorer standard of life while your working hard and saving every penny!

Katykat

Medper, I see where you are coming from re the "poverty trap" but its hard to empathise really. It sounds like you were awarded Ill health retirement & got a B**** good pension out of it. Then, you went on & worked for another 15 years. So, in effect, you got a wage plus £800 pm pension. You should really be quite well off by now, so you should have been able to pay your mortgage off long ago. Unless you live in a very expensive house, you could have paid your mortgage off out of your pension and lived on your wages. Many of us have to live on minimum wages AND pay the mortgage out of it. I think you should count your blessings. You have been much better off than many of us for 15 yrs, but now complain that you would be better off without your pension. Some people would give their right arm for a pension of this size.

STOP COMPLAINING

Fire_Fox

Have you tried Support for Mortgage Interest? You can also claim for service charges, ground rent and buildings insurance but it is not very well known amongst DWP staff. You can always sign on for JSA to get your national insurance paid, even if they don't give you any actual cash - apparently it is the JSA people who pay the service charges.