Need help please on private pension

dennywest

Dear all, i have recently had a interview from the DWP and they have taken away £30 from my weekly state pension. The reason they did this, they said, was because i have a private pension. Could someone advise me if this is right. I have been told that i can have both. To be honest i don't really understand how it all works and would be very grateful of any advice possible, thank you

gadgetmind

I guess you were claiming some means tested pension top-up. It's because of situations like this that HMG are wanting to move to a flat rate pension.

hugheskevi

It is worth a brief description of the system and what you get:

1) Basic State Pension - £102.15 per week assuming you have a full contribution history.

2) Additional Pension - consists of SERPS and State Second Pension. How much you get depends on how much you earnt, and whether you were contracted-out into a private pension (if your private pension is a final salary type then you almost certainly were contracted-out)

Together, Basic State Pension and Additional pension form your State Pension, and this amount is unaffected by private pension. You might also have some Graduated Retirement Benefit from the 1970s, which is also part of your State Pension.

Then you have the means-tested benefits:

1) Pension Credit - which has two components, Guarantee Credit which is payable from female State Pension age and Savings Credit which is payable from male State Pension age.

2) Housing Benefit

3) Council Tax Benefit

All of these are affected by private pension income (ie if you receive them, then the amount you receive is reduced the more private pension income you have).

As Gadgetmind says, you are probably receiving some means-tested benefit, and DWP were not previously aware of the private pension and hence have reduced the means-tested awards accordingly.

If you add more detail, and in particular which of the above benefits you receive, your age and whether DWP previously knew of the private pension we can perhaps go into a bit more detail.

dennywest

Thank you, i was just having a basic gov pension, no top ups. I am not getting any benefits at all. The DWP did say that they had no idea that i had a private pension. The gov pension that i am recieving is just the ordinary pension that i started to recieve when i reached pension age, which increased inline with inflation. They are now coming back next week to look at my husbands pension and said that i owe them money as they didn't know i had the private pension and that i wasn't entitled to the amount that i have been recieving, however they are not going to make me repay this.

McKneff

How much state pension are you receiving, how much private pension are you receiving.

Same again for yur husband.

Something must have been claimed for somewhere along the line, one does not normally affect the other.

jem16

dennywest wrote: »

Thank you, i was just having a basic gov pension, no top ups. I am not getting any benefits at all. The DWP did say that they had no idea that i had a private pension. The gov pension that i am recieving is just the ordinary pension that i started to recieve when i reached pension age, which increased inline with inflation.

This makes no sense at all. Having a private pension has no bearing whatsoever on your entitlement to a basic state pension.

They are now coming back next week to look at my husbands pension and said that i owe them money as they didn't know i had the private pension and that i wasn't entitled to the amount that i have been recieving, however they are not going to make me repay this.

There is more to this than you are telling us so far. Why would they want to look at your husband's pension?

How much state pension do you receive? How long have you been receiving it?

McKneff

You say they have taken £30 from your pension and then

You say they are not going to make you repay this, repay what?

The OP is still on line, wondering why there are no answers to questions,

dennywest

I'm replying between entertaining family here for the day and on behalf of my husbands aunt, she is the one who has this problem and no there are no underlining or anything hidden. She has only had her pension from when she retired as did her husband. She got a letter stating they were coming to review her pension. They looked at her state pension and private pension and decided that they were reducing her state pension by £30 per week. They then said that they were coming back, ( wed) to look at her husbands as they were not aware that they both had a private pension, but both of them had never with held any information if they had ever had to fill in forms etc. That's why i've come on here to see if what they have said is right, before contesting their decision. I reccommended them to come on here. The man from the DWP also said that they had been paid too much and that, aunt and uncle actually owed them money, but they weren't going to demand that they pay it back. It all sounds wierd and puzzling, that's why we wanted advice.
She was getting a combined pension of £180 per week

jem16

dennywest wrote: »

They looked at her state pension and private pension and decided that they were reducing her state pension by £30 per week.

As we have said, having a private pension has no bearing on the state pension.

However it will affect any entitlement to pension credit.

She was getting a combined pension of £180 per week

What do you mean a combined pension?

You need to break this down for anyone to help.

What is the actual amount she gets as a state pension? Did she have enough NI credits to qualify for a state pension?

dennywest

Yh she paid full contributions while working and what i mean by combined is she gets £100 state and £80 private pension. I'm asking for info, as i'm talking to you

jem16

dennywest wrote: »

Yh she paid full contributions while working and what i mean by combined is she gets £100 state and £80 private pension. I'm asking for info, as i'm talking to you

Did she pay the full stamp or the small married woman's stamp?

If the full stamp how many years did she work?