Defer pension or not?

ladysailor

I'm very confused about this.

I reached retirement age - yippee - in August 2010. I'm self-employed and was finding it difficult to make ends meet so decided to claim my state pension and continue to work.

Things have picked up recently, so I am now wondering whether I should defer my state pension. My claimed pension is obviously being taxed, so if I were to continue to claim I would only have a proportion of it to save, and the 3% interest or so I could get would not compare to the 10% the government will increase my state pension by.

I am in good health and if previous generations are anything to go by, would expect to be around for another 30 years or more.

What bothers me is, with the current government messing about with pensions can I rely on my pension being topped up, or will they change the rules just as I get to claim it? I would hate to forego £6K or so a year for 3-5 years only to find that when I came to claim my enhanced pension HMG had re-written the rules.

Any thoughts?

bigfreddiel

ladysailor wrote: »

I'm very confused about this.

I reached retirement age - yippee - in August 2010. I'm self-employed and was finding it difficult to make ends meet so decided to claim my state pension and continue to work.

Things have picked up recently, so I am now wondering whether I should defer my state pension.

I'm very confused as well - I didn't know you could take your sp for a couple of years (2010-2012) and then decide to defer it.

sounds good tho' because each year its deferred it earns 10% approx

fj

xylophone

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@over50/documents/digitalasset/dg_200597.pdf

Page 16

kidmugsy

My wife has deferred hers and we can't decide whether to "cash it in" as a lump sum (terms not wonderful, but money in the purse) or as extra pension (terms glorious, but can we trust the beggars to keep paying it?). So you are not alone.

jamesd

You can rely on it being topped up. The lump sum option isn't likely to be best for those who are in normal health. You can take it, defer, take it again. Can't defer more than once, though.

atush

kidmugsy wrote: »

My wife has deferred hers and we can't decide whether to "cash it in" as a lump sum (terms not wonderful, but money in the purse) or as extra pension (terms glorious, but can we trust the beggars to keep paying it?). So you are not alone.

IMHO you can bet on them contiuning to pay it so take the generous extra.:money: