66, living in private rental, no savings - retirement prospects

firefly47

I am a single lady, 66, with no savings, taken state pension a t 60 and working full-time and living in a private rental property with 2 bedrooms; and I run a car and enjoy foreign holidays.
I should like to reduce my hours next year and fully retire by the time I am 70.
Will the local authority pay my rent so I can stay in this property or will I have to down-size? Or will I have to go into local authority housing?
How can I find out how much I will have to live on with state pension & benefits?
I would like to think I can still run my car and have holidays but I doubt this very much.
Is there anyone who has been/is in this position who can offer advice or experience? :cool:
Thanks

seven-day-weekend

The rent will only cover a one-bedroom place at the amount of your Local Housing Allowance. This allowance is means-tested.

You can stay in the two-bedroom place but will have to find any shortfall in rent yourself.

Try the turn-to-us calculator http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

to see what you might be entitled to.

jackyann

A lot depends on how your local authority organises housing.

I suggest that you look on the gov.uk website to get current figures for pension credit, eligibility for housing benefit etc.

Look on your council's website for information about local housing. I would especially look for housing associations that specialise in retirement properties.

I would definitely look carefully at your finances now as you still have a little time to organise something. Some branches of Age UK or local charities do financial planning for people coming up to retirement.

R_P_W

I wouldn't expect to be going on any holidays!

jamesd

I see no mention of non-state pensions. Did you really never work in a job with a pension scheme, or choose to opt out of all of them? The Pension Tracing Service is free and can help to check whether there is something at past employers.

Now would be a good time to start trying to live on the state pension plus paying the rent out of the work income.

You can increase your income by deferring the state pensions. It goes up by 10.4% for each year you defer, pro-rated for any partial years. You can do this once even if you have already started to take the pension. It's one of the easiest ways for those who are still working to get assured and inflation-protected extra income. But whether it's worth you doing it depends in part on whether you'd be eligible for Pension Credit if you didn't. Since we don't know your state pension income, or any other possible non-work income, it's not possible to check whether this applies to you.

At the moment your plan appears to be to throw yourself on the mercy of the state for much of your income. That's not really great retirement planning. While the state will help, it will only do so for quite modest spending levels because it is supposed to be a safety net level, not good life level. Don't expect much in the way of luxuries if you do end up relying on means tested benefits, though to some extent this depends on spending habits and those who already live a frugal lifestyle can do reasonably well.

xylophone

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS48_Pension_Credit_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

atush

I would definitely look carefully at your finances now as you still have a little time to organize something. Some branches of Age UK or local charities do financial planning for people coming up to retirement.

You need to do this, and make some savings. Given you lived on salary before, you should have been saving your state pension into another pension to get even more) or you could have deferred it.

YOU WILL NOT be able to afford luxuries like a car and holidays and extra bedrooms if you did not save for them. that is not what the state pension is for. So start now. Maybe downsize now or apply for help with housing.

kidmugsy

Why not take in a lodger?

margaretclare

You say 'will I have to go into local authority housing?' I think you may struggle to find any. There are far more people on local authority waiting lists than there is housing available. Most local authority housing is run by housing associations. You may possibly be able to get sheltered accommodation which is what is available for your age-group.

I can't believe you're seriously hoping to live on benefits - the taxpayer - for the rest of your life. You could easily live another 20-30 years, the way life expectancy is going. As others have indicated, this is not a lifestyle that allows for foreign holidays and car ownership.