Help with getting my head round my mums pension

londonTiger

Hi

I've been asked to deal with my mums pension, she is a window. My brother used to deal with it but he's moved to Manchester so Ive been asked to take the helm of this.

I am entirely clueless about how these pensions work. Tried looking online and it's like rocket science.

Currently for the tax year 2014/15 these are payments on her bank on a weekly basis:

PWxxxxxxA DWP SP £21.20
YY******D DWP SP £45.40
YY******D DWP PC £122.75

She brought me a letter with reference PWxxxxxxA saying that her pension credit is going to be £96.08 for the next tax year. I don't know if this is going to be an overall reduction in pension to £96.08 or whether it's just one of the 3 payments and the total will be an increase.

Are there any dummies guides to these pension for me to get my head around?

cte1111

Do you have Power of Attorney for your Mum? If not, then it might be an idea to get that set up, as then the pension people and other agencies will be able to deal with you directly, if necessary.

What does your brother / Mum think needs doing with the pensions? It sound like your Mum already has them set up to pay into her account on a regular basis.

The part with YY is probably your Mum's NI number, the one starting PW may well be her widow's pension, from her husband's NI contributions. SP will be the state pension (I think) and PC is Pension Credit.

xylophone

Is one of the numbers your mother's own National Insurance number?

Was the other your late father's?

When did your father die?

londonTiger

xylophone wrote: »

Is one of the numbers your mother's own National Insurance number?

Was the other your late father's?

When did your father die?

I will get these checked out. I asked about her NI number but she doesn't know so I'll have to go round and check through all her records.

Father passed away 3 years ago, they are both pensioners and at the time of passing my mum was pension age as well.

londonTiger

cte1111 wrote: »

Do you have Power of Attorney for your Mum? If not, then it might be an idea to get that set up, as then the pension people and other agencies will be able to deal with you directly, if necessary.

What does your brother / Mum think needs doing with the pensions? It sound like your Mum already has them set up to pay into her account on a regular basis.

The part with YY is probably your Mum's NI number, the one starting PW may well be her widow's pension, from her husband's NI contributions. SP will be the state pension (I think) and PC is Pension Credit.

I will see if my brother can get POA as he works in finance and may be better at this than me. But he doesn't have full and complete information and difficult to manage this being based far away. Perhaps being a POA the pension service can send all my mums mail to him.

I think her pension was sorted out correctly. But I'm trying to make sense of this new letter of £96.08 she got for the next tax year. She has turned 70 this year if that helps.

I'll start by working out the NI numbers.

zagfles

Have a look at the pension credit calculator https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator

xylophone

Here is some detailed information about pension credit.

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

Was your father in receipt of a full state pension when he died?

How old was your father when he died?

What was your mother's state pension situation before your father died?

xylophone

And this may be of interest.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5151915
post 6.

xylophone

But he doesn't have full and complete information

About your mother's financial affairs? And he lives at a distance?

This would make being an Attorney difficult.

It would be better for your mother to grant you POA and for you to get your head round matters?

https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/overview

greenglide

PWxxxxxxA DWP SP £21.20
YY******D DWP SP £45.40
YY******D DWP PC £122.75

There appears to be something strange going on here.

The first two lines are State Pension payments for two different NINOs which means two different people.

She isn't still getting her late husband's pension is she! That would be a major problem.

You need to see who letters with these NINOs are addressed to. DWP letters always quote the NINO as the reference number.

xylophone

There appears to be something strange going on here.

Mother's affairs are opaque even though you can see right through her?

she is a window

The OP has said (in response to my question)

I'll start by working out the NI numbers.

She also said

I think her pension was sorted out correctly.

The figures struck me as odd. Did the late father not have a full state pension?

Or did mother have a full pension of her own so that she only inherited SERPS/S2P?

The above does not seem likely given the amounts?

If mother's income is very low, why should the amount of pension credit be decreasing? Or was there an AIP?

The information as given does not quite seem to fit together - the OP will have to do some reading and gather up her mother's letters from DWP together with details of any other income and savings etc?