Are pensions capital?

r_i_c

jamesd wrote: »

Thanks, yes. Once you know more I or someone else can update the income planning. Hopefully you'll find some interesting local job that pays decently as well, particularly if the current income plan isn't as much as you'd like.

Many thanks. All I want at the moment is to be able to survive without frittering away capital which I may well need in later years, especially as our health services are being increasingly privatised.

Today I phoned State Pension advice and they are sending out a statement which will also show National Insurance contributions and whether I have paid enough - and hopefully how to make up the missing contributions if there are any?

Thanks again & will update when I know more about the capital situation with regard to future income planning.

jamesd

The statement will show which years can be bought but we might be able to come up with cheaper ways than that, like the self-employed contribution possibility.

r_i_c

jamesd wrote: »

The statement will show which years can be bought but we might be able to come up with cheaper ways than that, like the self-employed contribution possibility.

Many thanks. I'd rather pay - if I can - for the several months short I will be of JSA(C) before my 60th year. But I'm equally anxious not to sign on at all if I can possibly find something in time.

But then again, I don't want work which will end up paying less than JSA(C) plus Council Tax reduction. I face a quandary in the twilight period between my Carer's Allowance ending and what comes afterwards :-|

cte1111

Why not start the process of claiming JSA and then when you get a job you can sign off. You are evidently looking for work and you never know the jobcentre might be able to make some suggestion or offer help in updating your CV. Even if not, you would have a small regular income to ensure you've got money for food for yourself and the dog. You would also have some extra NI contributions, in case you need them.

LHW99

Assuming the TPS is pre 2007, there is an annual pension, and a lump sum payment. The NPA would be 60, so you can claim it from your 60th birthday as long as you are not still teaching.

Give the TPS a call and ask for an estimate of what you will get, or go online and register to use the website.
https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/public/home.aspx
As far as I can remember you need to know your teacher's registration number to do this, so phone them if you haven't got it.

Hope it all gets sorted out for you soon.

r_i_c

LHW99 wrote: »

Assuming the TPS is pre 2007, there is an annual pension, and a lump sum payment. The NPA would be 60, so you can claim it from your 60th birthday as long as you are not still teaching.

Give the TPS a call and ask for an estimate of what you will get, or go online and register to use the website.
https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/public/home.aspx
As far as I can remember you need to know your teacher's registration number to do this, so phone them if you haven't got it.

Hope it all gets sorted out for you soon.

Thanks, I will update. Have in fact written to the TPS. I will come up with the figures requested on this thread but in time, my world is a kaleidoscope currently and the service - which everyone thought was well done - was only just this afternoon.

Actually had no idea the TPS was only 10 months away - the CAB, though kindly and helpful, gave me the figure of 66 years of age until retirement, but that is probably the state pension age for me.

Thanks again and will update.

r_i_c

cte1111 wrote: »

Why not start the process of claiming JSA and then when you get a job you can sign off. You are evidently looking for work and you never know the jobcentre might be able to make some suggestion or offer help in updating your CV. Even if not, you would have a small regular income to ensure you've got money for food for yourself and the dog. You would also have some extra NI contributions, in case you need them.

Thanks. Will probably claim JSA contributions based, when my Carer's Allowance expires. Presumably then the DWP will issue me my P45? I am looking for work now but it is chaotic, I think it's too soon into the bereavement process period, but I am starting to look at possibilities. Yes, the jobcentre might actually be helpful in this respect. I need to simplify my cv though or I'm going to come up as 'over qualified'. Will need some form of income while probate is being processed - and in this odd twilight period over the next couple of weeks I must get to grips with the paperwork, now that the service has been successfully conducted. Everything's still a bit unreal for me at the moment though.

Many thanks again.

jamesd

Unreal is normal so don't let that worry you. plenty on your plate as it is without that.

r_i_c

Hi,

This question of 'is it or isn't it savings - or capital?' is about to raise its head again I am afraid. So I'm posting it here in advance of what might happen.

On MSE I found references to 'drawing down' funds from a SIPP, if over the age of 55. I faced and face a very uncertain time between my mother's sudden passing and the eventual & hopeful granting of probate. With funds dwindling fast I went for the draw down option. I stipulated that the draw down was to be a one-off withdrawal with 'nil' payments afterwards, so there's no formal 'change in circumstances', no regular income. In other words, I am not drawing the pension and I have not retired, I'm 59. The draw down got me a tax free 25% sum of 2.5k which was transferred directly to my shrinking bank account. The rest of the draw down amount remains in the SIPP because of the 'nil income' option which I chose.

I couldn't see any problem here but a Citizens' Advice Bureau warned me that if I were unable to find employment before my carer's allowance ran out, JSP might regard my draw down withdrawal as "income" as in capital.

But the minimal savings threshold for JSA is £6000. I don't think I have ever had that amount in my bank account, including now after the draw down. And the rest of my SIPP is still a SIPP, & as far as I am aware 'pension funds are not to be regarded as capital' which is certainly the HB ruling (that HB [above] didn't know about) also outlined on this thread.

Yet the frowns on the faces of the CAB have me worried, have I transgressed some other rule that I am unaware of? The CAB 'are looking at' the withdrawal and are to let me know on Friday how they think it may affect my application for JSA, if I have to go down that road, even for a brief time.

Any thoughts please?

Thanks.

atush

AS you were in the TPS, were you a teacher?

If so, surely you could pick up some supply work? Every retired teacher at my boys primary signed on for supply work and often turned up in school after retirement lol