"I know this sounds obvious"

Pincher

fairleads wrote: »

"but it is a worry that some of our callers do not seem to grasp that if you take money out of your [pension] policy today, it will pay a lower income in retirement."

I did that, many yrs ago - drew policy / pension money and purchased a second house with the proceeds - no regrets

It's a shame pension mortgage was withdrawn. You keep the tax relief and employer contribution, which you lose by early withdrawal. If your income increases over time, and overpay, the pension is still there when you retire.
In fact, pension mortgage tends to be interest only, so the monthly payment is lower, just the ticket when you are starting out in life.

greenglide

Pincher wrote: »

My mother is just over the limit for Pension Credit, and does not qualify for lots of state benefits. If she had made a little bit less provision, she would have been better off overall. A lot of people are more likely to be border line Pension Credit recipients, then be "adequately" provisioned.

It would be interesting to see how people behave if the government stops paying state pension at age 80, and offer free euthanasia plus cremation instead. Let's face it, Pension Freedom is leading us to millions on Pension Credit.

But when nSP is here and after a few years many people get the maximum amount they won't qualify for PC anyway as the Single Guarantee amount will be below below the nSP maximum.

In time the automatic qualifying for other benefits when on PC may end as well?

Pincher

greenglide wrote: »

In time the automatic qualifying for other benefits when on PC may end as well?

I'm expecting a ration book for Soylent Green instead.

FatherAbraham

bigadaj wrote: »

The sums involved in pension provision seem to be totally alien to much of the population. I'd be very much in favour of a true remuneration package being stated for most workers, so that someone with a defined benefit pension for example could see that the fact they are actually well remunerated in comparison with someone who earns a few grand a year more but with minimal dc contributions from their employer.

You're right. Folk usually seem to undervalue or underestimate the cost of a regular income, whether that's a pension's payment, or indeed a career/profession.

I used to work with a guy who was always looking for little ways to swindle a few hundred pounds here or there, by under-declaring taxable income, or minor insurance fraud (I have no evidence that he ever carried these schemes out, but he was always asking for technical details in order to devise these schemes).

I could never get him to see that, should he be convicted of a fraud-related crime, he would be likely to lose his current job, and extremely unlikely to get another white-collar job for over a decade.

In other words, even if we disregard the moral and spiritual consequences of fraud, it's simply not financially worth it for a couple of hundred, or even a couple of thousand pounds, for someone who has a good reputation, and a white-collar job. A criminal scheme would have to deliver at least an order of magnitude more in order to compensate for the risk of loss of livelihood for a "middle-class" person.

Warmest regards,
FA

bigfreddiel

redux wrote: »

Someone bought me a money box when I was a kid. If I took some money out it had less left in there.

So maybe some of these people should blame their parents.

My parents told me that the little black box under the stairs was a money box!

Cheers fj