State pension general questions & Advice

HappyMJ

Alter_ego wrote: »

Just a thought, Would the 26k lump sum prevent a pension credit claim?

No there is no upper capital limit with pension credit.

Mojisola

Alter_ego wrote: »

Just a thought, Would the 26k lump sum prevent a pension credit claim?

I think £10k is the limit but there is also Savings Credit to consider.

As the OP's mother seems to have plans for the lump sum, she could reach the £10k limit fairly soon.

spoog

Thanks for all the replies again folks - I have one further thing to ask.

Someone mentioned SERPS earlier in this thread, and after thinking about it, I decided to read more about what they were.

I noticed that serps came in around 1978, and ended around 2002. I also remember that mums record states 33 full years - some made up prior to 1974, and the rest continue again from 1978, all the way through to 2001/2.

Is there a correlation between those? If so, is there anything else I/we should know about them maybe, in relation to her pension/claim?

xylophone

Your mother may have some Graduated Pension (it won't be a fortune) and possibly some SERPS if she was not in a contracted out pension scheme.

The DWP will have the necessary information to do the calculation.

spoog

Ok , I was just curious as to the fact Serps started in 78 and ended in 02, and those are the years between there that her record states she has full years (plus 10 or 11 before 74). I was really asking just out of my own curiosity, so I could pass the info on if it was useful.

I guess because her record states she has '33 full years', I just wanted to make sure she was entitled to the full pension (as you need 30+ years).. and wanted to check up on this Serps thing , to find out if it would affect what she's entitled to etc. at all.

She doesn't really know much about pension stuff - and neither do I, but I've tried to understand more by reading and posting here. Thanks again for the input.

xylophone

She should be entitled to the full basic pension - the point is that she may be entitled to more than the basic.

The graduated pension is usually a very small weekly amount - see page 33 here http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn105.pdf

The SERPS and S2P are also covered in the above.

Your mother will receive a statement showing her entitlements.

spoog

Thanks again Xylophone, much appreciated for your advice. I'll pass this information on anyhow, and I'm sure now she has made her claim, she'll find out eventually what she's entitled to.

spoog

Hi again,

Thought I would give a little update to things since my last message.

My mum made her claim (on the day or day before my last post), and we put her claim to start the following week. (we spoke to pensions on phone and they said to put a start day on the day we claimed or ahead of the day we were claiming), so we put 16th may. She eventually found out what she was due (a few £ more than the basic pension which she was pleased with), and her first payment went in i believe 15th or 16th of June - so her initial pension setup was sorted reasonably quickly. (about a month).

She has since been waiting, we believe, for the letter that tells you about your deferral and how you would like it. Its now 1st of July, and we still haven't received this letter or anything else relating to it. From what I have read it seems there is a fair backlog causing delays, but this seems excessively long. (7 weeks since her initial claim).

Hopefully it will be sorted soon anyhow! Thanks once more for the original advice and replies, will update one last time once we progress further!

xylophone

Hopefully it will be sorted soon anyhow!

See https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/70883893#Comment_70883893

spoog

Thanks for the reply there - I didn't reply at the time , just left a thanks.. but have a further little update for anyone reading.

Called pensions up today, and seems her choices letter went out nearly 5 weeks ago.. but has never turned up here. hmmm.

Anyhow, we have someone apparently calling in the next 48 hours (although they can't give an exact time) - from someone who can tell us whats happening and take her decision about the deferral etc. Not sure why we can't just get a number to call and speak at our choice of time (barring any time waiting on phone to be answered!), but at least its getting somewhere. ( i say carefully! )

Seems quite a few have been having these kinda problems then!

Thanks again!