expired

kidmugsy

Malthusian wrote: »

On no account should he "take it" if by that you mean buy an annuity.

That's just the advice I was given by a doctor once. I reflected on it, and decided to go further and start contributing to a pension again.

Can your husband, OP, afford to contribute to a pension at the moment? If the money would all end up in your hands tax-free it would be near impossible to find a better savings or investment opportunity.

Malthusian

Echo what Kidmugsy said. If he's been seriously ill for a while he presumably has no earnings in this tax year. However, he can still pay £2,880 into a pension and you would get £3,600 on his death. On death the money should be paid to you relatively promptly by the insurance company, without having to wait for probate. It may seem a macabre thing to do but if he does want to provide for you as best he can, every little helps.

If the pension fund was really that small compared to the life cover, it sounds as if this was a pension term assurance policy which was for all practical purposes separate to the personal pension fund (although by setting it up as a pension plan you got tax relief). He shouldn't be devastated as the intention must have been that by age 60 he would be retired, or as close as makes no difference, and therefore you would no longer face a big loss of earnings on his death. So you need to find out what other provision he has made - any other pension plans, savings etc.

Lizann_2

Thank you both for your advice. He would have a few thousand in savings which would seem to give a better return in a pension fund by the sound of it. I will definitely look into this

Lizann_2

Atush I was replying earlier when internet went down.
Yes this is his only pension and I have a very small one from previous employment years ago.
Not sure of figures but it is very small.
I have now been auto enrolled into workplace pension but as I am 55 dont think that will amount to much

LHW99

Pay as much as you can afford / as much as will get maximum employer contribution into the autoenrollment pension.
If you can make your payments by salary sacrifice that may be even better as I think it saves you (and the employer) some NI contributions.
Get your state pension statement, if you have been paid child benefit in the past that may give you some credits towards it.