State Pension - please help **Update again**

hec2308

xylophone wrote: »

And you will be there (assuming that your grandmother is content with this)?

Yes my bosses have been very flexible with this and they are happy for me to work a half day on Thursday so that I can be there which is great.

xylophone wrote: »

Do you mean DWP?

Yes, apologies you're right I do mean DWP. My head is a bit of a scramble at the moment!

xylophone wrote: »

And have you sorted out your grandfather's tax position?

No, this is yet to come. I need to pull out all the tax code info since 2013 and sit down with a calculator once all the paperwork and money has arrived into their bank account. Is there anything else I should be getting ready for this?

badmemory

Have you checked that your grandmother has not received any inherited bits from your grandfather's state pension. Just to be prepared in case they want to get that back from her.

Some local authorities have people who do these adaptations for them which may speed things up.

hec2308

Really sorry if I'm being dim, badmemory, but when you say inherited bits what do you mean?

badmemory

Firstly, has your grandmother always had a full (earned in her own right) state pension or did she get 60% based on your grandfathers NI contributions. If she did only get 60% then as they classed him as "dead" she should then have got a full pension (plus the inheritable bits)

Secondly, even if she had a full pension in her own right then when he "died" she should have inherited some of his grad pension and additional pension if he had any. There may not have been any if he was always contracted out.

I just didn't want you to get a shock if they asked for some back!

xylophone

I imagine that badmemory is referring to the fact that a widow may have her state pension increased on the death of her husband and suggesting that you check that this did not happen when your grandfather's file was marked "dormant/deceased".

See p25

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS19_State_Pension_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

I would get together all your grandfather's and your grandmother's letters concerning state pension increase - these would have been received in around March each year.

I am assuming that the last one your grandfather received was in March 2012 or 2013?

There should also be letters concerning his AA.



You will need to check on what has happened concerning Winter Fuel payments.

You indicate that your grandfather receives an annual Notice of Coding - you will need to get all these together.

You will need to check whether he has overpaid tax over the last four years or so.

What is his situation regarding interest received on savings?

saver861

xylophone wrote: »

I imagine that badmemory is referring to the fact that a widow may have her state pension increased on the death of her husband and suggesting that you check that this did not happen when your grandfather's file was marked "dormant/deceased".

That's what would happen in normal circumstances but this has been anything but normal.

At least OP has made some progress and I'm assuming if they had gone back the three years they would have alerted her to the fact that the grandmother had received 'widows' pension.

I would certainly find out all you can on Thursday when the visitor comes and she may also be able to assist in following up on the situation. It is possible that there are more hoops to jump through on this before it is all finally sorted, but at least it is now in progress.

I would also contact the MP again too - you still might need him or her yet.

jamesd

hec2308 wrote: »

someone is coming to my grandparents' house on Thursday to make sure they are receiving what they are entitled to and hopefully this will draw a line under this mess.

Excellent!

hec2308 wrote: »

Now I just need to find a decent plumber who doesn't have any work to do at the beginning of the summer holidays

If you want to spend more money you might look into getting one of these fitted along with the other work, lets you turn off the water much more easily than a stopcock under the sink.

hec2308

I still need to get to grips with what happened with regards to my grandmother's State Pension and make sure everything is as it should be, I think it is because she dealt with them quite a few years ago as mentioned previously, but she definitely hasn't received any kind of "widow's pension" from them.

Thanks xylophone, yes they haven't received anything with regards to State Pension since then so will get these out and ready. I've got a pile accruing in my grandparents' living room! I've got his last Notice of Coding so will get the others out too. He overpaid tax previously when he received his State Pension as well as his private pension, and it was in the process of trying to reclaim it for 2014-15 and 2015-16 that we discovered all this mess. I'm keen to get hold of the paperwork and look at the figures so that we can determine what the tax situation is but I don't think I'll be able to do this until next week when everything has arrived. Luckily my partner is a chartered accountant so it should be small fry to him.

I'm not entirely sure about interest received on savings. Their affairs are pretty simple really (apart from all this) they have just the one deposit account that everything is paid into, they have a couple of ISA accounts but that is about it apart from the private pension.

saver861

hec2308 wrote: »

I'm not entirely sure about interest received on savings. Their affairs are pretty simple really (apart from all this) they have just the one deposit account that everything is paid into, they have a couple of ISA accounts but that is about it apart from the private pension.

Just a point - if your grandmother is a non taxpayer - then she can transfer 10% of her allowance your grandfather, thus giving him another £1100 allowance. I'm not sure if your grandmother has a private pension or not ... if she has then its likely that, with her state pension, will take up her full tax allowance.

It sounds like there is little in the way of savings, but they would have been taxed on interest up to April 2016. However, if they have everything in a deposit account, its likely that is paying minimal interest. If the amounts are anyway significant then it would be worth looking at better options.

On the other hand, it makes it even more remarkable if their income in relatively low that three years passed without noticing the loss of granddads pension.

xylophone

thus giving him another £1100 allowance.

Grandma is 82 so born before 6 April 1935.

https://www.gov.uk/married-couples-allowance/overview

It is likely that the more advantageous Married Couples' Allowance

should be claimed?