n h s pension

bobbyblade

hya wanting advice my wife is on d l a which is being transferred over to u c . problem is i am soon to take my pension and will take my savings over £16000 so can you tell me will this means all her payments will cease .thankyou i am on the n h s pension scheme

KatrinaWaves

DLA is not being transferred to UC.

Do you mean she is going from DLA to PIP? Thats not affected by income and capital.

Or do you mean she is moving from another legacy benefit such as ESa to UC?

bobbyblade

my wife gets d l a for both mobility and care and in support group for e s a she has recently been reassessed and awaiting results , due to long term lllness by myself i put a claim in for universal credit as my wages had been halved it was when i applied for u c that i was told that my wife would have to apply as well .I have never claimed in 49 years of working so all this is new to me

Alice_Holt

bobbyblade wrote: »

my wife gets d l a for both mobility and care and in support group for e s a she has recently been reassessed and awaiting results , due to long term lllness by myself i put a claim in for universal credit as my wages had been halved it was when i applied for u c that i was told that my wife would have to apply as well .I have never claimed in 49 years of working so all this is new to me

Oh dear.
Before applying for UC you really should have got advice.

Yes savings over £16k will stop any UC payments.

Because you have now made a UC claim any means tested legacy payments will stop (such as ESA & HB). You will not be able to reclaim these legacy benefits.

calcotti

Her DLA will not stop regardless of your savings. If her ESA is all income based it will stop as a result of your UC claim but would have stopped anyway if savings go over £16,000. However if her ESA contains a contribution based award this is not means tested and will continue (provided she remains in the Support a Group).

bobbyblade

at the moment we are well below £16000 that will only go over if i apply for my pension though we would then pay off our mortgage which would bring our savings down , the whole scenario is a nightmare my wife mental health has worsened i myself at 64 years of age have started self harming wish i had never thought about going into job centre

poppy12345

bobbyblade wrote: »

at the moment we are well below £16000 that will only go over if i apply for my pension though we would then pay off our mortgage which would bring our savings down , the whole scenario is a nightmare my wife mental health has worsened i myself at 64 years of age have started self harming wish i had never thought about going into job centre

Paying off your mortgage could be classed as deprivation of capital.

calcotti

bobbyblade wrote: »

at the moment we are well below £16000 that will only go over if i apply for my pension though we would then pay off our mortgage which would bring our savings down , the whole scenario is a nightmare my wife mental health has worsened i myself at 64 years of age have started self harming wish i had never thought about going into job centre

Using a lump sum to pay off a mortgage as you approach retirement is clearly a very sensible thing to do. Clearly you will have less money coming in in retirement so continuing to fund a mortgage which you could afford while working is not practicable. I don't think the DWP should treat this as deprivation of capital even if you are paying off the mortgage before the end of term. However for any weeks when the money is sitting in your bank between receiving it and paying your lender you will not be entitled to be paid means tested benefits.

Once you are drawing your NHS pension the income is obviously taken into account in determining whether you are entitled to any means tested benefit.

Alice_Holt

Before making the decision to apply for your pension, please get advice from:

a) Pension Wise / Money Advice
https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en

When is your normal retirement age (NRA) from the NHS?
Can you get advice from the pension dept there?
If you are taking an early pension, are there any reductions involved compared with waiting till your NRA?

b) An advice agency will be able to give you a benefits check based on various scenarios.
They may be able to advise on the potential deprivation of capital issue.

When do you reach state retirement age and can claim your state pension?

Is your mortgage a repayment, or interest only?

Is the ESA income based or contribution-based?

calcotti

Normal retirement age for someone in the 2008 NHS pension scheme is 65. For the 2015 scheme it is equal to the state pension age. For the 1995 scheme it is 60.

OP can check his State pension age here https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age. For someone who is 64 now I would expect state pension age to be between 65 and 66.

xylophone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/75295841#Comment_75295841

from my own experience its a nightmare my wife is on long term disability and myself been off work for 6 months enquired as to whether i can claim anything basically i was told no as i get a small private pension, then my wife was told that she has to go onto u c which complicates things even more . To cap it off even though i cannot claim anything i got called in for a medical 12 week short of my 65th birthday

It would seem that the OP will be 65 in April.

The NRA of the 1995 section of the NHS Scheme is 60 and for 2008 is 65.

It may be that there is an automatic retirement lump sum which cannot be reverse commuted.

He is going to be eligible for State Pension this year too?

With a small private pension and NHS pension and state pension he may not be eligible for means tested benefits?