Help with housing costs.

TELLIT01

I never expected to start a thread with these words but......


I have a friend who is closing in on retirement age and is already worrying about how they will cope when that happens. Married, wife currently working part time and earning minimum wage for 20 hours per week. There is no scope for her to work more hours with her current employer and she is actively seeking a job with more.


He will only have State pension and a very small pension from his current employer. He knows they won't be able to afford the rend on the place they are currently living and is trying to find out what help, if any, may be available with rent etc.


Working on a scenario 'as is', any assistance, even just in supplying links to relevant areas for information, would be greatly appreciated. It's not an area I have any experience of.

MovingForwards

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/benefits-calculator/Intro/Home?cid=bc68d63e-9361-4f65-bcbb-5fb653835d78

Run the details through this.

lisyloo

The obvious answer is can he carry on working?
He can only be forced to stop if there physical or legal limits.

If he carries on it may be worth considering deferring SP.
If he’s in good health this may be worthwhile because if he’s working he will have to probably pay20% income tax on his pension, whereas if defers it’s probably not taxed. Similarly might be able to defer his employment pension.

Is he under the impression he has to stop work?

Everyone else I know in good health but poor finances simply carries on.
He could considered going part time if that is an option, perhaps after his wife has found another job.

Has she considered advertising to do cleaning/ironing in the wealthier parts of town? Ironing can be a work for home job where you pick your own hours.

WhenIam64

Check the pension entitlement through his and her NI contributions.

Check Pension Credits if there is a shortfall.

Use the benefits calculators such as Turn2Us or Entitled to or Lisson Grove (CAB) to see what there may be in the future.

Bare in mind that the next part of the journey may be fraught with age-related illness which may lead to other entitlements. So the answer is not a fixed one but a benefits journey too.

PS

closing in on retirement age

Retirement age is an artificial construct at which you can claim a state pension. Not everyone (the fortunate ones) wants to take a state pension at that age and can delay.

sleepless_saver

A lot depends on their ages. Did he reach state pension age before 15 May this year, and how old is his wife?

How much total pension will he be entitled to, and is his wife intending to keep on working?

Depending on the answers to these questions their options will be guarantee pension credit plus housing benefit, or for the wife assuming she is below SPA to claim universal credit which includes a housing element.

A visit to local CAB would be worthwhile, also see entitled to.co.uk for a benefits check.

calcotti

WhenIam64 wrote: »

.Check Pension Credits if there is a shortfall.

Mixed age couples (one person of pension age and one person below pension age) can no longer make new claims for Pension Credit - they have to wait until both are of Pension age. This was introduced in May. Instead they can claim UC - but this is much less generous and many couples who would previously have got some Pension Credit will not be entitled to UC.

Kentish_Dave

The time to worry about his and deal with it was years ago, not shortly before state retirement age but anyway, what is done is done.

As above, state retirement age rarely means that you have to retire, so the best idea is likely to be for both of them to keep working, to economise, and to start building some savings up for the future.

TELLIT01

lisyloo wrote: »

The obvious answer is can he carry on working?
He can only be forced to stop if there physical or legal limits.

If he carries on it may be worth considering deferring SP.
If he’s in good health this may be worthwhile because if he’s working he will have to probably pay20% income tax on his pension, whereas if defers it’s probably not taxed. Similarly might be able to defer his employment pension.

Is he under the impression he has to stop work?

Everyone else I know in good health but poor finances simply carries on.
He could considered going part time if that is an option, perhaps after his wife has found another job.

Has she considered advertising to do cleaning/ironing in the wealthier parts of town? Ironing can be a work for home job where you pick your own hours.

There is real irony (pardon the pun) in that suggestion. The wife used to have a job she loved - it involved ironing and packing garments all day. Sadly she experienced severe back problems and ended up having metal rods inserted to prevent it deteriorating further. One thing she can no longer to is iron for any length of time.
Thanks for all the other input. It's all valuable information. I'm pretty sure he does expect to carry on working, albeit reduced hours, but they struggle even now to make ends meet. They do not live the high life by any stretch of the imagination.

TELLIT01

Thanks everybody. The information and suggestion provided will give him a good start point to work from. He's still a couple of years from retirement so has a bit of breathing space still.
He has worked in comparatively low paid jobs all his life, but has always been a real grafter. There has simply never been the opportunity to save for the future, and company pension schemes weren't available to him either.


Adding a few more answers to questions posed. He is 63 and his wife is 59, so neither yet at State Retirement age. His wife does intend to continue working and is trying to increase her hours. Finding work isn't easy. Her background is mainly retail, and many places take on younger people because of the lower wage.