Advice to help retired relatives in crisis please - state pensions etc

Silvertabby

badmemory said:

Dox said:

badmemory said:

IHopefully half the DB pension unless he was selfish & decided he didn't want a widows pension.  Are you in a position to search out the paperwork, that should tell you.  

It's not (usually) a question of 'being selfish', especially where a DB pension is concerned. The rules will almost always stipulate what benefits are payable on the death of the pensioner. If there was a Guaranteed Minimum Pension element to the pension, any  surviving spouse is automatically entitled to a pension related to that.

Sorry didn't know that this was not normally possible as I know someone who did that, didn't tell his wife & left her well & truly in the mire when he died.  Thanks for clearing it up.

Sadly, all too common with some old annuities - although possibly down to ignorance rather than selfishness.  I remember being shown a letter during a training course many years ago.  Instead of giving full details of the annuity options available, it just said that the maximum annuity available from the 'pot' of £x was a pension of £x per year.  It went ln to say that other options were available, which would pay lesser pensions, and to contact them for more details.  Of course, the 'highest' annuity was a non-increasing single life, whereas annuities which included widow's benefits and/or cost of living increases would have only been supplied on request.  I can understand that someone with no knowledge of how pensions work would go for 'the highest possible pension' believing it was the right thing to do.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

justcheckin said:

Hi.

Please bear with the lack of some detail, my parents are too unwell to engage with the detail at the moment.

Him: 75 in April, Her 74 in March

Net income monthly:

Him:

state pension	904
old DB pension	165
std life pension	65

Her:
 State pension  342

They still have some savings (23k) after debts but they are spending c. £1-2k a month on spending above their means. This is a lot better than their previous depletion of capital, but is still a huge concern.

My key questions:
Can anyone clever enough make a good ballpark guess as to the inheritable component of HIS state pension please?
Other than the using 2-3 years worth of SIPP she could still yield £2880 grossed up to £3600, is there anything else big I am missing to help?
I am guessing using savings to defer her state pension does not become cash neutral for quite a few years?

Many thanks for any/all help received.

In the overall scheme of things this is small beer but if your original post is accurate then your mother may want to consider applying for Marriage Allowance.

This would reduce her Personal Allowance from £12,500 to £11,250 and entitle your father to a reduction of up to £250 of his income tax liability.

Your father would be the one who is entitled to any tax reduction/refund.

xylophone

Sorry didn't know that this was not normally possible as I know someone who did that, didn't tell his wife & left her well & truly in the mire when he died.  Thanks for clearing it up.

I wonder were you thinking of the situation where  the spouse buys a "single life annuity" with his pension pot?

The income dies with him leaving his wife with no provision.

badmemory

xylophone said:

Sorry didn't know that this was not normally possible as I know someone who did that, didn't tell his wife & left her well & truly in the mire when he died.  Thanks for clearing it up.

I wonder were you thinking of the situation where  the spouse buys a "single life annuity" with his pension pot?

The income dies with him leaving his wife with no provision.

You are probably right.  What I do know is that it was intentional (he told her in the end what & why he had done it too late of course) & whilst it was many years ago I remember thinking I was glad I was single so nobody could land me in that situation.  The nice man gloated on his deathbed about what he had done.

xylophone

 What I do know is that it was intentional (he told her in the end what & why he had done it too late of course) & whilst it was many years ago I remember thinking I was glad I was single so nobody could land me in that situation.  The nice man gloated on his deathbed about what he had done.

How extraordinarily unpleasant - one hopes that the unfortunate widow managed to find some assistance through state help.

badmemory

xylophone said:

 What I do know is that it was intentional (he told her in the end what & why he had done it too late of course) & whilst it was many years ago I remember thinking I was glad I was single so nobody could land me in that situation.  The nice man gloated on his deathbed about what he had done.

How extraordinarily unpleasant - one hopes that the unfortunate widow managed to find some assistance through state help.

Thankfully she did.  But this is one of the reasons why I so often jump in & ask what provision a woman has in her own name for retirement.  Also the fact that I found myself pensionless in my mid forties after a divorce, no pension sharing then!  Luckily I am now sorted but it was a massive wake up call.

atush

I think you need to get their spending under control, pronto.