Advice please

bluenose1

Are your in laws getting Attendance Allowance, it is a non means tested beneft, if they do get it you could potentially claim Carers Allowance or Carers Credit if you look after them, one is a benefit and one  is just an NI credit towards your state pension.
If either of your pension schemes offer salary Sacrifice consider the advantages of that. Though you need to leave yourself with national minimum wage.
If your salaried income is too low to take advantage of salary Sacrifice you could potentially still put up to your net income in a SIPP pension scheme and get tax relief, even if your salary has been that low you haven’t had to  pay tax on it you 
Therefore for every £80 you put into a SIPP pension a £100 will go in your pension pot.
The main thing to consider is this is tied up until the age you are allowed to withdraw.

kidmugsy

I second the suggestion that you open a LISA (and your husband too if he's under 40 years old).  Once it's open you can subscribe more money to it (if you want to) up to age 50.  You can then withdraw money entirely tax-free from age 60.

If, by contrast, you ever need to withdraw funds in an emergency before age 60 the penalty (6.25%) is enough to sting but not to give serious injury.  

Anyway the deal is that for every £100 you subscribe the taxpayers add £25.  You can do this up to an annual limit of £4000 from you and £1000 from the taxpayers.  I suspect that the scheme is too generous to the saver/investor and too expensive for the taxpayers, so it's probably a good idea to open one before the scheme is scrapped.

MrMoore

MallyGirl said:

since you are both basic rate tax payers then there is no great advantage to paying into one or other's DC pension. If your return to work is back in the police then it is a bit more complex.
Assuming straight DC, if you are both retired and you want to take out £25k a year then if you both have equal sized pension pots you can get £12500 tax free each year (ignoring the 25% tax free lump sum for the moment). If his pension has the lion's share of the money so you cannot get £12500 out of yours then he will pay some tax for taking more than £12500 out of his. Equalising will help avoid tax. If you are young enough for a LISA then start one to give more options.

Equalising? Do you mean transferring some of the wifes tax free allowance to the husband?

Albermarle

MrMoore said:

MallyGirl said:

since you are both basic rate tax payers then there is no great advantage to paying into one or other's DC pension. If your return to work is back in the police then it is a bit more complex.
Assuming straight DC, if you are both retired and you want to take out £25k a year then if you both have equal sized pension pots you can get £12500 tax free each year (ignoring the 25% tax free lump sum for the moment). If his pension has the lion's share of the money so you cannot get £12500 out of yours then he will pay some tax for taking more than £12500 out of his. Equalising will help avoid tax. If you are young enough for a LISA then start one to give more options.

Equalising? Do you mean transferring some of the wifes tax free allowance to the husband?

That is one possibility although the effect is limited .
What mallygirl means is make sure your wife has enough in her pension that she can take out £12570 each year (+ 25% tax free and assuming no other taxable income ) . When she reaches state pension age the figure reduces as the SP is taxable .