£2880/£3600 SIPP for a person on benefits.

JKS$(

zagfles said:

springy2611 said:

Stoodles said:

Contributory ESA can be affected by drawing a pension. My NHS pension was paid early because of my disability, and  I have to notify ESA of the sum each year

That's what I was worried about, doing this and triggering some detrimental effect to current benefit payments.

Wife would need to be totally passive to any transactions I make on her benefit and wouldn't be happy if she had to take or make calls to facilitate drawing money out or dealing with benefits agency or HMRC.

It looks like it only affects contribution based ESA if the pension over £85 a week, see https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/what-youll-get 

£85 a week is £4420 a year so withdrawing £3600 might be OK if it's the only pension income however I'm not sure how they'd treat withdrawing it in one lump sum. The rules are intended for normal pensions that are paid weekly/monthly. Suggest you ask on the benefits board.

I am in the position of being on contributions based ESA & receiving my LGPS pension early on grounds of ill health. My pension reduces the CBESA & every year I have to obtain a personalised letter from LGPS detailing what my monthly payments will be, when they're paid & the total gross amount payable. The easy part. I then have to send that original letter to DWP for them to adjust my CBESA each year - the tricky part.

I'm not allowed to update those figures over the phone, & when DWP loses paperwork (& I accept that's inevitable given the volume they deal with) then we can go through this cycle a few times. It's irritating & the process can drag on for months. Not ideal for someone who wouldn't want to deal with admin, as you say she wouldn't.

My LGPS pension is paid monthly, so can't comment on how the lump sum would be treated, other than confirming it would be treated differently. ESA helpline couldn't tell me how when I asked (another pension with a compulsory lump sum will be payable in some years & I wanted to know how it would be treated)

Possibly another thing to consider - which 'version' of ESA is she on? Not just contributions based v. income based, but is she on 'legacy ESA (my definition) or a newer form of ESA? They MAY have different rules & DWP MAY assume that she's on the most recent version. If I ever have to ring DWP I have to remind them several times I'm on the old style.

[Deleted User]

JKS$( said:

zagfles said:

springy2611 said:

Stoodles said:

Contributory ESA can be affected by drawing a pension. My NHS pension was paid early because of my disability, and  I have to notify ESA of the sum each year

That's what I was worried about, doing this and triggering some detrimental effect to current benefit payments.

Wife would need to be totally passive to any transactions I make on her benefit and wouldn't be happy if she had to take or make calls to facilitate drawing money out or dealing with benefits agency or HMRC.

It looks like it only affects contribution based ESA if the pension over £85 a week, see https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/what-youll-get 

£85 a week is £4420 a year so withdrawing £3600 might be OK if it's the only pension income however I'm not sure how they'd treat withdrawing it in one lump sum. The rules are intended for normal pensions that are paid weekly/monthly. Suggest you ask on the benefits board.

I am in the position of being on contributions based ESA & receiving my LGPS pension early on grounds of ill health. My pension reduces the CBESA & every year I have to obtain a personalised letter from LGPS detailing what my monthly payments will be, when they're paid & the total gross amount payable. The easy part. I then have to send that original letter to DWP for them to adjust my CBESA each year - the tricky part.

I'm not allowed to update those figures over the phone, & when DWP loses paperwork (& I accept that's inevitable given the volume they deal with) then we can go through this cycle a few times. It's irritating & the process can drag on for months. Not ideal for someone who wouldn't want to deal with admin, as you say she wouldn't.

My LGPS pension is paid monthly, so can't comment on how the lump sum would be treated, other than confirming it would be treated differently. ESA helpline couldn't tell me how when I asked (another pension with a compulsory lump sum will be payable in some years & I wanted to know how it would be treated)

Possibly another thing to consider - which 'version' of ESA is she on? Not just contributions based v. income based, but is she on 'legacy ESA (my definition) or a newer form of ESA? They MAY have different rules & DWP MAY assume that she's on the most recent version. If I ever have to ring DWP I have to remind them several times I'm on the old style.

Thanks for your insight. It sounds like a whole lot of hassle for the sake of a total £2160 as it would only be for 3 years until SP kicks in and tax allowance isn't there. She's been on contributions based ESA for the past 20 years so is probably on old style version. Thanks again, time to find somewhere else to invest the money instead.