Widow and Pension

GrubbyGirl_2

We found Age UK brilliant at helping my mother make sure she was claiming everything she was entitled to.  Get in touch with them they will sit down and go through things with her, and they also kept in contact with her as benefits changed

Sarahspangles

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

We found Age UK brilliant at helping my mother make sure she was claiming everything she was entitled to.  Get in touch with them they will sit down and go through things with her, and they also kept in contact with her as benefits changed

Age UK, or Citizens Advice may help.  

If you used ‘Tell Us Once’ after her husband died, this stops them paying his pension so that there isn’t an overpayment.  However we weren’t clear when FIL aided whether a review of MIL’s pension had been automatically triggered so we contacted the Pensions Service rather than wait to find out.  Then checked her benefits position.

Rogerrabbit777

Silvertabby said:

p00hsticks said:

Richie7 said:

She was reluctant to start using her savings just to pay bills, as I'm sure many would be.   

Please don't let her become one of those people we read about from time to time who don't eat properly or keep themselves warm and then die with shedloads of cash under the mattress.

 I suspect like many, a lot of us these days are having to dip into savings to maintain our living standards. Our savings were made for a rainy day, as as I look outside the window, it's raining now.

This.  If her savings weren't made to give her a better standard of living in retirement, then what were they made for?

Personally i think its more of an issue that people dont want to have to use their savings in order to just exist. Its about living. Not using that money to pay the gas bill or to be able to eat properly. It was saved inorder to be used to have some quality of life in retirement be it holidays or months away to escape the winter weather or having the money to visit places in the uk. Existing isnt living and getting old with no quality of life is s terrible thing

Silvertabby

Rogerrabbit777 said:

Silvertabby said:

p00hsticks said:

Richie7 said:

She was reluctant to start using her savings just to pay bills, as I'm sure many would be.   

Please don't let her become one of those people we read about from time to time who don't eat properly or keep themselves warm and then die with shedloads of cash under the mattress.

 I suspect like many, a lot of us these days are having to dip into savings to maintain our living standards. Our savings were made for a rainy day, as as I look outside the window, it's raining now.

This.  If her savings weren't made to give her a better standard of living in retirement, then what were they made for?

Personally i think its more of an issue that people dont want to have to use their savings in order to just exist. Its about living. Not using that money to pay the gas bill or to be able to eat properly. It was saved inorder to be used to have some quality of life in retirement be it holidays or months away to escape the winter weather or having the money to visit places in the uk. Existing isnt living and getting old with no quality of life is s terrible thing

Yes, I know - but I'm sure we all know older people who scrimp and save just to be able to leave an inheritance to their families. 

xylophone

For somebody on a very limited income, the savings can represent the "dire emergency" fund so that seeing  the money melting away on daily living is very stressful.

GSP

Just putting it out there, and assume it’s one of the last options to use if other avenues yield no joy.
Never used this myself, but if they owned their home equity release in the property may be possible?
Again though, look at anything else that can be claimed in the first instance.

Richie7

Sarahspangles said:

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

We found Age UK brilliant at helping my mother make sure she was claiming everything she was entitled to.  Get in touch with them they will sit down and go through things with her, and they also kept in contact with her as benefits changed

Age UK, or Citizens Advice may help.  

If you used ‘Tell Us Once’ after her husband died, this stops them paying his pension so that there isn’t an overpayment.  However we weren’t clear when FIL aided whether a review of MIL’s pension had been automatically triggered so we contacted the Pensions Service rather than wait to find out.  Then checked her benefits position.

Can I ask did that yield anything? My mum is convinced they will automatically pay her more if she is entitled to it. But I said I'll bet that always doesn't just happen.

p00hsticks

Richie7 said:

Sarahspangles said:

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

We found Age UK brilliant at helping my mother make sure she was claiming everything she was entitled to.  Get in touch with them they will sit down and go through things with her, and they also kept in contact with her as benefits changed

Age UK, or Citizens Advice may help.  

If you used ‘Tell Us Once’ after her husband died, this stops them paying his pension so that there isn’t an overpayment.  However we weren’t clear when FIL aided whether a review of MIL’s pension had been automatically triggered so we contacted the Pensions Service rather than wait to find out.  Then checked her benefits position.

Can I ask did that yield anything? My mum is convinced they will automatically pay her more if she is entitled to it. But I said I'll bet that always doesn't just happen.

I've no direct first-hand experience but my understanding is that your mum is correct - the recalculation should happen automatically. 

Blue_Butterfly

My dad died in 2016 and my mum received her pension increase automatically a few weeks after being widowed. My mum previously got a married woman's pension as she had paid the "married woman's stamp" for the majority of her working life. She had her state pension increased to the full old system basic pension. She also inherited almost all of my dad's additional state pension. The percentage of SERPs you can inherit depends on the the deceased person's DOB.

Sarahspangles

Richie7 said:

Sarahspangles said:

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

We found Age UK brilliant at helping my mother make sure she was claiming everything she was entitled to.  Get in touch with them they will sit down and go through things with her, and they also kept in contact with her as benefits changed

Age UK, or Citizens Advice may help.  

If you used ‘Tell Us Once’ after her husband died, this stops them paying his pension so that there isn’t an overpayment.  However we weren’t clear when FIL aided whether a review of MIL’s pension had been automatically triggered so we contacted the Pensions Service rather than wait to find out.  Then checked her benefits position.

Can I ask did that yield anything? My mum is convinced they will automatically pay her more if she is entitled to it. But I said I'll bet that always doesn't happen

I think we speeded it up?  It certainly helped to know what to expect.  According to our spreadsheet, MIL received a back payment and her pension increased to a new rate exactly three months after we used Tell Us Once.  We’d contacted them after a month.

All FIL’s pensions stopped payment immediately, so she was just receiving her own small state pension.  Like many elderly people, her default position was that she needed to manage on that rather than spend their savings.  It helped to be able to tell her it was increasing soon.  Once her state pension increased and two widow’s pensions started payment she was more relaxed.  The occupational pension managed by Capita was by far the slowest to sort out - reams of paper and then a long delay.