Income Tax on 84 year olds Pension when terminally ill

Andy_L

KittyMac said:

Thank you, everyone - sorry for the confusion in question. Mum is paying her tax, deducted by the Pension Company. I had read somewhere that when someone was terminally ill then tax on pension could have some relief.

You may be thinking of the ability for someone who is terminally ill to take tax free, as a lump sum, a pension they haven't started to take and take it before the legal minimum age for pensions

SVaz

You haven’t answered about what type of private pension she has and whether it was turned into an annuity.

KittyMac

Yes her private pension was turned into an annuity and my deceased dad, lost his pension to some company that went bust years ago so all they had left was this very small Prudential annuity and the state pension. It all just goes towards her care home fees as we (long story) had to sell her house to pay for care home. She is in a lovely care home and the money meant we could chose the best one to suit her needs regardless of cost. 

I think my dad worked very hard all his life to build a secure future for his family and dementia took in him in early sixties putting him in a very not lovely council care home for ten years before he passed away.  

I just did not want her to be paying income tax if she did not have to. She is barely over the tax threshold anyway. 

Moral of this is to enjoy life while you can - my dear dad was hoping for a nice pension and relaxing retirement which he never got. 

Re the care home - i did ask her to live with me befure she got really bad with dementia but she refused and I live a fair way from her. 

badmemory

I'll say it again.  Anyone who needs to be in a care home is entitled to attendance allowance which will help stretch her funds.  It is not means tested.  You could always try asking the carehome manager, that was who told us.  But it only applies to someone who is fully self funding.

KittyMac

She does get Attendance Allowance - that has been really useful and although she failed the continuing health care full funding we did qualify for some partial funding as a registered nurse needs to administer some of the cancer drugs. There is a lot to learn! Overall I feel the system has worked. 

Grumpy_chap

KittyMac said:

She is in a lovely care home and the money meant we could chose the best one to suit her needs regardless of cost. 

I sympathise with your position, but that is absolutely the correct thing for your mother to do with her money.

KittyMac

Grumpy_chap said:

KittyMac said:

She is in a lovely care home and the money meant we could chose the best one to suit her needs regardless of cost. 

I sympathise with your position, but that is absolutely the correct thing for your mother to do with her money.

Exactly - I personally feel we are very fortunate to have been in a much better position than we were with my father.