Do I continue with Shared Ownership or put this into a pension and rent

Unicorn79

Albermarle said:

MichelleUK said:

You will not be able to pay that amount into a pension, there are limits based on your earned income. Have a look at the Pensions forum here for more details.

As above the maximum you can pay into a pension each tax year and get tax relief on the contribution, is related to your annual earnings.
It is pointless adding to a pension without getting the tax relief.
However you can still save/invest money for retirement in addition to pension.
Cash savings, Stocks and shares ISA etc 

As a general rule, 
Pensions are better for building up a retirement pot due to the tax relief ( although there is a limit on this as said)
Investing via  a S&S ISA is best for money you will not need for 10 years or more ( but before you can take the pension)
Cash saving is best for money you will need in 5 years or less. 

Pensions & Investing | MoneySavingExpert
Savings | MoneySavingExpert

This is amazing thank you.  I completely forgot about carefully placed savings/S&S ISA etc..  This definitely is the kind of creative financial planning I would like to explore.  Just undecided if I am best to stick with having an SO home, or to basically ditch this idea and look at options set out above.  I think it could well be a gamble, unless there is more solid advice.

Unicorn79

Myci85 said:

If your can't get a mortgage, I'm guessing you will struggle to find a private rental that will accept you as they usually have strict income thresholds. However in many places HA rentals are very hard to get, so I wonder how long you may be waiting to be offered a suitable property. That may take the decision away from you. 

With a decent amount of capital this could warrant the financial security they require.  But definitely a valid statement I can further explore, I will pop into some letting agents to query  

ripplyuk

I would stick with a shared ownership HA property. Private rentals are in such high demand these days that landlords can be extremely fussy and rents are very high. Many won’t rent to anyone on benefits so your UC will rule you out. Then there’s issues like no pets, no pictures on the walls, only paint a certain colour etc. You’ll also have no security and could end up having to move regularly. The new law will help but that’s not in place yet and doesn’t solve all these issues. 

Even a small share of a shared-ownership property gives you security and the freedom to live how you want. 

Myci85

I agree with above, if I had a choice between private rental or SO, despite the pitfalls I'd choose SO for the security. And even if you have capital in your bank, I'm not sure landlords would accept that as most need you to be employed and earning 3 times the rent. Some used to accept 6/12 months paid in advance, but whether that will change now its going to be harder for them to evict tenants, we shall see. 
Also, if you currently qualify for some housing element with your universal credit, that would presumably stop if you went into rental and had a significant lump sum in savings, whereas if you are in SO, that could continue to help pay the rent part. My sister was in the same dilemma when separating from her husband, if she had rented and put her share of the equity from their house into savings, she'd have not been able to claim universal credit and would have ended up working through the savings to pay her rent, but she bought a SO property and gets the rent portion paid through universal credits.

Albermarle

Unicorn79 said:

Albermarle said:

MichelleUK said:

You will not be able to pay that amount into a pension, there are limits based on your earned income. Have a look at the Pensions forum here for more details.

As above the maximum you can pay into a pension each tax year and get tax relief on the contribution, is related to your annual earnings.
It is pointless adding to a pension without getting the tax relief.
However you can still save/invest money for retirement in addition to pension.
Cash savings, Stocks and shares ISA etc 

As a general rule, 
Pensions are better for building up a retirement pot due to the tax relief ( although there is a limit on this as said)
Investing via  a S&S ISA is best for money you will not need for 10 years or more ( but before you can take the pension)
Cash saving is best for money you will need in 5 years or less. 

Pensions & Investing | MoneySavingExpert
Savings | MoneySavingExpert

This is amazing thank you.  I completely forgot about carefully placed savings/S&S ISA etc..  This definitely is the kind of creative financial planning I would like to explore.  Just undecided if I am best to stick with having an SO home, or to basically ditch this idea and look at options set out above.  I think it could well be a gamble, unless there is more solid advice.

To be clear most people would understand 'creative financial planning' as some kind of dodgy plan, probably including complicated tax avoidance schemes.
What I said was just standard guidance to mainstream personal finance. 

whizzywoo

Please do not forget that as you claim Universal Credit the amount you receive will be impacted as soon as your savings, capital, etc reaches £6,000 and will stop completely at £16,000.

The capital from your equity can be disregarded until you use it for another property to live in, for a period of 6 months.  But if you then fully rent it will no longer be disregarded and you will be expected to spend it to live on.  I am fairly certain that putting a large amount of savings into a pension may be classed as deprivation of assets and you would be treated as still having the capital.  But please check this out as I may be wrong.

Don't ask the Universal Credit staff about this as they are notoriously undertrained and will be unlikely to give you correct information.  Have an interview with one of the charitable welfare agencies to discuss it.