Moving from living off private pension to state pension

Spoonie_Turtle

Eligibility for ESA payments will depend on how long ago you stopped work, just so you know.

Also pension age Housing Benefit you can have savings up to £10,000 before it starts being affected (with £16k upper limit, except for those who also qualify for Pension Credit Guarantee Credit then there is no hard upper limit).

Vitor

If your health problems are long-term and affect your daily living or mobility, it might be worth looking at Personal Independence Payment (PIP). It isn’t means-tested, so your pension income or savings don’t affect it.

PIP is based on how your condition affects you day to day, not on your ability to work. If you qualified, it could give you extra income and in some cases increase your Housing Benefit or other support.

Might be a better route to explore than trying to reduce pension withdrawals, which councils can treat as “deprivation of income” and ignore for Housing Benefit purposes.