State Pension Query.....

cloud_dog

MIL has recently passed away and am working my way through their finances.

A query on State Pension............ How is a married couples state pension delivered? My FIL receives a basic pension of £84.25 per week plus some monies from earnings via an employers scheme.

There is no mention on his from from the Pension Service of a married couples amount. His IR PAYE coding notice identifies him as receiving £2789 Married Couples allwance but............ I was expecting to see either a basic pension of apporx £130???? or an entry making up the difference.

Any help / guidance would be very helpful.

Thanks cloud_dog

jennifernil

If MIL was over 60 and claiming on FIL's NI record then the extra amount would have been paid direct to her. If she had her own pension which was a higher amount than that, then there would be no other payment.

If she was under 60 and not working then the extra allowance would have been paid to FIL.

cloud_dog

Jennifernil, thanks for the reply.

MIL was over 60 and from what we can see she was not in receipt of a pension in her own right, i.e. no regular bank deposits from DWP, and we cannot find a Pension Book for manual collection.

Do you know how the married couples component of the pension would have been received? I was expecting to see a basic entry on the FIL Pension Service form and then an entry saying 'Married Couple Addition' (or simiar).

Is this what you would expect or would you exepct the MIL to have recieved a persion in her own right but only for the difference between basic and married couples??

Many thanks cloud_dog

jem16

cloud_dog wrote: »

Jennifernil, thanks for the reply.

MIL was over 60 and from what we can see she was not in receipt of a pension in her own right, i.e. no regular bank deposits from DWP, and we cannot find a Pension Book for manual collection.

If your MIL was over 60 she will receive her own pension in her own name. It will be at least £52.30 ( if based on her husband's contributions) but may be more if she qulaified in her own right.

Do you know how the married couples component of the pension would have been received? I was expecting to see a basic entry on the FIL Pension Service form and then an entry saying 'Married Couple Addition' (or simiar).

This would only apply before your MIL was aged 60 and only if she was dependent on him.

This link may help;

http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/women_&_pensions/basic_state_pension/

If you can't find anything pension wise for your MIL it might be a good idea to contact the Pension Service as you will need to let them know of her death.

http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/

cloud_dog

Jem, thanks for the reply.

We are in the process of notifying everyone.

My query arose as there wasn't an entry (bank account, Pension Service from, etc) which identified them as receiving the Married Couple's pension payment/element. There is a DWP bank payment which marries up with a monthly amount for the FIL state pension but nothing for the MIL.

FIL is a lovely bloke but left all the finances to the MIL, so we are searching around to see if she may have collected it from the Post Office, but failing that I will word the letter to the DWP appropriately and ask them to check to see if they (MIL & FIL) were receiving all the payments/benefits they should have been.

Thanks cloud_dog

getting-sorted-sarah

There is no such thing as 'married couple addition' - both partners over pension age receive a pension - a married woman who has not worked much may receive one on the basis of her husband's contributions, but there is no 'married couple pension' as such.

It is very confusing that the press and so on insist on talking as if there is!

It is also not possible to collect pension with a pension book - these were stopped several years ago and most likely MIL would have had a Post Office account or her pension paid into her bank act. Possibly she could have had giro cheques sent but this is discouraged and so unlikely.

It could be that she never claimed, believing that she would not be entitled to anything if she had not worked. It is up to an individual to claim, not to the DWP to offer the money - so this does sometimes happen. Unlikely that much can be done if this is the case....

margaretclare

Sarah, you have put it well. Throughout this thread there has been reference to 'married couple's pension'. Such a thing does not exist, although I agree that the Chancellor and others confuse matters by referring to 'pensioner couples'. This AFAIK is only relevant in the case of retired people claiming pension credit i.e. their basic state pension is insufficient for their needs and they have insufficient other resources e.g. private or works pensions. In this event, means-tested pension credit must be claimed as a couple, just the same as income support - in fact, let's not beat about the bush, pension credit is income support for the retired.

If a woman has not built up her own pension entitlement, by the time her husband reaches 65 he receives full state pension based on his own contributions, and she receives 60% of what he receives, based on his contributions. But they don't receive it as a couple! She receives the £60 or whatever in her own name, and since the abolition of pension and benefit books a few years ago now, she will have it paid into an account of her choice. If she doesn't choose to have a bank account of her own then there is the Post Office account, which she can access in cash using a PIN and card.

There was an option for those who really could not cope even with the Post Office account, to receive a weekly girocheque. This was meant to be a 'last resort' because obviously, it was going to be costly to administer and risky, subject to theft. I haven't heard of this being done recently - the hope was that people would get used to some form of account to receive pension income. There are still a lot of retired folk who queue at the Post Office every Monday morning and draw out the whole week's money against their card. The vast majority of us, though, have it paid into bank or building society accounts.

The 'Married Tax Allowance' is what still exists if one of the couple was born before April 1935. In the case of FIL, he had this to set against all of his income, but if MIL had had an income of her own they could have split this allowance between them, which is what DH and I do. Obviously this allowance will cease now your FIL is widowed - he's classed as a single man now.

HTH

Margaret

jennifernil

That is why I used the term "allowance", as that is exactly what OH gets for me at present. He is 65 but I am 59. I have no earned income so he had to claim a dependent's allowance for me. It is paid to him as an addition to his pension.

As it is more than my own pension will be, when I am 60 I will get that amount paid direct to me.

getting-sorted-sarah

Hi Jennifernil

You're quite right - as soon as you are 60 you will cease to be 'a dependent' in the same way, and can claim and receive a pension in your own right., based on your OH's contributions. This being the same amount as the additional supplement for a dependent does make things more confusing!

How are you getting on with the investigations for your FiL?