Pension annuity

pumpkin60

My friend is due to retire in April. She receives universal credit with a transitional element and new style esa. She has bought an annuity from when she opted out of serps. Her 1st payment is being paid on 1st March which is only a part payment, and her full payments are paid 1st April.

Does she let universal credit know on the day it is paid or should she tell them now? and what about her esa do they need to be informed?

I do hope I have explained this correctly, many thanks in advance

tacpot12

She only needs to let Universal Credit know before the last day of her assessment period, but there is no reason to tell them as soon as the payment is received. Similarly, she only needs to tell the team that deals with her ESA claim when she receives the payment.

When does she reach her state retirement age?

pumpkin60

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81894054#Comment_81894054

Thank you for replying. She turns 66 on the 30th of April

tacpot12

Thanks for confirming when she reaches her state retirement age. When she calls the DWP ESA team to tell them about her annuity payment starting, she should also check that they are aware she reaches her state retirement age on 30th April, just in case there is an error in their data. They should confirm that they do know this and that her ESA claim will be automatically stopped on 29th April. They should also be able to tell her when her last ESA payment will arrive.

Her last Universal Credit Payment will be received on the normal payment date in May, but will only be for the period upto 29th April. There's less need to check with that Universal Credit will stop correctly when she reaches her State Retirement Age as the data in the UC system tends to be correct, but she can check they have her date of birth correctly recorded on the system if she is concerned.

The UK State Pension is usually paid every four weeks in arrears, but the first payment can take upto five weeks to arrive, so she may need to think about how she budgets during the period between her UC & ESA stopping and her State Pension arriving every four weeks, but the annuity payments will help with this.

Robbie64

^

Although the State Pension is usually paid every 4 weeks, you can opt to have it paid each week. You would need to phone the Pension Service to request this.