I have now been retired for 3 years. I only get state pension and a small private pension.
I can not get Pension Credit as I am already retired. If I had applied for P/C 3 months before I retired, and got it, then there are so many more benefits that I wou;d be able to claim.
This is NOT my sob story, just my experience. I am posting this as a heads-up, as I am reading about others on here that are coming up io that age.
Unfortunately I have no idea how the whole pensions malarkey works. And before you posted this, I would have assumed that pension credit was only available to pensioners! How strange that you have to apply before retirement. So thanks for the info - very interesting.
I thought pensipn credit depended on how much savings you have? Its so mick jagger cant claim extra
Unfortunately there’ll be many more in this situation due to auto enrolment pensions being mandated. For instance there was one post on here the other day where a driver grossed £1300 wages for the week but his pension deductions were £33. Obviously this will (or should) get added to by am employee contribution too but its still not a lot.
There’s too many people who pay in the bare minimum without much thought to their future. Or simply stop paying in because they don’t want to lose that £30/40/whatever in the here and now. Likewise there are too many firms who just offer the bare minimum on their part. In that same thread I mentioned that I’m amazed that generous pension terms aren’t viewed as favourably when it comes to looking at employers/jobs.
I’ve been in one work pension or another since I started work pretty much including the very last of the defined benefit “gold plated” Royal Mail pensions, albeit only for a few years, which has terms so beneficial its untransferable so must just stay as it is until (I think) 55.
All the rest of my pensions have been normal savings type things, and I’ve transferred them as I change employers so they’re all in one pot and all held in my current job which I add to. Using the pensions providers calculator I’m looking at a pot of around £650,000 aged 68 if i carry on doing as now, plus the RM one, plus my state one so hopefully I’ll be battering the saga holidays for a bit 
I know pensions and that are boring and they’re also not at tge same level they once were, but there’s still some decent offers out there. I get paid lunar pay (every four weeks, or 13 times a year) and my contribution is normally around £330 give or take, but my employer matches it so I’m getting £660 or so into my pot every four weeks which is costing me less than half that as its taken off my top line before tax and NI etc.
I think its important for people to think about pension provision and to actively save towards it because, for me anyway, I couldn’t think of anything worse than working all my life only to retire to just about scrape by.
You probably can’t get it because your weekly income exceeds the threshold. The full rate for the state pension is £185.15. You are not mentioning whether your partner has also reached state pension age.
cav551:
You probably can’t get it because your weekly income exceeds the threshold. The full rate for the state pension is £185.15. You are not mentioning whether your partner has also reached state pension age.
In my case, if I had applied for it before I retired, I probabley would have got it. Now the horse has bolted.
Just saying to others, to apply Before, Not afterwards.
toonsy:
Unfortunately there’ll be many more in this situation due to auto enrolment pensions being mandated. For instance there was one post on here the other day where a driver grossed £1300 wages for the week but his pension deductions were £33. Obviously this will (or should) get added to by am employee contribution too but its still not a lot.There’s too many people who pay in the bare minimum without much thought to their future. Or simply stop paying in because they don’t want to lose that £30/40/whatever in the here and now. Likewise there are too many firms who just offer the bare minimum on their part. In that same thread I mentioned that I’m amazed that generous pension terms aren’t viewed as favourably when it comes to looking at employers/jobs.
I’ve been in one work pension or another since I started work pretty much including the very last of the defined benefit “gold plated” Royal Mail pensions, albeit only for a few years, which has terms so beneficial its untransferable so must just stay as it is until (I think) 55.
All the rest of my pensions have been normal savings type things, and I’ve transferred them as I change employers so they’re all in one pot and all held in my current job which I add to. Using the pensions providers calculator I’m looking at a pot of around £650,000 aged 68 if i carry on doing as now, plus the RM one, plus my state one so hopefully I’ll be battering the saga holidays for a bit
I know pensions and that are boring and they’re also not at tge same level they once were, but there’s still some decent offers out there. I get paid lunar pay (every four weeks, or 13 times a year) and my contribution is normally around £330 give or take, but my employer matches it so I’m getting £660 or so into my pot every four weeks which is costing me less than half that as its taken off my top line before tax and NI etc.
I think its important for people to think about pension provision and to actively save towards it because, for me anyway, I couldn’t think of anything worse than working all my life only to retire to just about scrape by.
Most/all stock market pensions are rubbish - my pot was higher 10 years ago than it is now - the ftse 100 has been flatlining for a decade. The final salary ones were the only ones worth having.
SWEDISH BLUE:
cav551:
You probably can’t get it because your weekly income exceeds the threshold. The full rate for the state pension is £185.15. You are not mentioning whether your partner has also reached state pension age.In my case, if I had applied for it before I retired, I probabley would have got it. Now the horse has bolted.
Just saying to others, to apply Before, Not afterwards.
Why would it make any difference when you applied if It goes on the amount of pension/ savings you have?
JeffA:
I thought pensipn credit depended on how much savings you have? Its so mick jagger cant claim extra
As Mr Jagger has probably paid into the system I for one have no qualms about him claiming back from said system. Its all of the free booters that I object to.
toonsy:
Unfortunately there’ll be many more in this situation due to auto enrolment pensions being mandated. For instance there was one post on here the other day where a driver grossed £1300 wages for the week but his pension deductions were £33. Obviously this will (or should) get added to by am employee contribution too but its still not a lot.There’s too many people who pay in the bare minimum without much thought to their future. Or simply stop paying in because they don’t want to lose that £30/40/whatever in the here and now. Likewise there are too many firms who just offer the bare minimum on their part. In that same thread I mentioned that I’m amazed that generous pension terms aren’t viewed as favourably when it comes to looking at employers/jobs.
I’ve been in one work pension or another since I started work pretty much including the very last of the defined benefit “gold plated” Royal Mail pensions, albeit only for a few years, which has terms so beneficial its untransferable so must just stay as it is until (I think) 55.
All the rest of my pensions have been normal savings type things, and I’ve transferred them as I change employers so they’re all in one pot and all held in my current job which I add to. Using the pensions providers calculator I’m looking at a pot of around £650,000 aged 68 if i carry on doing as now, plus the RM one, plus my state one so hopefully I’ll be battering the saga holidays for a bit
I know pensions and that are boring and they’re also not at tge same level they once were, but there’s still some decent offers out there. I get paid lunar pay (every four weeks, or 13 times a year) and my contribution is normally around £330 give or take, but my employer matches it so I’m getting £660 or so into my pot every four weeks which is costing me less than half that as its taken off my top line before tax and NI etc.
I think its important for people to think about pension provision and to actively save towards it because, for me anyway, I couldn’t think of anything worse than working all my life only to retire to just about scrape by.
That was me , I’ve various pensions ( private ) , pensions from years ago , bonds , Isa,s etc , as does mrs , so it won’t be our only money going into retirement , not to say will be well off ( hopefully ok though )
alamcculloch:
JeffA:
I thought pensipn credit depended on how much savings you have? Its so mick jagger cant claim extraAs Mr Jagger has probably paid into the system I for one have no qualms about him claiming back from said system. Its all of the free booters that I object to.
No, Mick jagger gets his pension he just wont get pension credit.
Btw, jagger was a tax exile for years and is paid through offshore trusts so he will be paying less tax than his office cleaner does.
SWEDISH BLUE:
I have now been retired for 3 years. I only get state pension and a small private pension.
I can not get Pension Credit as I am already retired. If I had applied for P/C 3 months before I retired, and got it, then there are so many more benefits that I wou;d be able to claim.
This is NOT my sob story, just my experience. I am posting this as a heads-up, as I am reading about others on here that are coming up io that age.
If you applied for it before you retired it doesn’t mean you get it for life, if you was eligible then and your circumstances haven’t changed then you are still eligible now. If you had got it then and your circumstances changed, for example you end up with more savings than the threshold then you would lose some or all of the pension credit.
How to claim
You can start your application up to 4 months before you reach State Pension age.
You can apply any time after you reach State Pension age but your application can only be backdated by 3 months. This means you can get up to 3 months of Pension Credit in your first payment if you were eligible during that time.
gov.uk/pension-credit/eligibility
gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator
If your circumstances match the eligibility in the above link then you should apply, my nextdoor neighbour applied 3 years after he retired and he got it.
I think maybe you misunderstood that if you had applied and got it 3 months before you retired that it is something you would get for life, but once other private pensions etc that you were in kicked in then you would have had to notify them of a change of circumstances and if this took you out of eligibility then the pension credit would stop or reduce.
Use the calculator in the second link, you are either eligible or you arent, regardless of how long you have been retired and if you are eligible it can be backdated 3 months.
JeffA:
toonsy:
Unfortunately there’ll be many more in this situation due to auto enrolment pensions being mandated. For instance there was one post on here the other day where a driver grossed £1300 wages for the week but his pension deductions were £33. Obviously this will (or should) get added to by am employee contribution too but its still not a lot.There’s too many people who pay in the bare minimum without much thought to their future. Or simply stop paying in because they don’t want to lose that £30/40/whatever in the here and now. Likewise there are too many firms who just offer the bare minimum on their part. In that same thread I mentioned that I’m amazed that generous pension terms aren’t viewed as favourably when it comes to looking at employers/jobs.
I’ve been in one work pension or another since I started work pretty much including the very last of the defined benefit “gold plated” Royal Mail pensions, albeit only for a few years, which has terms so beneficial its untransferable so must just stay as it is until (I think) 55.
All the rest of my pensions have been normal savings type things, and I’ve transferred them as I change employers so they’re all in one pot and all held in my current job which I add to. Using the pensions providers calculator I’m looking at a pot of around £650,000 aged 68 if i carry on doing as now, plus the RM one, plus my state one so hopefully I’ll be battering the saga holidays for a bit
I know pensions and that are boring and they’re also not at tge same level they once were, but there’s still some decent offers out there. I get paid lunar pay (every four weeks, or 13 times a year) and my contribution is normally around £330 give or take, but my employer matches it so I’m getting £660 or so into my pot every four weeks which is costing me less than half that as its taken off my top line before tax and NI etc.
I think its important for people to think about pension provision and to actively save towards it because, for me anyway, I couldn’t think of anything worse than working all my life only to retire to just about scrape by.
Most/all stock market pensions are rubbish - my pot was higher 10 years ago than it is now - the ftse 100 has been flatlining for a decade. The final salary ones were the only ones worth having.
But therein lay the benefit of a decent matched contribution. I agree they’ve not performed fantastically well but my pot has still grown compared to what has been paid into it and as said earlier out of my pocket I’m only paying half of what is going in so I’m not losing.
I’m not planning on using it for an annuity, favouring drawdown, so it may be called a pension but ultimately its just a pot of money.
SWEDISH BLUE:
I have now been retired for 3 years. I only get state pension and a small private pension.
I can not get Pension Credit as I am already retired. If I had applied for P/C 3 months before I retired, and got it, then there are so many more benefits that I wou;d be able to claim.
This is NOT my sob story, just my experience. I am posting this as a heads-up, as I am reading about others on here that are coming up io that age.
So what is your game plan?
Did not have a “Game Plan”. I was just trying to help others, based on my experience.
After all the negatives I have had, i think I will just “Lurk”
IF I can be bothered to stay
Some of us are sympathetic,Swedish Blue,and if you are healthy ,isnt that worth so much.And you have freedom,no one telling you what to do.With me,my hobbies,piano playing,cycling,the church activities,walking ,all things that dont cost much
A quote from my original post…
This is NOT my sob story, just my experience. I am posting this as a heads-up, as I am reading about others on here that are coming up io that age.
I am not after anything. I made my choise 3 years age. I am happy with what I have got.
toonsy:
JeffA:
toonsy:
Unfortunately there’ll be many more in this situation due to auto enrolment pensions being mandated. For instance there was one post on here the other day where a driver grossed £1300 wages for the week but his pension deductions were £33. Obviously this will (or should) get added to by am employee contribution too but its still not a lot.There’s too many people who pay in the bare minimum without much thought to their future. Or simply stop paying in because they don’t want to lose that £30/40/whatever in the here and now. Likewise there are too many firms who just offer the bare minimum on their part. In that same thread I mentioned that I’m amazed that generous pension terms aren’t viewed as favourably when it comes to looking at employers/jobs.
I’ve been in one work pension or another since I started work pretty much including the very last of the defined benefit “gold plated” Royal Mail pensions, albeit only for a few years, which has terms so beneficial its untransferable so must just stay as it is until (I think) 55.
All the rest of my pensions have been normal savings type things, and I’ve transferred them as I change employers so they’re all in one pot and all held in my current job which I add to. Using the pensions providers calculator I’m looking at a pot of around £650,000 aged 68 if i carry on doing as now, plus the RM one, plus my state one so hopefully I’ll be battering the saga holidays for a bit
I know pensions and that are boring and they’re also not at tge same level they once were, but there’s still some decent offers out there. I get paid lunar pay (every four weeks, or 13 times a year) and my contribution is normally around £330 give or take, but my employer matches it so I’m getting £660 or so into my pot every four weeks which is costing me less than half that as its taken off my top line before tax and NI etc.
I think its important for people to think about pension provision and to actively save towards it because, for me anyway, I couldn’t think of anything worse than working all my life only to retire to just about scrape by.
Most/all stock market pensions are rubbish - my pot was higher 10 years ago than it is now - the ftse 100 has been flatlining for a decade. The final salary ones were the only ones worth having.
But therein lay the benefit of a decent matched contribution. I agree they’ve not performed fantastically well but my pot has still grown compared to what has been paid into it and as said earlier out of my pocket I’m only paying half of what is going in so I’m not losing.
I’m not planning on using it for an annuity, favouring drawdown, so it may be called a pension but ultimately its just a pot of money.
It depends how much money you have spare I suppose - the problem with pensions I found was when I was out of work for a few months I had thousands sitting in a pension that I can’t touch while I was absolutely skint. If you’re loaded then yeah pensions are worth it - for anyone struggling you are locking money away that you may need.
And the returns are pathetic - I think in the last ten years it gained a couple of grand. I wish I could put it on the american stock market rather than the FTSE - the american stock market has gone up four or five times as much as the FTSE 100.
JeffA:
Most/all stock market pensions are rubbish - my pot was higher 10 years ago than it is now - the ftse 100 has been flatlining for a decade. The final salary ones were the only ones worth having.
FTSE100 is almost 25% up from where it was 10 years ago so clearly you invested in a bad one or one with ridiculous fees - if the fees are even 1% then they’re too high, if they’re knocking on 2% they’d have eaten up most of the last 10 years of FTSE rises if that’s all your pension is invested in… No pension fund worth its salt just invests in the UK stock market solely unless the individual specifically chooses a UK market only. Even the two most popular workplace pension schemes, Nest and Peoples Pension, don’t just invest in the UK market. My SIPP which is invested in nothing more complicated than Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap has 60% of its fund invested in the US. It grew 19.11% in March 2020-21, 9.61% March 2021-22 year, is up 5.29% this last 12 months. The first payment I made in Jan 2016 is up 75%. Any pension fund which didn’t increase in double digit percentages in 2020 is one you shouldn’t be in.
And the returns are pathetic - I think in the last ten years it gained a couple of grand. I wish I could put it on the american stock market rather than the FTSE - the american stock market has gone up four or five times as much as the FTSE 100.
You can. Choice 1 is see if your pension provider has a range of investment options and choose one that you think is better. Option 2 is do it yourself, open up a SIPP, transfer your current pensions as cash into your SIPP, invest the cash in an index fund. You could choose a SP500 tracker fund if you want it all invested in the US markets or something like I have if you want a bit more diversification. If you choose a Vanguard fund open up your SIPP with Vanguard directly for the lowest fees…OTTOMH I don’t think I’m even paying 0.5%.
(Note I am not a financial advisor, this is not advice on what to invest in, merely suggestions to provoke thought.)
Has the OP tried to apply for Attendance Allowance.The worst they can do is say NO.