living off your savings in retirement

Thanks Penstemmon. I couldn't agree more. We have been fortunate in working hard and being able to save towards decent pensions. I had to retire at 62 due to ill health, weeks later my husband was made redundant, so we had a bit less time to save than we'd planned. That's life isn't it. Of course we pay tax on our workplace pensions, my husband worked part time until recently, tax paid there. I am fortunate in having expensive disease modifiers free on the NHS. I've had eye surgery and excellent care from my optician (NHS). I'm happy we've paid tax, would have paid more to help people in more difficult circumstances than we have been. Long live the welfare state.

Please get a Welfare Rights check on your income, however you can. Do not be sour about others profligacy, we have one life.
Us that are more fortunate could fester that our taxes provide and have provided for those less fortunate.
If you are getting all the benefits you can and are still just surviving is there somethings you could do to earn anything? I have friends very broke who scoured charity shops for pretty clothes, cleaned and pressed them, then sold them on, okay it may have only been £5 now and again, but if you are bumping along the bottom, that is a lovely bonus, another friend used to sell homemade cakes at a village cake stall once a month.

We have savings we are trying to hang onto my husband has a good pension because he worked much longer than me I went back to work when the children started school and nursery, it was only part time but I have a small pension plus my state pension. My husband has only his state pension and a small pension. We have our grandaughter who we are guardians too so we can claim tax credit which is good, our gd gets a grant from our local council but when she is 18 that will stop.
But we can't claim anything else, I wouldn't anyway, but it does seem harsh that you cannot get any help maybe when your h does retire you may get more help

You sound like you have been a real hard worker, travelsafar. I understand how you feel regarding some who live it up and fritter away money regularly fully expecting the state will look after them, and I don't mean everyone on benefits has done that.

I still can't stand to see George Osborne's smug face after he stole more than £40K from me. Yes shock horror the b... did! I now have to wait till I am at least 66yrs before I'm able to draw a pension. After working very long and hard this does irk me.

In regard to your question many have stated about checking you are receiving what you are entitled too, which I hope you do if you haven't already. You are right in that interest on savings currently is poor. One thing I could suggest here is to get store savings cards in which the store adds a bit extra on to your card. Iceland currently add £1 for every £20 you save, which is £5 for every £100 added to you card. At 5% this is a lot more than you are likely getting in a bank account. They recently had a bonus period in which they gave an additional £1 for every £10 saved plus each £1 saved gets entry to a monthly draw for Iceland vouchers. They also send bonus free gifts now and again. I received a gateaux for my birthday and recently received a free £2 gift in which I chose the morello cherry bakewell tart, which was delicious. Every little helps and looking at these options can spread your income and help out.

Enjoy your, by the sound of it, hard earned holiday (where are you off to).

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Some excellent posts from you Nannarose on this subject.

Fairydoll I don't know how integrated HMRC's systems are now, but when I completed my last tax declaration, my earnings from casual employment and two small private pensions were already entered on the form.

Your MIL might be in for a nasty shock, because I think the intention is to link everything together. Your MIL's private pension provider will almost certainly have to inform HMRC how much is being paid.

Fairy am I right in thinking that your MIL hasn't declared the pensions when claiming benefits? I think * dd* that the tax will be being paid as pension providers do automatically inform HMRC. When your MIL dies will there be a need to get probate ? If so, this is what will happen . Probate Office will inform DWP of your MILs estate. They will check their records and see she was getting money she was not entitled to and will send the bill to the executor who will have to pay it from the estate. The executor will have to get years of past bank statements and bank accounts. I hope you or your dh are not executors - it will be a lot of work and bother

DD is correct. I have an extra very small pension which pays out once a year and this was noted on my tax declaration by HMRC. I hadn't informed them of this because tax was already deducted at source. So Fairydoll your MiL might well get a shock soon.

Travelsafar lots of good advice on here worth looking into.

Also have you thought about getting a little PT job just to top up your income? After retiring and before I got bogged down asked to help with GC I did get slightly bored being at home 24/7 and took on PT work just one day a week. I found I was in great demand as I was happy to work either Saturday or Sunday. It got me out of the house, I met new people and the money (which to be frank I didn't need as I do have a good pension) mounted up quite quickly.

Think about it.

My mum and dad sold their ex council house and moved into an LA adapted bungalow (mum was wheelchair bound before her death a year ago) they sold their house for a pittance (around £60,000) and over the years have paid full rent,council tax and everything else. My dad has almost nothing left from the sale of the house as his rent alone is over £100 per week He is a very honest man but he won't take advice.and will no doubt carry on paying everything in full until he has literally nothing left. He has his state pension plus a tiny works pension and I am sure he must be due to some help by now. Has anyone got any idea how much you can have in savings to claim any benefits? I think he has between £15,000 and £20,000 left. Which considering he is paying over £5,000 per year in rent alone won't last very long.

this is how it works gillybob

1.add together your dad's pensions
2. work out how many blocks of £500 he has in his savings - so for example if he has £20000, that's f40 blocks, if he has £150000, that's 30 blocks.
3. For every £500 block, the DWP assume an income of £1. So if your dad has £20000 in savings, the DWP will say he has £40 of income
4,add this assumed income to the figure from 1.
5. Compare this figure to £172.55
6. If the figure in 4 is less than this, he will get pension credit and council tax paid and housing benefit - not sure if that would cover full rent but as its LA housing, I'd guess it would

Not f40 but 40

Gilly I had a cousin with some savings and I was able to look on the Council Benefits website and see how much savings you could have and gain benefits. I know that friends who are in a Nursing home need to pay everything till their savings are about 20K each. So I think you should look on the site or get in touch with the local office and ask them. When I sorted out my parents' Council tax etc I used to have to go to the offices every year and take their savings book with me to have it photocopied but I dare say things have moved on a bit now.

Two extra things gillybob

1. The figure I have give of £172.55 is the new figure from next month
2. I completely forgot that the first £10000 of your dad's savings is ignored so point 2 above should say

Subtract £10000 from your dad's savings. Work out how many blocks of £500 he has in what's left - so for example if he has £20000 in savings, subtract £10000, the £10000 left is 20 blocks of £500 so that would be assumed to be £20 of income( which you would add to his pensions and compare to the figure of £172.55

If his income from pensions and the assumed income from his savings is more than £172.55 he could get help with his council tax and rent. The rules about savings are different here - he'll only get help if his savings are below £16000

re Fairy's post, I read it that the MIL was not declaring the pensions to the benefit people and not that she wasn't paying tax. Perhaps Fairy will be along to clarify

When my son was made redundant years ago after paying tax and NI for more than 20 years, he found that he and his young family had to live off £64 Job Seekers allowance. He was denied any more because of his redundancy pay. It wasn't his fault he was made redundant, lots of people were. Yet there are those who know how to work the system and they get £s more every month in benefits, free school meals and bigger houses if they have bigger families, plus child benefit. It does not pay to save, save, save these days as that is taken in to account as well when they decide what pittance they are going to allow you whilst you are looking for another job. If we had not helped our son out his family would have lost everything he had worked so hard for. Others can spend all their money on holidays to Ibiza, cigarettes, booze, and then apply for benefits because they cannot pay the bills, knowing full well that if you are entitled to one benefit that gives you access to other benefits; but if you live a simple life and live within your means you are penalised by the State.

What happened to your son was awful and it was good you could help him but the real issue here is how low benefits are for unemployed people. I think you are being a bit harsh in your views overall though - lots of people earn so little, they don't have savings to fall back on and they weren't spending their meagre earnings on the things you list - they are struggling to break even.

Thank you very much indeed Rigby I will pass this on to my dad tomorrow and hope he will try and see sense and seek help (if indeed he is due to it).

Yes it does often seem to be the case Yorkshiregel

Rigby46 I do agree with you. There are some honest hard working people today forced to either do part-time work when they want full-time work, or they work on zero hours contracts not knowing if they will be earning from one day to the next, or they are trying to manage on less than the minimum wage. That is because most of all the Government wanted to skew the unemployment figures to make themselves look good, if you make people work part-time that gives another part-time job to someone else. They turn a blind eye to companies who give less than the minimum wage ie fruit pickers and such like; and they close factories and businesses in areas where people are desperate for work ie Wales, the Midlands and the North East, without replacing these jobs with other jobs. How in God's name do they expect people to survive? No wonder people are desperate and going to food banks. I have never seen food banks in my life before. Not since WWII. I think it is shocking the way they mess with people's lives while they sit at the top table scooping up the cream. The people I am referring to are those who know how to work the system. People who do not see that going out to work is necessary when you can get more on benefits. At the end of the day who is the fool?

travelsafar We found that if we do 'bulk' cooking ie creating big pots of casserole, bolognese, shepherd's pie, cottage pie, and freeze it (in single portions); plus buying cheaper cuts of meat and cooking it slowly, buying large sacks of potatoes, big boxes of washing powder, big packs of toilet rolls and looking for offers such as buy one get one free at the supermarket we can stretch our budget to meet the cost. We also buy lots of fruit in season.

Not easy is it but we can cope. I am lucky because my Mother taught me to cook, but OH does most of the cooking in our house. I just provide the means.

Which Supermarkets do people think are the best for value? I am thinking of shopping on-line and having it delivered to my home.

I'm with you with regards to the bulk cooking Yorkshiregel this is exactly the way I tend to cook and I find it helps the extended family too. If I make a Bolognese, Curry or Chilli I tend to make huge pans full and divide it up to share or use later.

I shop at Aldi, Morrisons and Asda. Not sure about shopping on line though, as the only time I tried it, I was very unhappy with the quality of some of the produce and the "use by" dates, so haven't tried it again.

It is tricky getting your DF generation to apply for help gillybob as they often associate it with 'national assistance' and poverty, pride steps in. Attitudes like your yorkshiregel help to promote this attitude too. It is sad that your son lost his job but the redundancy pay is meant to cover income until another job is found, hopefully, it is not a cash bonus to be stashed away while you claim benefits. Also, not wishing to hijack the thread, but it is not the government who shut down factories, we do not live in a state controlled economy. Anyone who looks as if they are living the high life on benefits or on a state pension is either receiving income from elsewhere or not being truthful.

I personally don't like shopping on line much (though I have occasionally) and I enjoy getting out to shops. I shop mostly at independent shops where the staff are helpful, and markets, where I use a shopping trolley!
I too make up vats of easily freezable dishes, and take them when looking after grandchildren -both for the children and their tired parents!

I also want to second the store savings cards.My dear mum made me, as a child, work out the interest on savings accounts and 'Xmas club' cards, to show to me that savings accounts were better value - not any more! Our nearest supermarkets are Co-ops (proper ones, not 'convenience' shops) and their savings stamps work out at 4% per annum.

Rigby and Fairy. The reason I mentioned details already being entered on tax returns is that I think the intention is, when Universal Credit is finally rolled out, to integrate the tax and benefit systems. In theory, that means that people with irregular income can claim credits when their income goes below a certain amount and will avoid unnecessary paperwork, because the information is already available in real time.

I don't think that HMRC and the DWP's computer systems are 'talking to each other' yet. Other agencies, such as local councils and the NHS, are also involved in administrating certain benefits. However, in the future they will. This should reduce opportunities for fraud, but I guess some people will find their way round it all.

PS. Rigby I thought it was a £1 deduction for each £250 of savings (but could be wrong - I'll check). I wouldn't wish living entirely on benefits on anybody. It's grim, especially for working age people, for whom the thresholds are much lower.