Pensions being paid while parents are still alive.

Not that long ago elegran and it wasn't a hurtful post JO merely wondering. But then the rules apply ....???

As a matter of perhaps interest,in a conversation with the judges at the court today, came up the subject of payment for parent's care expenses.
Apparently, in Belgium and probably other countries, the children DO have to pay for their parent's care.
It is means tested and divided amongst them.

HUNTERF IS VINDICATED

Vindicated in Belgium!

Galen

I am sure I read somewhere the children have to pay for their parents care in France as well.
This must cause difficulties to the children as I would imagine the ones who will have to pay the most will be children of parents who have very little in terms of assets.
I know somebody whose mother has been in care since 2006 in a London Home and she is NHS funded. She only has 1 living son.
You can imagine how much that has cost so far.
The other problem is if there are children who are abroad and can not be forced to pay because of the laws of the country they were in.

Another interesting situation which happened to a friend of mine was he was born in Belgium but came to the UK when he was less than a month old.
He got called for National Service in Belgium and was working for a London bank at the time.
If he had been working for a Belgium employer the employer would have been obliged to keep his job open for him. There was no such obligation in the UK.
Realising the situation the Belgium authorities exempted him. He could not even speak the language so he would have been of little use to them so they did show some common sense.

Frank

The OP has been exercising me and I challenge bentley49 to explain WHY he started this silly controversial thread. Was it a case of a "genuine" money-saving idea politically slightly to the right of Genghis Khan? Or are you a student in a bedsit somewhere wondering "What will really get the grannies squawking on their perches?" I think it is a total wind-up and I regret not depriving it of the oxygen of publicity, but this sort of tosh just makes me fume when there are much more interesting/amusing/important issues to be debated.

gracesmum

I think bently49 could be a senior citizen but his relatives may have passed away well before their sons / daughters retired so he thinks the situation he has described will never affect him.

I know somebody who is 75 and says why should he contribute towards hospitals because he has never used them.
When I questioned him he has never been in hospital overnight but he had used A & E and he has had several tests done in hospital.
Also even though he has been lucky up till now how does he know he will not have to use them in future?.

I think Bentley may have been having a dig at me.

I was claiming my occupational pensions when my father was alive.

Oh I have only had 1 prescription since I was 60 but I don't expect a refund.

Frank

Take your point Frank but don't agree! No right to have a dig at anybody claiming a pension to which they are entitled, Still think a wind-up!

I composed a reply and then thought, why bother? Why respond to a wind-up merchant when there are so many moreinteresting dicussions elsewhere. At least Frank is rational, if a bit obsessive.

Could this be a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on? The rational, but obsessive Frank - then comes the full moon and Bentley leaps forth upon an unsuspecting world.

gracesmum

My wife died in 2003 and she would have been 60 at the end of 2008.
Under the terms of her pension scheme I was entitled to half her pension from when she would have been 60.
I phoned to ask about it and the person on the other end of the phone said it was very unusual for a spouse to want to claim the pension years after the death.
She did say if it had happened to her she would have not wanted it.
I did insist it was paid and I had to say I would take legal action if they did not pay up.
I was 4 months younger than my wife.
They offered the basic pension from my 60th birthday.
I had to make a fuss to get it from when she would have been 60 and I had to complain to get the AVC and bonus sacrifice element paid as well.
I had to produce the letters in relation to the bonus sacrifices and they did point to a clause that the contents of the letter were confidential to her and her employer.
Too bad. I just said I found these letters after her death when I was sorting out her affairs.

Frank

See what I mean?

Ad nauseam (oops wrong thread )

Frank did you come on Gransnet when it took over the Oldie Borum forum?

Only asking because if you did, and Bentley did too, then that might account for the similar posting styles. Perhaps that was how posters did it on the Oldie forum.

By the way, I think you were quite right to get the half of your late wife's pension that was due to you. Well done.

Grace

Sorry your wife died at such a young age HUNTERF

j08

Gransnet is the first forum I have ever posted on.
As far as I am aware Gerry joined some time after me.
I have never heard of the Oldie forum.

Frank

petallus

My wife's passing away does illustrate the need for a wider family.
As well as me being upset about it my 2 daughters were very sad to have lost their mother and I have since had 4 granddaughters.
It is a pity my wife did not live to see them.

Frank

Oh well. That's that theory out the window.

Frank that is very sad.

Please do not tarnish Frank with Bentley's brush. Their postings are very different. As I have already commented Frank is rational.

FlicketyB

I am glad you are not putting me in the same class as Bentley.
If Bentley had his way with care fees for example some of the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will be bankrupt before they were born.
One thing I must also point out. My father died when he was 89 nearly 90.
I am not saying there was anything wrong with his length of life but his father lived till he was 94 and his mother was 92 when she died.
In theory my father should have lived longer but it does not always follow.
Also when my father was about 88 he did say to the doctor that I have spent more nights in hospital than he had and I think that was correct.

Frank

Are we aware that some people are in receeipt of pensions while this thread is still alive running ?
Please put it out of its misery!

I can only agree with you gracesmum.
I will be a pensioner for the rest of my life.

Frank