What Would You Do?

Sorry...£164.35pw.

travelsafar
Pension credit only brings sub pensions up to the minimum level the state say you can live on which is, at the moment, £163 and change pw.
Look on the website.

Seeing a financial adviser will cost you for the advice and for administering your money into whatever pot you choose.

What I did! not pension age yet but do not work any more.
I looked on the gov. web site and checked if I had enough full paid years for a full state pension.
I paid some as you are allowed Now I am happy to know I will get my full pension allowance when the time comes.

Excellent idea to check the missing years from your state pension - I 'bought back' a chunk of entitlement years for about £60; what a relief - I thought they would ask for a sum with a lot of noughts. Rules have changed; you don't need so many years now to qualify for a full pension but it's a really important to check this one. Even £20 a week more than you thought can make a big difference.

State pension is less than other comparable countries but it is not that bad unless you have a lot of debts or outgoings. I would concentrate on reducing those as much as possible if you can. I am on a state pension and manage to save and live reasonably comfortably. I am not well enough to travel but I could have a decent holiday if I could.
Planning is important but if you get a pension forecast and look at your entitlements you will probably find that you don't need to also worry.

Thanks, all, for your helpful responses.

Go and talk to Age UK. They can do a pension check and advise you what benefits you could be entitled to.

Remember for every £500 savings over £10,000, any claim to Pension Credit will be reduced by about £2 a week and that you cannot get Council tax benefit if your savings exceed £16,000.

If you have insufficent income when you retire and savings below 10,000 i think you may be entitled to pension credit.Maybe a trip to the CAB to get them to help you i have heard they are brilliant at this kind of thing. Good luck.

I agree with Gillybob the management costs will make the fund disappear in no time.Have you thought about a buy to let mortgage? If property is cheap in your area you might be able to get something that you could rent out ,giving you a small amount after paying the mortgage and the property will rise in value until you retire .
Its what we did with our pension funds as they weren't performing as expected .If you get a long term tenant who will look after the property its a winner

Good advice from midgey to check for missing years . This could effect your state pension hugely if there are contributions missing .

With 10 years to go the best thing to do would be to maximise your income. Also check your state retirement prediction and see if you can buy back extra years, assuming this is the right thing for you. Pensions are a minefield so the best thing would be an advisor, although where you find a good one, I don't know. I certainly would be wary of risky investments.

One thing to do is check that you have no ‘missing’years from your state pension. You can buy back years which could be very useful to you. You can check on the pension website or give them a ring.

I’m the same as you AllTheLs it’s a huge worry isn’t it ?

I didn’t say the money would be lost if it was put into a pension M0nica . my point was simply that unless the OP was able to add to it regularly then the cost of managing the fund could well eat into the original amount . Having a 10k pension pot is almost useless, what would it really give you income wise ?

Yes, I am your age, gillybob, and the future is a worry. I can see the 'sensible' thing to do would be to visit a financial advisor, but the one I saw ten years ago advised me to put any extra money into savings, due to my circumstances. Trouble is, as you can see by the amount, I haven't done very well at saving!!!

Money put into a pension fund is not lost. It remains with you and if you died it would be paid back into your estate for distribution.

It only becomes inaccessible, if you take the money out and buy an annuity with it, that is a regular annual/monthly income paid to you by the company you bought it from. This used to be compulsory on reaching retirement age, but this is no longer so. Even then many companies pay a sum back to the estate if you die within 5 years of taking it out.

As others have said, this is a very complicated subject and the only way you can get the best advice for your particular circumstances is to consult an independent financial advisor. Make sure they are properly registered and here is a link to the regulatory authority.
www.fca.org.uk/firms/financial-services-register

When you retire, if your state pension is small you could be entitled to Pension Credit, a supplement that will increase it, plus help with rent and council text. I suggest you look at the Age UK site www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/ . They have a lot of Fact Sheets on all aspects of retirement and growing older.

See a financial adviser, don't ask us we are not specialists

I am in a similar situation without a pension fund AllTheLs, due to over 25 years of being “self employed” and without a regular steady income I have been unable to save. You don’t say how old you are but I’m guessing that when you say “retirement will be at 67” you might be around my age (56) ? I am no expert but putting £10k into a pension fund now could be like throwing it away (unless you could add to it considerably over the next 10 years) I would imagine any pension fund would use some of your meagre savings to manage the account and instead of getting better it could deplete rapidly. I think you should seek proper independent advice. Like you I am very worried about the future and even making it to 67 when I will get a state pension. Good luck to you.