Want to pay into DD pension

You can gift any amount you like from income as long as you can meet all your regular needs and not have to draw on your capital.

For instance Income after tax from pension, work, interest 45,000
Regular expenditure food, housing ,clothing, whatever £30,000
So you can gift 15,000 over the year without it being considered deprivation of assets.

What you can’t do is gift over £3,000 and then take a saved sum to pay the gas bill.

It would need to be a regular sum which could be clearly seen to be coming out of income ie through bank payments. But I think that is the sort of thing you’re thinking of?

Whilst HMRC accept for the purposes of IHT not only annual gifts of £3k per parent but also a regular pattern of payments to a child of any amount out of surplus income, deprivation of assets when it comes to needing care is an entirely different consideration. It is unlikely that your husband could continue to make payments to your daughter if he needs care, and as he is already aware that he might need care payments he makes may be added back into his assets when a financial assessment of his means is carried out.

Your daughter has many years ahead of her before considering retirement, during which time she will also be presumably also be making payments towards a state pension. At her age I think it very unlikely that the eventual value of her occupational pensions can be projected as they are going to be invested for many years. I think you are panicking unnecessarily, at her age, but if you want advice regarding her pension situation you need to consult an independent financial advisor.

What you could legitimately do is contribute £500 per month between you to her pension using both your husband’s and your own annual tax free gifting allowance, £250 each per month. Just make sure you keep it recorded so you can prove that’s what you have done later if necessary.

The £3,000 refers to gifts from capital and is not an absolute limit, but the amount you can give without the gift incurring Inheritance tax should you die within 7 years. The sum due becomes less with each year you live.

The deprivation of assets clause applies to giving or spending large sums of money not small. For example, if your DH had £100,000 in savings and decided to give £50,000 to a child or grandchild to buy a house that could be counted as deprivation of assets.

If he has £20,000 and decides to give her £1,000 each year, I doubt that would be counted as deprivation of assets. Remember that you can have over £14,000 that will not be taken into account when you go into care.

Here is a link to an Age UK Fact Sheet on deprivation of assets. www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs40_deprivation_of_assets_in_social_care_fcs.pdf

If you contact Age UK they can give you more help and advice.

No one on GN can recommend a private pension provider to you. It would be classed as giving financial advice and leave that person open to legal action if anything went wrong. It would also be illegal ( I think) if the person so doing was not a qualified financial advisor.

Once again, speak to Age UK, they may be able to point you towards a qualified Financial Advisor.

Keep good records, no matter your decision.

Consult your accountant and solicitor.

We do give gifts towards down payments, grandchildren's needs & schooling, savings (I suppose some of our money goes into their savings pots - but I have no precise knowledge to their savings/pensions).

Lucky daughter - perhaps you’ve got just one ?