Can I move from IR ESA to CB & thus retain some income if partner moves in?

[Fiz]

If you don't get state pension due to not enough contributions, if you are a tenant and get HB and CTR and IR ESA up until retirement, will you actually be much worse of for not having a state pension? Will pension credit be more or less the same? I'm clueless on this and suspect I may get a shock when the time comes.

[Monic1511]

In my opinion it’s impossible to answer that Fiz, only because we have no idea what will be in place in 6 months time, no idea when you retire. Only thing is the tariff rates are different for working age compared to pension age
A single pensioner needs £177.10/week, working age singles need £74.70/week.


That’s why they keep changing the pension age

[Sunshine Meadows]

   it is certainly a quagmire.

[ditchdwellers]

I just call it bloody confusing!

[Sunny Clouds]

Yes, quagmire, confusing, ever-changing...

But at least on here, and in other places where people help one another, by chucking bits of info back and forth, we can try to make sense of it.

I've definitely learnt stuff on this thread.

[One Girl and her Big Dog]

Hello Everyone
[/size]
[/size]Just as an add on, in the interests of correct info... 
[/size]
[/size]I got talking to someone the other day who it turns out is a welfare rights expert of over 25 years standing.  She told be that YES, I can keep my CB ESA entitlement regardless of who moves in, or how much I have in savings.   My 'underlying' entitlement to CB ESA is just that & any Income related 'top up' is just that! 
[/size]
[/size]Because I am (and have always been) in the Support Group my entitlement to CB ESA is not time limited.
[/size]
[/size]She advised me to contact the DWP and ask for a written confirmation of the split between CB & IR and the date they started.  This I did, and was very surprised to be told by the phone adviser that yes, of course my CB entitlement would remain if someone moved in as it is MINE & based on MY National Insurance Contributions.   This is exactly the opposite to what i'd been told by DWP phone advisors previously...
[/size]

[One Girl and her Big Dog]

[She advised me to contact the DWP and ask for a written confirmation of the split between CB & IR and the date they started. 


Which i've just realised, is exactly what Monic told me to do in November

[Fiz]

I looked at my pension forecast and I am about £8 a week short of a full state pension. I'm assuming that I will be eligible for pension credit so don't think that missing £8 will make much difference. I'm very confused about the whole pension situation it has to be said!


I'm glad you sorted yours out OGAHBD

[Sunny Clouds]

You think you're confused?  It's nothing to how confused the politicians are.  When it comes to social security, including pensions, they don't know what the rules are, they don't know what they want them to be and they don't know how to draw up legislation so it makes sense.

They know they want to cut the money they pay out but they're a bit twitchy with pensioners, who can be good voters, so the key thing is to work out how to cut the pensions of the ones that don't vote (e.g. too disabled to get to polling station) but not of the voters they want to appeal to.

But we all know the mess IDS got in over UC, and I don't think politicians actually wanted the Waspi situation as such, they just didn't think about it.

So whilst we try to make sense of what we should or might get in retirement and plan ahead if we can, I think it's expecting a bit  much of ourselves to find it easy.

(Which doesn't mean don't try, it just means that age isn't moderating my political and financial cynicism.)

[Monic1511]

Now you know why my brain hurts 

[Sunny Clouds]

I'm amazed by what you manage to do.

I used to advise at a CAB, but that was over a decade ago, under New Labour, and I didn't do the long cases, just the simple stuff.  Although they'd brought in ESA etc. and private assessments, it was before the all-out attack under the Tories.  Even if I felt up to it in other ways, I don't think I could advise people like that now because I'd be holding back the tears.  Anyone that does what they can to help people deal with this [insert preferred expletive] has my gratitude.