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Pension Credit

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kloofnek | 09:59 Sat 16th Feb 2013 | Personal Finance
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Someone has asked me to put this question to you.
He is semi-retired and gets a small state pension of £254.56 every 4 weeks and a small occupational one of £118.33 calender month.When he does retire those two will amount to about £93.00 wkly. (present rate).
Would he be eligible for pension credit.
Also,he is paying tax on his occupation pension(taken out before he receives),when he retires completely,would he still have to pay ?
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Pension credit is around £150 a week, if he had no income he would get the full amount. But as he has already got £93 a week he gets £150 minus the £93 so he gets £57 a week pension credit. His total income is still the same it is just made up of occupational pension £93 plus £57 pension credit= £150. As I said if he had never had his own pension his income would be...
10:34 Sat 16th Feb 2013
I can't answer the questions about the pension credit, but tax is still payable on pensions if the total income comes over a certain limit. The tax man will add the state pension to the other pensions to see if he reaches that ceiling.
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He won`t reach "the ceiling"...that is all he will have.I know people who get their pension topped up with PC if it doesn`t reach the amount the government says one needs to live on.,they get something like £140 a week when topped up.
Here is a pension credit calculator.
https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator
If he pays tax depends on his total income, if he retires completely so his only income is pension credit he will not pay tax. His occupational pensions will be deducted from the pension credit £ for £, so he will get pension credit minus the £93 . If he had never bothered paying into a pension he would get the full pension credit with no deductions makes you wonder why anyone bothers paying into a pension !
If he gets pension credit he also automatically gets 100% housing and council tax benefit, 100% free dental treatment, winter fuel payment, cold weather payment, free travel to hospital and medical appointments and a lot more so it is well worth claiming.
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Bit puzzled here..", so he will get pension credit minus the £93 ."
without PC,he would get about £93.this is inclusive of his OP.So surely he would get that topped up to .as I said before,around £140...in other words about £47 PC.
Only working with present sums of money.

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Just used the link Boxtops put...according to that ,he will get £49.56 PC.So,it looks like he will get something...hopefully...if this government doesn`t make an more cuts!!!
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By the way,he will be 70 next month...
Pension credit is around £150 a week, if he had no income he would get the full amount. But as he has already got £93 a week he gets £150 minus the £93 so he gets £57 a week pension credit. His total income is still the same it is just made up of occupational pension £93 plus £57 pension credit= £150. As I said if he had never had his own pension his income would be the same as he would get the whole £150 in pension credit.
I am going to claim pension credit from the end of the tax year my situation is very similar.
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Thank you very much Eddie,fully understood now.Have a nice weekend.
Thanks kloofnek, remember that he gets a free TV licence soon as well , not sure if the qualifying age is 70 or 75.
Just a thought if he is 70 soon he should be getting a state pension , you need to find out if he is getting it and if it is worth swapping to pension credit . State pension is not reduced by having a private pension you can have both at the same time. If he has not claimed his state pension it will be increased for each year that he has not claimed it, he should have got it at 65 so there will be 5 years increments to be taken into account. It is looking like his situation is complicated , I strongly advise getting help with working out what to do, the CAB are great for this , or AgeUk have free help lines to work it out, they are real experts and totally free.
I am retired with a state pension and a small occupational pension. I do get housing and council tax benefit but not the full amount that anyone will get if on pension credits. I have too much money coming in a week to get pension credit by £30. Therefor I don't get any of the other benefits that come with pension credit like free dental care, hospital transport and so on. My advice to anyone out there is forget the private pensions you'll be better off without it.
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Yes,he is already claiming his SP and OP,those are the sums he is getting as I put in my original question,however,he is still working part-time 20hrs a week.
He was just wondering about PC when he does finally give up working.
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What a shame,Carol,bet you are really put out about that...not fair really is it but that is how the system works!!!
I was gonna say
actually Eddie 51 is.....correct
but I was gonna say.... he hasnt given you all the info. (how much he is getting from his 20 hrs/wk )

because... as Eddie says he should be eligible for PC of around £57

also note AT THAT c £150 /wk which is £ 7300 a yr innit
and at that rate he should be paying no tax at all.

which he is and that is because he is getting money from his employment. He is paying tax on his pension because he may be underpaying on his employment.

and the only way you can tell he is over or underpaying tax is for him to give you all his income details which he may well not be willing to do. And to torment old people it is quite possible to have two tax codes at the same time. I have one for my pension and one for 'other' and that is to allow them to claw more money from an old person or as they would say, it is to make the balancing amount payable on Jan 31st more manageable.

Now suppose he is getting £6 /hr for his 20 hrs which is £120 / week
this is quite a lot and is contributing a significant amount of his income - it is about 50% of his monthly income.

so now his income is 480 + 254 + 118 = £852 a month or £10200 / y.

His tax free amount should be £10k - so on this calculation he should still be paying minimal tax.

Again as Eddie says, CAB are good at pensioners' tax issues
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Peter,the question is about when he decides to give up work..not while he is... but many thanks for your imput....
it was the tax comment

Some people can't stand cruelty to dogs: I can't stand it when people pay more tax than they should

and that got me thinking as to how much he depended on his employment.
I totally agree with you Peter Pedant. I have two small Occupational Pensions and have 2 Tax Codes for them. I haven't got a clue what is going on but I do know that it has knocked £30 off my monthly income.
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Aw..you sound a lovely person!
He pays tax P.A.Y.G and is on £7.60 hr,does a bit of overtime gives him a good wage really.along with his SP and OP is doing OK.
Obviously he puts some by for a rainy day and to help when he does stop working altogether.I believe one can have £16000 saving before affecting benefits etc.
But so many people,especially old,do not get what they are entitled to because they do not know about them or think they cannot get them,so do not apply.
Chrissa round about April you should be getting two statements one from each pension provider saying how much pension and how much tax has been paid.

You need to add the two together to get your total income
Depending on your age, your tax free amount is either 5k or 10k.

and once you knock that off, the rest should be taxed at 20%

write to the taxman if it isnt.

CAB give good advice on this

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My friend would like me to thank all of you for you replies ,he is pleased to know that in all probability he will get some PC...unless our "delightful " government put a stop to it.
I think carollindao1,is probably right about it being best not to take out a private pension.

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