PIL retirement advice

[PILHELP]

My PIL are British citizens but have only lived here for about 8-10 years in their lifetime. They are of retirement age but do not have the means to support themselves in their home country and FIL's small pension from his time in a UK company only covers their medical insurance costs and basic groceries. They rely on monthly top ups from DH and siblings and are living rent free in a property owned by family.

They want to move to the UK as they believe that they will get supported. They can't live with us but have used our address for correspondence since they left 15 years ago. I've explained to DH that they won't have paid enough NI for much state pension and with an address history, cannot present as homeless and even if they did the accommodation wouldn't be satisfactory to them (they don't like the current small but lovely flat they are in overseas). I'm concerned that they are also in debt and the correspondence is coming to our address.

Does anyone have any advice or options? I'm worried if they were to come and it is not what they are expecting that they will be in no man's land and also unable to return to where they are now.

(It goes without saying, the situation they find themselves in is everyone else's fault but theirs which makes it really difficult to address).

Is this a duplicate?

Apologies, I asked my first thread to be taken down as I failed to change name

hopeful bump

Can they get pension credit or something. I think you could say that it was just a correspondence address and they don’t like with you.

www.gov.uk/pension-credit

Thank you that is really helpful. It is difficult to know what they might be eligible for as so long out the UK. I don't even think MIL paid any NI to be eligible for state pension.

Are they young enough to be able to work part time?

In theory yes but they're a bit too proud to accept anything, FIL would if something suitable was possible but not sure MIL would as has not worked for years. I think they were expecting a miracle. They haven't been in this country other than the odd visit for 15 years so have no idea if the cost of living compared to where they are.

It makes me quite angry to think that somebody might think they could come here and claim benefits when they've only lived here for a few years of their lives. They sound as though they've lived in a very selfish way. Personally I'd keep out of it and let them think up their own solution.

I agree with @HollowTalk

How can people expect to come to a country that they have no real connection with, and then be supported by the tax payers of that country?

I would stay right out of it and let them work things out for themselves.

Yes me too - that's why I wanted to be informed. We've been doing our best to put them off as in reality it won't work and we cannot afford to support them. I think from the brief time they were here in late 90s and early 00s they saw a different place and it's completely mad but they expect that older people are taken care of. Don't even get me started on the fact they haven't paid in!

If they have a National Insurance number they could look up how much pension they are forecast on the Gov.UK site.

Do they have any pension provision in their home country? Presumably they have worked there for many years, so what happened to their earnings, did they not pay into a pension (I am saying they, but guess it was mainly your FIL who worked?).

Were they born/grew up in Britain, as they may have some NI credits from being younger? I think they need to look at state pension provision first.

I have friends who have worked abroad for many years, and intend moving back here in retirement. However, the difference is that the guy will have final salary pensions from 2 good employers (1 in UK and 1 abroad), they will both have some state pension provision from earlier years and I think will have built up savings whilst abroad.

How old is “retirement age”?

Could they come back here and work part time for a few more years to save a bit more and boost their qualifying NI years to get more pension?

Speak to an advisor about what benefits they may be entitled to - they may need to have been living here for a certain amount of time before they qualify for anything; so you need to check.

The current UK state pension age is 66, however this increases depending on your age

They can live abroad & claim a UK state pension or part pension. There will be a list of eligible countries. This will depend on their National Insurance contributions. As people have stated, anyone cannot up their state pension forecast & NI record on the Government Gateway via www.gov.uk

Should say
Anyone can look up their...

Need 35 qualifying years NI records to claim a full state pension

It sounds like they will be expecting state benefits and family top ups. If they are entitled to any pension at all , I would encourage them to stay in a cheap country abroad as the pension and top ups will go further.
We also have a shameless beggar in the family and I certainly wouldn’t want her on my doorstep.

I can't get my head around the pension credits, so basically it doesn't matter if you haven't paid in a full record of NI as certain people then get topped up anyway? Madness