Any Income Support / Pension advice here please

[medianewbie]

H left me & kids 14m ago. I'm legally Separating, then Divorcing. I am due 50% of his pension, which is more than 16k. I understand that under Income support rules savings of 6-16k are on a sliding scale & <16k stops IS totally.

I don't have a pension so the divorce lawyer (it's legal aid so I have a trainee) told me to find an IFA to arrange one. I found one. He in turn asked if I was on benefits & told me to 'check with them'. I called DWP today but they 'couldn't tell me' whether the £ going into a pension would stop my IS or not. (I get IS as I receive Carers allowance for my two disabled kids. I am disabled myself & on legacy benefits as no one claims Carers allowance for me). I'd rather not Divorce than risk my IS because £ in a pension is no good to me now, age 55, whereas I need my IS to pay the bills next month.

The DWP person I spoke to was nice but said I'd just have to 'get Divorced if you think you need to & see what out decision maker says about your Income Support'. I want to cry. I'm not trying to 'game the system', I just want to make the correct, rule abiding decision for me & my kids. I don't expect easy options, but am I going to have to choose to either Divorce or ensure my Income Support ? (its a top up to my Carers allowance re rhe kids & that situation isn't going to change any time soon).

Please, if you reply, don't put the boot in about me being on benefits - its not a life anyone would choose, nor is being a (now) disabled parent to 2 disabled kids (& being left to it by exH).

I would think that if the £ coming from his pension went directly into a pension in your name, that this would not affect your benefits.

Pension savings do not count towards the £16k asset calculation. Pension income, as in when you access it does count as income for benefits calculation.

Pension money due to you by divorce staying in a pension, only becoming one in your name- well I cannot see how this could be considered deprivation of assets if any logic is applied.

But DWP is often not logical. So I would try calling back again to see if you can get someone who knows a bit more. Another option is asking Citizens Advice or seeing if the Job Centre can advise as often the DWP staff there know more than the DWP call centre staff.

Thanks @Discovereads. My CAB is shut. I'll try the Jobcentre but last time they were not very communicative.

I just had a thought. You are disabled and care for disabled sons. A local disability charity may be able to help. They usually have social workers on their staff who are very familiar with benefits rules and assist people with benefits claims. They might even be able to advise on process to follow that would be DWP decision maker approved. You could contact a few?

Op I don't know but I think this threshold needs to rise urgently..

In today's climate at least 25 grand should be allowed to be saved.

I've spoken to the CAB today by phone.
they say that any money going into my pension from exH pension would need looked at by a decision maker. So it sounds like a straight choice between my IS now or getting a Divorce ? I feel so bloody trapped.