Pension contributions and universal credit

[tedsnose]

Can anyone advise please as I don't understand the information I can find online.

I'm shortly becoming a single parent, working part time and earn circa £28.5k. If I contribute £6k per annum into my pension, will my earnings for universal credit be reduced by £6k per year, i.e. will I be treated as though my annual income is £22.5k?

Or is my income for UC purposes still £28.5k?

UC payments are based in net pay. I'm really not sure if you can play the system like that though. I imagine there must be a limit.

I'd be interested to know this too. My pension contributions are nowhere near 6k, but I overpay at the moment

@Babyroobs it used to be allowed for TC purposes - presumably to encourage this generation to save for their own pension?

I've just put the figures into entitled to. It looks as though all pension contributions would be disregarded as income! So by paying £6k into a pension, new earnings are reduced to £22.5k and my UC payments would be £268 a month. Meaning putting £500 into my pension a month would only cost £132 a month in real terms.

I do agree with the sentiment that it feels a bit morally dubious though...

The government encourage you to do this , it’s not playing the system.

I guess it saves the government money in the long run. If people save into their private pensions they are less likely to be paying out pension credit for years to top them up when the time comes.

For tax credits pension contributions aren't included. Because of how my pension is paid I have to declare it at my renewal and the reduce my income by the amount I pay in. Mine is well below the disregard.
I thought I paid alot into my pension at £150 a month after reviewing the pittance being taken from my wage a few years ago. I think its very sensible to save towards your pension, but I think PP maybe be talking about the amount you are paying in every year. £6k is alot. I earn alot less than you and I often wonder if I should be paying it in as we do struggle. I am a single mom, no help from my DS father and were left with all his debt, over 20k. The only reason I do is because the debt will be gone in a few years (hopefully?) and over my working life, 15 years now, my pension pot was embarrassing so I had to do something!
As a single mom, it's tough, especially financially. Please remember tax credits/UC will not top you up anywhere near the £6k you are paying in. I feel this is a real misconception. When I started paying my increased contributions I was literally forgoing that money each month, for my future. I don't know if this is because my payments fall below the income disregard but just to clear it up I've never been topped up because I am choosing to save for my future. I had a lot of nastiness thrown my way being accused of hiding money to get more from the government. It hasn't been the case at all! At first it was hard going from 8 a month to 150, but now it's just the norm. As you are already paying the 6k in whilst you haven't been single, you will be used to the lower net income anyway. Hope I've made sense x

For Universal Credit all one hundred percent of contributions made to a personal or occupational pension are disregarded when calculating income.

I've been wondering about this.
I've finally got my act together and started adding to my workplace pension, but I don't know what will happen when I go over to UC.