Rubbish Retirement/Pension

[RedStarLight]

I'm 57. Throughout my adult life, I made sure my priority was to raise my only child and to provide a normal, decent life for her. I went into jobs that were rubbish, mainly NMW ones and never thought I'd be the one without a decent pension.

I live in a housing association property, so I'll not be able to pay for it out of my state pension so I'll have to either carry on working past the expected pension age at 67 or I claim benefits. I didn't grow up with anyone telling me that I ought to save for my pension. I worked two jobs that had pension schemes that I paid into, but I got it all back when I left them. I'm in a job that's only paying 24,500K and I've paid the minimum amount until about 8 months ago when I thought, shxt I need to up my game and started paying in 12%. I know I need to be increasing this a lot more.

I'm not sure exactly how much it is forecasted to be, but I reckon it's only about £3Kpa. I did a pension forecast thing and it suggested I pay around £600pm towards my pension if I wanted a comfortable retirement. My disposable income is around £700pm. I have about £7000 in savings. What do I do?

So OPs pension is forecast to be 3k a year…..even if she takes her max lump sum would be no more than 10k if she takes it early at ….60 and spends it before she retires at 67 …absolutely no one is going is going to think she’s deprived herself by overspending …..it will be less than £120 a month…..so she might as well enjoy that ….have no saving ….then claim the other stuff at 67

Honestly live for today, I wouldn’t scrimp to pay into a private pension that probably won’t give you enough. Enjoy life take a holiday while you’re young and fit. I say this as someone whose mum died age 65 so she didn’t even reach state pension age.
There is no shame in claiming housing benefit, if necessary I’m sure you could swap to a smaller HA property or flat for cheaper rent.

I might risk taking the whole fund as a lump at age 60 and spending but the suggestion above was that the lump sum was accessed and then the rest was drawn down over time to fill that gap before retirement. I wouldn’t risk doing that

I would just take out the lot at, say, 64 or 65, have a bloody good time, then claim for everything at 68 (or whatever the pension age is in ten years time). What’s the alternative in OP’s case? After paying her bills and for food, she’d have a couple of hundred pounds or so leftover every month - not a great position to be facing, especially with only one income coming in.

OP I hope you get some good advice at your appointment. I get why you don’t want to be dependent on benefits - good for you. Just a thought - are you divorced? I don’t know much about it but could you claim part of an ex husbands pension if you have one. Another question to ask if so.

For all of you saying you can’t have a lodger or sub tenant in an HA (or LA) property - you can if the landlord gives permission and you are still resident. OP doesn’t want to but there may be others who would consider this as a way to bring in extra income

Agree with the " live for today" approach. Colleague of mine, fit and healthy, completed 40 years of service at a local school. The day after she turned 60, she was gone ( heart attack) Never saw her pension ( although her adult children received death in service).

Myself, 53, probably a 12k pension ( excluding state pension) when I hit 60, cash in an ISA, but I've got stage 4 cancer. There's a gun to my head each day.

Live for NOW.. deal with the " future" later. You can always claim HB/UC (?) or what ever I'd still hanging about in 10 years.

Of course people are assuming here that there will still be the public funds available in ten years time to pay all these benefits?

This is wrong. It is 35 years for new state pension
Although OP started paying NI before 2016 so her exact amount of qualifying years may be different.

This. Really wish people that don't know what they are talking about would stop giving advice.

My dad has a small private pension which stops him being entitled for most things though he gets some housing benefit and lives in sheltered accom.
He takes a small amount from his pension each month but this also means he hits tax thresholds too. His pension is a sum of money and when it runs out he will have to claim any benefits he can to afford to live in the sheltered accom ( not cheap despite being council!) but this also means it opens other help that he can’t get now. I think he would of been better of without the small pension tbh.

@RedStarLight from all accounts keep saving into your pension but i wouldn’t cram everything into it and not live now. As for being hesitant in claiming when older don’t be. You have worked all your life and if you can’t live on a state pension then that’s why these things exist.

@allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld and @Chewbecca I know I have 40 years of NI contributions and have done my forecast but do you know why its different years for some between 35 and 39, thanks.

True. She could easily take it to purchase a modest used car with justification of old car being unsafe and needing reliable transportation to work…

For me it is because I was contracted out for a period from a time when I had a DB pension, for my DH he was contracted out for a time for SERPs when that was a thing.

It sounds like you may have to continue working past retirement age; maybe part time.

Any chances of improving your income, career, get a better job? I know you are 57, but as long as you are healthy.

Shared ownership are a pain if you want to sell.
They are not a pain to sell but if you can't afford to buy the rest you are in the same situation that you will still have to pay the rent part when retired which is the problem I will have.

What I thought scandalous when a friend sold their shared ownership property, was that the housing association that owned the other half charged considerably more for marketing the property than any of the local estate agents did (about £3,000 more). She had to use them to sell so had no choice but to pay the inflated fee, plus the legal fees were more as it was more complicated than a standard sale.