Private pension and Disability benefits

[TwentySteps]

I have name changed for this question. Our adult dc is disabled and receives disability benefits, they likely always will.
We want to make their future more financially secure, so are looking into whether they can open a private pension and pay a small amount in each month, from their benefit payments.
I think this would be a much better option than just saving, as the money would grow much more by the time they reach retirement age, and saving the same amount in a normal account would eventually take them over the savings limit. They do have some savings already.
If they do manage to work part time at some point, a possibility, then they could continue to add to the pension from their wage.
It means they won't be navigating the benefit system in their sixties as they could then hopefully draw down from this pension instead, who knows if state pension age will have risen by then.
I worry constantly about their future so this seems like a good idea to me? Has anyone done this, or knows if its possible, I can't find a great deal about it online, only advice that their benefits would be affected once they started drawing from a pension.

Which disability benefits do they get?

ESA and PIP

It's unlikely to help them significantly, unless you think it's likely they might work at some point

Pensions are deducted pound for pound from means tested benefits such as universal credit and pension credit (there are slightly complicated rules for how contribution based ESA is affected)

This means that every pound you save for them in a pension now is a pound they can't get in benefits later

It's only useful if they can sensibly save enough to mean they won't need any top up from universal credit or pension credit

You need to look in to what’s known as a Disabled Persons Trust, which will safeguard them for their future

https://www.mencaptrust.org.uk/how-do-trusts-work

Penaions aren’t affected by Pip

I was thinking by the time they are sixty they could draw the pension and not need to claim any more benefits, until state pension kicks in. The compound interest would be quite a lot over 30 years.

Thank you, I will look into this

I pay into a SIPP for my disabled adult DS. The max you can pay in if they don't receive a wage is £2880 a year, which gets topped up to £3600. He receives UC and PIP, and his benefits aren't affected by his SIPP now (it is significantly over the UC savings threshold, but isn't counted as savings as it is in the SIPP wrapper) but it would be when he is old enough to access the money.

We are in a situation where we don't expect him to be getting means-tested benefits by that age, as we have family money that would be passed on to him. If we thought he would be dependant on means-tested benefits at the age when he could access the SIPP, then as a pp says, it wouldn't make sense. But he doesn't spend a great deal of his income as he lives with us, so savings would end up building up over the UC threshold, or spent on fairly trivial things.

This is something I need to consider so thanks for asking the question

I have a workplace disability pension, I'm on ESA, PIP and UC. They deduct the entire amount off my pension from the UC.

I have a full NI record so I have paid in to the system and also paid in to a pension.

I think by the time I retire any private pensions will be deducted from the OAP.

It is an efficient way to save money but consider future changes to benefits. It might be worth doing so that your child can have a lump sum at some point.

Thank you, your situation is similar to ours. Our child will inherit our house, it can't be used for care fees while they live in it. I will probably open a SIPP for them, as they don't spend all their money, and will benefit greatly from the built up pension funds.
I just wanted to see if anyone else had done it, from what little information I could find online it won't count as savings until it can be accessed, but I wanted to be sure.