DH lying about pension payout

[OITNBfanclub]

Urgh. Sitting here in sad fog ☹️
recently my husband enquired about taking his state pension - he’s 67 and still working but also has another pension with his work and we could do with the money now for a variety of reasons we both have talked through at length and agreed on.
a few letters arrived today, all for him. I asked him over dinner if he’d seen them as they sometimes get missed on our cluttered hall table. I thought he looked a bit funny and he said oh yes, it was just our car tax renewal forms. And super fast changed the subject. My spidey senses tingled but I figured he was just hangry /whatever. I went upstairs to run bath and on the way went to lay out my keys and bag for tomorrow and stuffed into the drawer was a letter still sticking out like it was in a rush which was odd, so I took it out and one very quick glance seems to show it’s his pension, with a £9k payment being made this week and I think £814 every month
from now on. I couldn’t believe it, he clearly opened it, lied to me and shoved it away. Why would he lie to me and not share the good news? is he planning on telling me it’s a smaller amount and keeping some aside for 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️And what do I do now, confront him? Or wait for him to hopefully tell me the truth? I just feel really side hit by it ☹️

You'll have to discuss it at some point, I think you need to bite the bullet and ask him

Isn't it his pension to do with as he pleases?

I wouldn’t mention it to be honest, at least not yet. He may well be planning on doing something/getting something with it for you as a little treat if it is more than you were expecting and you shouldn’t really have read his letter anyway!

Yes OP I think you need to just ask him
about it asap and get it out in the open before he has time to concoct a story. Just
come out with it and see what he says.

Ummmm legally yes. But we’ve been planning on when he should take it as he’s older than me and we had a good plan for next 10 years until my income
becomes only one. So it’s odd, we have both talked at length and agreed him taking it now and using the lump sum to sort boiler/ new carpets/ 2
blown windows was wise.

Hmm - is there any chance he's been gambling?

I honestly didn’t go snooping to read it- I glanced at it wondering what it was and saw the figures briefly and realised what it was and felt sick so came
upstairs ☹️

I really don’t think so but I know addictions can be so secretive but I honestly
had no clue anything was wrong ☹️

I didn’t think you got a lump sum with a state pension so what’s the 9k payment?

I’d pull the letter out and leave it open in the table but not say a word.

take a photo first in case it disappears 🫢

Can’t you just say “I saw the letter poking out the drawer earlier and noticed it was about your pension, that’s great that the lump sum is being paid next week”

he might be a bit cross that you looked but better to get it out in the open.

Maybe he wants to surprise you with a holiday or a treat?

My step mum started squirelling money away to surprise my dad with a new pc. She was asking my advice on what to get him.

My dad confided in me one day that his "horrible, coniving wife was squirrelling money away" behind his back.

He may be up to no good, or he may have something lovely planned.

How solid is your marriage OP?

We looked it and you can do 🤷‍♀️

Sounds like he intends to keep it and not tell you

I didn't think you can get a lump sum for a state pension.

Sounds like it's the 25% tax free lump sum, he can take at 55 onwards, for either a workplace or private pension.

Tbh in your position I'd ask him. 'Dh why did you lie to me about your pension letter, you told me it was car tax but it wasn't'

I do hope you have your own private and/or workplace pension? If that's the case and he keeps his lump sum, you do the same when it comes around.

I think you can get a lump sum if you defer taking your state pension by at least 12 months. As OP mentioned he's 67, I suspect this is the case here.

I think this is how it might work: possibly the lump sum may be backdated if he didn't claim the second he turned 66 (like I did!), but decided to put in a retrospective claim about 10 months later? The alternative if you postpone claiming, is to claim at a higher rate going forward but forgo the lump sum..I think.

Ok cross post. Retrospective claim a year later!

That’s interesting - this website seems to suggest the lump sum was only an option for people who reached state pension age before April 2016.

Something definitely doesn’t seem right about the letter.

https://www.gov.uk/deferring-state-pension/what-you-get

Well he’s 67 and has worked on since state pension age and definitely entitled to a lump sum as we looked into it all 🤷‍♀️

This is exactly what it is

You might want to double check that, unless you’ve changed your partner’s age for privacy, as according to all the government websites a lump sum isn’t an option any more - it’s just increased pension.

He could get a lump sum from a personal or workplace pension.

You could do a credit search on him using the website credit karma. Pretty easy to do and he doesn't have to know. That way you should be able to find out if there are any secret debts

He might not want to spend it on carpets and boilers and doesn't want to have the argument by telling you this

Where are you? There is no lump sum part of the state pension in the UK

But we’ve had so many open conversations about it and agreed best plans, and it was him who suggested the boiler! So it just doesn’t make sense why he’d not tell me ☹️