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 ☹️

Scotland, and there is because he looked into it and the letter confirmed a lump sum being paid this week and then £815 being paid monthly from now on 🤷‍♀️

If you've looked into it together and confirmed all the figures surely he must know you know it's due etc?

I'd be just asking him outright.

Everything is joint in our household. I could be doing with this kind of thing!!

That’s what is so odd, we planned it all, talked it all through, I’m simply
bamboozled over why he’d not not tell/ show me the letter and (seemingly) hide it ☹️

I'm not sure if anyone has said this but it will go up by 8.5% in April.

Reach state pension age on or after 6 April 2016

If you reached state pension age on or after 6 April 2016 and decided to defer claiming, any built up entitlement to state pension is paid to you as extra state pension – so your regular payment will be increased. You do not have the option to receive a lump sum.

Well I don’t understand it but I know the letter (glancing briefly) said lump sum of £8447
to be paid this week and monthly
payments of £828 from 1st April (might be out by a £ here or there due to reading it quickly and feeling shocked) but not by much.

I suspect DH has applied for his pension and asked for payment to be backdated 12 months, this would make approx 9k.

But you can activate the pension and backdate it 12 months, this would give a lump sum.

It is odd seeing you had this planned as a lump sum and payments but he's not disclosing it.

This is what’s making me feel so anxious, it’s odd ☹️

I'd have a look around for it when he's gone to try take a pic incase he lies. Leave it a day if so and ask again if he's received pension letter yet to see his reaction. If he says no then then confront him either way

Exactly this

I was puzzled too about the lump sum - as it's not nearly enough to come from a private pension but I didn't know the state pension gave a lump sum.
I have already got my projection for when I am 67 - which is the retirement age I will need to be and no lump sum for me :(

However if the retirement age right now is 65 ? or 66 ? and dh is 67 then yes that would make sense...

So yes ! why is he being secretive ?

My worry is he’ll take it to work with him early
tomorrow if he’s trying to hide it☹️and I’ll feel mad snooping around house tonight for it - it’s gone from the drawer so clearly been hidden ☹️

Yup. Why oh why
would he hide it when we have literally been planning it? Jointly? ☹️

Maybe the letter is wrong, as in DWP has miscalculated the pension and he doesn’t want to deal with it now 😡 so has shoved it away to deal with in the morning.

200,000 pensioners had DWP errors on their state pension in 2023 alone.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/dec/06/dwp-errors-leave-more-than-200000-pensioners-out-of-pocket

Maybe? Though that seems a bit far fetched as we share everything so why not just say “oh I got the pension letter through, I think they’re overpaying so I’m going to contact them, what do you think?” Etc like we normally would ☹️

They usually underpay. So maybe he is trying to protect you from worry?

Do you know where he might have moved the letter too? Work bag? Pocket? Car?

Could you try and find it?

Not impossible but we really do normally share all worries so I just find that hard to believe especially when it’s so fixable! Denying the letter completely feels secretive ☹️

I could try but worry I’ll look insane snooping inside his car and work bag in the dark!

For the love of god just ask him.

Surely this would all come out though a week or so down the line when you'd ask, 'hey how are you getting on with getting your state pension paid out?' And then if he's spent it, or hidden it, or whatever, what will he say?

This is all so odd and suggests he is not thinking very rationally. Which would make me wonder about addictive stuff. 😕

Yes it’s the old old elephant of addiction that scares me here, it’s been so long since I worried about it but to deny and lie to my face about the letter is very secretive and makes me feel so anxious ☹️