I’m not quite retired yet.

[moyesp]

Gran here with a question. I’m not quite retired yet. Found out got terminal illness. Hoped I could retire early but letter came upping the retirement age in uk.
So my question is if you have worked all your working life and paid into the state pension system. Then you find that you may not be able to claim it because you will die before you reach their stated retirement age. Why carn’t you get your pension a year before you die?
After all you paid for it. And it would help toward your expenses as you cannot work. And unfortunately as a child of the 70’s we did not take cut private pension or if we did we got caught with the Guiness and Murdochs of this world who lost it.
So why are we not allowed access to the pension we paid into the state with?

No advice but bumping for you

Sorry to hear of your situation. Are you still actually well enough to work or are you on sick leave from work?

I know, it is really unfair. You cannot claim your state pension until pensionable age, you can cash in any personal or work pension due to ill health. Make sure you apply for any benefits that may help you. I am sorry to hear you are unwell.

Thanks for the replies not on benefits would not be able to get benefits anyway on sick pay at present. But I will have to give up work altogether. Do not want anything but the Pension I paid into. Just wondered why if you are not able to claim it when you retire why you could not claim it early say a year before you die due to ill health?

Only if you have dependants it would help you and them.

Do you have a spare room that you can rent out? You can earn a certain amount without paying tax. I understand that you are ill, can you work part time? If you stop working and are not of state retirement age you should be eligible for ESA or universal credit. However, I would not resign from your job, I would recommend staying as long as possible and try to negotiate a pay off if they want you to leave due to illness.

If your condition is impacting on your activities of daily living or mobility you can claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP). If your doctor makes a statement that you are terminally ill and have a life expectancy of 6 months you get the higher daily living allowance of PIP automatically.Do you have a workplace pension?

If you have a terminal illness then please try to speak to Macmillan. they have a financial guidance team who can offer advice on pensions , insurance policies etc.
If you are too unwell to work and need to leave there are benefits you could claim - contributions based employment support allowance which is based on NI contributions you have made, Personal independence payment possibly depending how your illness is affecting you, Macmillan benefits advisors can advise you the best way forward. Sorry to hear what you are going through.

Juat wanted to add that Macmillan don't just deal with cancer patients .