The Little Red Retirement Book
by
James Leigh
Published by Wexyork Books on Smashwords
This book is also available in print at my website
Copyright © 2010 James Leigh
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Acknowledgements:
Grateful thanks are hereby extended to many people who helped in the production of this book with advice, information and fact-checking. Particular thanks are due to Richardson Studio for the cover cartoon and Barbara Marshall for text illustrations.
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***April 2011 Quarterly Developments***
Pension equality - but is it fair?
Millions of men approaching retirement could be left thousands of pounds worse as the result of the European Court's ruling on 1 March that insurance companies can no longer use gender to calculate annuity rates and insurance premiums. Is it fair?
An end to gender discrimination would in theory mean a better deal for women on annuities, as both sexes would receive the same rates – but it would be bad news for men who could see their annuity rates slashed by between 5% and 10%. On current rates, a 65-year-old man with a £100,000 pension pot might be worse off by £340 a year, or well over £8,000 in total if he lived to the age of 90.
Women, meanwhile, are thought likely to enjoy only a slight improvement in their retirement income. Worse, most annuities are bought by men, so wives who depend on their husbands' retirement incomes stand to lose out through a measure adopted to secure greater equality for women!
Don't sell your final salary scheme
There has been a growing trend for employers with final salary schemes to write to members outlining the "transfer value" of their pension, offering cash payments for switching to some alternative arrangement and dangling incentives in front of them to accept changes.
"If you receive such an offer, you should approach it with extreme caution," according to Alison Bailey, head of policy at the Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS). "Employers wouldn't be offering you an incentive if they didn't anticipate that, in the long run, it was going to be cheaper for them to do that than to continue funding the defined benefits of the scheme throughout your retirement."
Pension transfers are complex in their nature. An offer might look attractive, particularly with cash as an incentive, but most are thought unlikely to be in most scheme members' best interests.
Shop around - and don't hurry
All the experts say it is vital that older people should shop around for the best possibleincome from their pension pot rather than simply taking whatever is offered by their pension provider - but there is much less agreement about how much more you can get by shopping around for what is, after all, there to provide a regular income for the rest of your life. A recent report however suggests that people typically lose out to the tune of 3% a year as a result of not comparing offers, representing a probable wastage of hundreds of pounds a year.
Major brokers, should you be coming up to retirement and need advice, include Annuity Direct (www.annuity.direct.co.uk 0500 05065750), the Annuity Bureau (www.annuity-bureau.co.uk 0800 071 8111) and Hargreaves Lansdown (www.h-l.co.uk 0117 980 9940).
But - a big caveat: in view of the European Court of Justice's ruling referred to above and due to come into force on 12 December 2012 - the actual impact of gender equality may not be clear for some time yet. It may be that men will be better off purchasing annuities before thay date while women wait until new unisex rates apply, but in case you had not noticed, this is an uncertain world.
By the way, it is also uncertain how, if at all, company pension schemes will be affected by the new ruling, but it is possible that annuity providers will seek to apply unisex rates across the board anyway when converting defined contribution pensions into retirement income.
As always, though, for telephone or online advice, you can contact Tax Help for Older People on 0845 601 3321. www.taxvol.org.uk
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1 - Introduction
It may seem late to ask since you have already started reading, but can there really be a point to a book like this? People have been leaving the productive stage of life behind them since the dawn of our species. Can we have forgotten how to age? Why should anyone now need a guide to post-retirement?
The short answer is that whereas the end of a life's career once also marked a more or less total withdrawal from active life itself, the period that follows has expanded dramatically and is still expanding into a new and separate stage of life with its own needs, expectations and rewards which must all be planned.
In fact we have invented a Third Age (as some now call it). Thanks to improved health care and better diet, most people can now look forward to many more years of life than their grandparents did - perhaps a period as long as childhood and teens put together - while increased prosperity has resulted in more social and economic clout than any generation before them.
On the other hand, there are still many people who seem unaware of the change and needlessly resigned to sliding into a traditionally inactive and brief old age. Nor, as yet, does there exist a template for "Third Age" life, although the generation now entering it and which invented the ethos of "doing its own thing" in the sixties will probably come up with an idea or two!
Of course we all know, or have heard, of people still vigorous and productive in late age. Like Buster Martin, still working in South London at the age of 106, and the late extraordinary Frenchwoman M
me Jeanne Calment who met the artist Van Gogh and died in 1997 at a world record age of 122. But what do such survivors from a past age have in common apart from an iron constitution, superb luck and genes that Richard Dawkins would give his eye teeth for?
It is a fact that, despite upheavals, most of us experience our lives as essentially unchanging from early adulthood onwards. Much as we may flinch later when we happen to pass a mirror, we still feel youthful and unchanged in our essentials. But though old age may thus seem just a matter of unflattering appearances, it is by appearance that others mainly see and categorize us, and when was the last time you saw a TV commercial in which a woman over forty demonstrated a new lipstick? Come to that, how many women over forty ever buy a lipstick?
Our children, now in their prime and in charge of the world's affairs, are accustomed to looking after their children, and so naturally, if belittlingly, they tend to treat their parents too as beloved incompetents to be looked after, nursed and chivvied. Still, occasionally such treatment is justified.
Adjusting to the passing of years was never easy for anyone.
I.a - The extended mid-life
Not so long ago, life for ordinary people was a marathon of effort and toil, with a brief childhood at one end and as brief a decline at the other. Children existed to be disciplined and instructed, the old relegated to a corner by the fire where they might pass on their wisdom but otherwise stay out of the way.
Today, though, with technology and prosperity at the service of all, work is more varied and less exhausting while society takes the largest share of the responsibility for bringing up children in schools and colleges and the old usually manage to stay independent for much longer. The family itself, once a multi-generational clan gathered under one roof, has by and large withered to an adult couple with or without children taking less and less direct responsibility for its elders.
One result has been the emergence of a hale, still confident and self-sufficient silver-haired generation nurtured by better diet and better health care, not worn out by work and blessed with means and freedom to live as they choose. But of course such a picture does not describe every pensioner. Even among the newly liberated oldies there are sub-groups, each with their own attributes and needs.
There are those who, for example, make a clean break with their past and (funded, perhaps, by a house sale) choose to live a new life abroad in a better climate.
Then there are those who, still vigorous and full of ambition, choose to continue working, perhaps in a new role or job, needing or preferring to keep busy and make money in order to retire more comfortably eventually (spotting, perhaps, a chance to make up for earlier failure to put enough by).
Then again there are those who, having failed to make adequate provision for old age and unable or unwilling to do much about the fact now, hope merely to live out their days in decent dignity and comfort with as little dependence on others as possible.
Of course these are crude divisions, three among many that merge into each other, but the key fact remains that freedom is our modern watchword and the modern working man or woman has more of it than ever before and so can choose how to live without having choice imposed on them. Nor is even the poorest option so grim as it was. There are no workhouses these days, and it is rarely too late to take some sort of remedial action to free oneself from poverty even when already retired.
Modern retirement, that is, is no longer the end of a road but the opening stage on a new, endlessly varied route along which, as some landscapes recede behind us, others as beguilingly open up ahead.
I.b - Making preparations
Even before the current recession, the government announced a sharp rise in consumer prices affecting all age groups but inevitably hitting the elderly most hard since they spend a far larger slice of their income on basic necessities like food and energy, both of which have soared compared with luxuries.
Still, times are not yet so hard as when millions of workers were forced into premature retirement through unemployment in the last decades of the last century. Besides, agencies, charities and services of all kinds have sprung up to help protect the worse-off during such upheavals. But even today it is hard to find a simple, comprehensive, readable and up-to-date guide on what you, the person coming up to retirement, can expect and has a right to, and without such help, retirement is hard to plan.
That is why The Little Red Retirement Book's aim is to gather as many of the important facts and information as possible together and so make them easily available. Above all, it aims to cheer and encourage those who, for one reason or another, failed to make as adequate a provision for later years as they would now prefer to have done. A few preliminaries, though, apply to all.
I.b.1 - Pre-retirement planning
Many retirement decisions, most obviously the important financial ones, need ideally to be taken years in advance. Those affecting pensions for example. But there are other considerations, and for those able and willing to pay for them, there are structured programmes designed to help them prepare.
Life Academy (formerly The Pre-Retirement Association - address at the end of this chapter - delivers courses and programmes for both companies and individuals. They are designed with mid-career professional people in mind, but the issues are the same for all, and the ground covered includes financial planning, strategies for coping with change, how to keep occupied in retirement, health and the management of relationships.
I.b.2 - Friendship and personal contacts
One of the first bear-traps retirement puts in our path is that just when we most need to talk to former colleagues and workmates, we find ourselves cut off from them. Of course we meant to stay in touch in an easy, informal sort of way, but then again we all remember how old what's-his-name used to shuffle for months through the office door after he retired, embarrassingly eager to ask how everything and everyone was. We promised ourselves we would never make such a spectacle of ourselves when the time came, didn't we?
Some people get less gregarious as they grow older anyway, but while it may be natural, even inevitable, to slip out of touch, people who do so run the risk of cutting themselves off from important sources of support. Old colleagues can help ease the disorientation of retirement, while new friends can be a source of new interests. You yourself could take up bird-watching, small-boat sailing, calligraphy, whatever you like – if only to meet other bird-watchers, small-boat sailors and calligraphers.
Friends are a channel of continuing contact with the wider world. You don't, after all, want to become like one of those crusty judges of legend who have to lift an ear-trumpet to the side of their wigs to enquire 'Who or what is Coldplay?' Now do you?
So make new friends while hanging on to old ones. Stay in touch by post, telephone, pigeons if necessary. Get out to see them in pubs, clubs, cinemas, theatres, football stadia, art showrooms, anywhere. The effort itself will stimulate.
I.b.3 - Wider contacts
Gaining new contacts (while hanging on to old ones) also gives the perfect opportunity to broaden horizons and fit in other interests of all kinds for which there was no time back in the dear, dead days and nights of bottle-feeds, sales conferences and squeezing onto the commuter special home every evening.
New media like the worldwide web can help enormously, but probably your local library is your best first port of call. You may not have been inside the place for years, and when you do visit its once fusty portals again, you are likely to be shocked by the yelling of toddlers inside. But don't be put off. It is still your best source of local intelligence on societies, clubs, concerts and activities of all kinds – as well as a repository of reference works, large-print books, compact discs, consumer information and nice warm radiators in winter.
Some libraries stock Mature Times (formerly the more tweely named Mature Tymes), a free monthly newspaper for the over-fifties since re-branded as a campaigning voice for pensioners' interests and rights.
One final note: do not be dismayed when you read in the papers about oldies clogging up post office counters on Tuesday mornings to collect their pensions, whizzing perilously about in their electric chariots or shuffling even more dangerously in their zimmer frames. As noted at the beginning of this section, retirement comes to us all, and The Little Red Retirement Book's attention is properly focussed, where special focus is needed, on those least able to cope, though intended for the widest possible constituency.
for further help:
1. The Pre-Retirement Association, a national centre for life planning, is at 9
Chesham Road, Guildford GU1 3LS.
Tel: 01483 301170.
email:info@life-academy.co.uk.
http://www.isurrey.co.uk/profile/85022/Guildford/The-Pre-Retirement-Association/
2. Mature Times, a free monthly for the over-50s, is promoted as an online
newspaper but published by Highwood House Publishing, Highwood House,
Winters Lane, Redhill, Bristol BS40 5SH.
Tel: 08700 170 666
Web: http://www.maturetimes.co.uk
II - Money Matters
Money may be the root of much evil, but at no time of life is it so useful to be as rich as you can manage as at retirement. Think money then.
Setting aside the present recession for a minute, modern retirement presents a growing array of financial opportunities. To add to the 450 or more ISAs and other savings and tax-efficient investment mechanisms now available for pensioners, other financial products and services tailored to their specific needs are springing up all the time.
A brief guide like this cannot give the detailed help you may need in finding your way through the labyrinth of rules, regulations and conditions relating to tax, benefits, insurance, savings, investments and so on. It can, though, indicate the main points and direct you to where further help can be had.
You are recommended to start by applying for a copy of Age Concern's Factsheet No.18, "A Brief Guide to Money Benefits"; and Help The Aged's "Questions on Pensions". The addresses of both organisations are at the end of this chapter. Of course, if you pore over and enjoy all the reviews, analyses and expositions of financial matters in the heavier newspapers and magazines, you will not bother with such low-level briefing. But a word of warning. On no other matter should advice be tailored so specifically to individual needs, circumstances and aims. On all matters relating to money you are earnestly counselled to talk to an independent professional who knows your circumstances before making any important decisions.
Two further solemn notes of warning: if you ever find yourself temporarily strapped for cash, think very carefully indeed before resorting to loan sharks and others who offer you the chance to 'consolidate' your debts in one place. Above all, if threatened in any way by anyone to whom you owe anything, do not allow yourself to be intimidated. Do not panic - and sign nothing. Head instead for your local office of the Citizens Advice Bureau. Or call the National Debtline on 0121-359 8501.
Last of all, if you have been made redundant and are looking to work again, note carefully the height of your horse before refusing to 'sign on' at your local JobCentre. If you don't, you could lose both unemployment benefit and continued contributions towards your state pension.
for further help:
1. Age Concern England: FREEPOST (SWB 30375), Ashburton, Devon TQ13 7ZZ
Tel: 0800 00 99 66
Web: http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/
2. Help The Aged
England: 207-221 Pentonville Road, London N1 9UZ.
Phone: 020 7278 1114
email: info@helptheaged.org.uk
Scotland: 11 Granton Square, Edinburgh EH5 1HX
Phone: 0131 551 6331
email: infoscot@helptheaged.org.uk
Wales: 12 Cathedral Rd, Cardiff CF11 9LJ
Phone: 02920 346 550
email: infocymru@helptheaged.org.uk
Northern Ireland: Ascot House, Shaftesbury Square, Belfast BT2 7DB
Phone: 02890 230 666
email: infoni@helptheaged.org.uk
3. For independent financial advice, contact unbiased.co.uk on 0800 085 3250. Or
go to the http://www.unbiased.co.uk website. Or contact the Association of
Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) direct at 2-6 Austin Friars House, Austin
Friars, London EC2N 2HD.
Tel: 020 7628 1287.
4. Should you need a solicitor and think you may be eligible for legal aid, ask the Citizens Advice Bureau (see your local telephone directory for the address) for their leaflet "A Practical Guide to Legal Aid".
Or call Legal Aid UK at www.direct.gov.uk (telephone number depending on category of help needed).
II.a - Taking stock
Anticipating the freedom of retirement, with luck you find yourself in a position to realize your cherished dreams. It may be rather late to circumnavigate the planet single-handed (though it has been done by some very ancient mariners) or found a new art movement (art ancien?). But on the whole, you should come to realize how little is actually denied you solely on grounds of age.
In fact, freedom to ride your dream mostly comes down to determination, preference and cash. If you were prudent and lucky in early years, any problems you face will be of a mainly technical nature. Even if you were less than prudent or lucky, however, retirement can still present many aspects more beguiling than the hand-to-mouth scenarios you may have feared.
The first obvious step is to take comprehensive, unsentimental stock of where you now stand, want to stand and can reasonably hope to stand. For the sake of argument, since people retire for different reasons at different ages, we will assume that you did (or will be doing) so simply because you happened to reach (or will reach) the state's retirement age.
Obviously life will now be cheaper in many ways. You no longer need to travel to work, pay national insurance or pension contributions or face the work-related expenses you once forked out for, ranging from special working clothes to lunches out. Never again will they twist your arm for a contribution to an office whip-round either. This time you got the leaving present.
Now, too, you should benefit from savings made on other expenses ranging from car insurance (aged 50+ drivers mostly take shorter journeys, drive less often and so can negotiate better rates) and house insurance (older occupants staying indoors more and being more security-conscious), to concessionary fares on buses and trains, hair-dressing and cinema seats. You also get free NHS prescriptions of course.
On the other hand you may also meet some less welcome changes, chief of which is the fact that your pension is likely to be a lot smaller than your old wage packet or salary cheque.
If you have one, you will probably have to hand back your company car – but think carefully before refusing any offer to buy it on the cheap. It may be a gas-guzzler you would never choose for yourself and there could be a transfer of assets tax liability – but you might still make a profit by selling it.
In fact, how well or how badly off you find yourself depends on too many factors for easy predictions. Let us, though, look at some major ones
II.b - Pensions
The present economic crisis may at last be making clear what many have been saying for a long time: namely, that our present pensions system is over-complex, unfair and unfit for purpose.
Since Margaret Thatcher cut the link between the state pension and the Retail Price Index, the state pension's value has dropped by half, while according to a recent Pensions Policy Institute press release, the "defined contribution" company scheme most people pay into now will yield on retirement a pension worth all of 7% of final salary. Wow.
Most people have to rely on the international stock market casinos for the most important investment of their lives while tax relief arrangements massively benefit the already well-off. Meanwhile, the means-testing of pension credit for example, (see section II.D.2) discourages the poorest from trying to save at all.
The whole system needs to change - and may do so sooner rather than later, given an ever-increasing proportion of retirement age voters. Meanwhile, how do you plan?
For some, the state pension will make up most, if not all, of their retirement income. Comprising different types, the main or basic pension has now risen to £97.65 a week and is paid from the age of sixty-five for men, sixty for women. But not even the Government considers such a sum enough to keep body and soul together. Certainly it will not buy you an indigestible quantity of champagne and caviare.
The Pensions Service will contact you about four months before you reach retirement age, but should you slip its mind, do remember to contact it yourself since it is actually your job to and because pensions are not backdatable. You can call the Pensions Service claim line on 0845 300 1084, 8am to 8pm Mondays to Fridays or 9am to 1pm on Saturdays. A claim form and leaflets will then be sent to you.
You do not, though, have to stop working in order to draw your pension. In fact if you carry on working or have other sources of income and can put off your claim for some years, you will draw a more satisfactory pension with the option of a lump sum when you do eventually retire. Discuss the options with the Pensions Service, though, since you will need to understand how the system works - and bear in mind that you will need actually to survive for some years after retiring in order to re-coup what you missed out on!
The pattern of women's working lives being traditionally different from men's, they can apply separately or get information about their entitlement from The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) Women's Pensions Helpline on 0845 600 0806.
Forecasts can be applied for and worked out in advance, thus giving you a chance to plan, but they do not guarantee actual on-the-day sums. If you missed contributions in the past, there may still be time to beef up your expectations by making voluntary single payment ones now, but you can only do this before you retire and for a limited number of arrears-years.
If you are still in work, you may have 'contracted out' of the state's Earnings-Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) by joining your employer's occupational one. If so, the state will have contributed to this, the amount being based on your age and NI contributions, and these will make up what are called your 'protected rights.' By law, the money you get out of the scheme when you retire must be used to buy an annuity providing an income for life – that part bought with your 'protected rights' being bought between your 60th and 75th birthdays, that with yours and your employer's later contributions anything up to ten years earlier if you so choose.
The key decisions will then be your choice of annuity provider and the date on which you start drawing the pension, because you do not have to buy from the company that built your fund up. In fact some smart employees make a point of switching to a specialist annuity provider in the expectation of getting a better deal.
Here again, though, you are under no obligation to draw your pension at the state's standard age. You can carry on working and leave the money to grow, providing you with a bigger pension when you do eventually call it a day, and again take part of the money as a lump sum if you choose.
Expert advice is also again essential though, and as in the case of your personal pension, do not assume it has been managed to perfection just because the name on the company letterhead is gold-blocked and the directors include an impressive Lord Muck and Lady Rubbish. Study every statement you get carefully to make sure you get all that is due to you!
If you decide to take a lump sum from either of your occupational or personal pension scheme, you will naturally then draw a smaller actual pension, but the arithmetic may still favour such a move since part of the lump sum would be tax-free whereas the whole of your pension would be taxable. You might then take the cash part and use it to buy another annuity that would be only partly taxable. The tax circus is so full of such swings and roundabouts that you may get the impression its main job is to trip you up and keep professional advisers in business!
Yet again, remember when in doubt that it will pay to get professional advice, while if any query you should make to the company providing your pension gets you nowhere, contact The Pensions Advisory Service at the address given at the end of this chapter.
Two final points on this tricky but all-important topic. First, if you happen to be near retirement now and have previously been paying into an occupational pension, it may pay you to rejoin SERPS, depending on your exact circumstances. Second, never forget that ex-wives have a right to a share of their ex-husbands' personal or occupational pensions!
For further details:
1. For details on every aspect of pensions, phone The Pensions Service on 0845 60
60 265, 8am to 8pm Mondays to Fridays, for information on forecasts, winter fuel
payments and how to receive a pension overseas.
enquiries@pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk
http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/home.asp
2. For detailed advice on pension types and their comparative/(de)merits, contact
The Pensions Advisory Service at 11 Belgrave Road, London SW1V 1RB.
Helpline: 0845 6012923.
enquiries@pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk
http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/
II.c - Tax
Death and taxes, as Benjamin Franklin famously noted, are this world's sole copper-bottomed certainties. A surprising number or people assume, though, that the Inland Revenue is a scourge solely for those in work and that when they themselves retire, its tax-torturers will pack away the thumbscrews. No chance. Not to consider the tax implications of retirement may seriously damage your future financial health.
Put simply, the IR man will continue to want his cut from much that passes in or out of your possession. He taxed your salary before but will as happily pillage your pension, investment income, savings interest even some state benefits now. To be fair, though, he makes concessions and exceptions as well. For example, he will overlook inherited money, occasional gambling winnings (including the lottery), some other state benefits and investments designed specifically to be tax-proof like TESSA ISAs (now reclassified as cash ISAs) and PEPs (Personal Equity Plans). Many people on lower earnings who were formerly out of the tax system altogether, though, have this year been plunged back in by the 10% tax band abolition.
Retired people who pay tax will still have to do the sums themselves, while penalties for even accidental failure to get returns in on time are set to increase. Self-assessment may not easy, but the IR publishes a number of leaflets (see the address at the end of this chapter) designed to help. Meanwhile, remember to:
* keep all records of income and expenses for at least two years,
* make sure you are aware of every allowance you are entitled to (see the next
section),
* make sure you understand every part of every form you are sent. Do not guess any
figure,
* note the different 'return by' dates depending on whether you calculate tax due
yourself or get the IR to do it for you - and remember there will be penalties for late
returns.
II.c.1 - Allowances
The income you are allowed to have before the taxman takes his cut has grown over the years, with the result that fewer retired people than ever now have to pay tax at all. You may not even need to make a return.
The current personal allowance is £9,490 a year for a single person aged 65-75 (£9,640 for the over-75s), and there are other allowances – but note that the total allowance you receive drops by £1 for every £2 of income over those limits (although never below the amount of the basic allowance itself).
Old softie that he is, the IR-man is also the only person in Britain apart from your vicar to regard man and wife as one flesh and award additional allowances. The lowest are naturally for the highest earners, but in the case of couples living together, a nifty transfer of assets from one partner to the other may be to their mutual advantage. Note, though, that doing so could imperil a surviving spouse's eligibility for help towards such things as nursing home costs in later years.
High-earners should again seek advice, while others need only collect their figures, do the sums, carry out all instructions to the letter - and still seek advice if the maths are too difficult or the prognosis too gloomy.
There are additional allowances for widows, widowers and the registered blind.
II.c.2 - Retiring abroad
Once it was only a dream, but in recent decades huge numbers have retired under different skies from those they lived and toiled under. And why not? Older bodies need warmth and sunshine, and fewer ties now bind them to their native shores. Experience of the chosen destination over the course of years can make the final moving easy, and fuel crises notwithstanding, budget airlines are likely to continue providing magic carpets to and from Shangri-la and Blighty for a while yet.
There are, though, tax and other matters to consider. First, you should check the fiscal system of your proposed new homeland since in some you might find yourself penalised just for being foreign. Nor should you consider yourself free of the British taxman's clutches until you have acquired non-resident status overseas, and that can take up to three years. When you have finally acquired it, moreover, you will not be allowed to spend more than 182 days in a tax year in Britain. True, you can choose to have your British state pension paid to your new foreign address – but note that you will get yearly index-linked increases only if you live in the European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland or in some other country with which the UK has a social security agreement. To be on the safe side - as always - get expert advice before making any decision.
for further details:
1. For general help on tax matters, you can contact an independent charity of
professionals called TaxAid which exists to advise those who cannot afford such
help. Contact its telephone helpline on 0845 120 3779. Or go online to
http://www.taxaid.org.uk.
2. Free Inland Revenue publications include IR 121: "Approaching Retirement: A
guide to tax and National Insurance contributions." Many printed leaflets that were
once sent out have been replaced in recent years though by online web pages which
often give fuller information. You can consult these on:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/leaflets/c9.htm
3. If you decide to live abroad, get leaflet IR20 ("Residents and Non-residents:
liability to tax in the United Kingdom") from your local Inland Revenue office
and/or go to the Benefit Agency's webpage:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/PensionsAndRetirement/Mone
yInRetirement/DG_10014855
II.d - Benefits
Let it be firmly and clearly stated that there is no shame in claiming state benefits you are eligible for. They were not funded by Martians but by ordinary citizens like you back in the days when you were among the world's taxed workers. If you consider it demeaning to accept what is your due then, your demeaning threshold may be a tad too high. Reflect, too, that those who now pay for and administer such assistance will expect to receive it themselves when they are in your shoes and in no way begrudge you your entitlement. What, anyway, is wrong with a society that values its vulnerable members and wants to support them? People, even soulless states, need to show care and concern, just as others need to receive it.
Many people, though, are unaware of what is available and what they may be eligible for. Research shows that those not claiming benefits to which they are entitled currently miss out on help to the tune of £2½ billion every year. The Citizens Advice Bureau warns that as many as four out of ten pensioners do not receive the Pension Credit they are entitled to, with the result that as ever higher council tax bills drop through letterboxes accompanied by hikes in the price of gas, electricity and other essentials, many poorer retired people find it harder than ever even to subsist.
Many people think, too, that claiming benefits must be difficult as well as embarrassing. Not so. The process is simple and you can always get a free, confidential benefits check at any Citizens Advice Bureau. Unpaid benefits can generally be backdated (it used to be a year but is now only three months), and present pensioners should note that they have until March 31st of next year to claim winter fuel payments of £250 (£400 for the over- 80s).
It may be that you have applied for some benefit in the past, been turned down and consider yourself unfairly treated as a result. In that case you can consider appealing. Contact your local benefits office within three months of any refusal, and they will review their decision. If the review goes against you, the matter can still be referred to the Social Security Appeal Tribunal. Details of a hearing will be sent to you in good time so that you can attend and put your case to it personally
II.d.1 - For older people generally
A great many sources of help of many kinds exist to help people in need. Apart from local councils and other official bodies, they include charitable foundations and organisations set up to protect specific people like former members of professions and the armed services. If you need help and think that one of these might be able to extend it, contact Charity Search (address at the end of this section) to see if it can locate your angel.
Two particular sources of help are freely available and increasingly important since their purpose is to keep you warm and dry as energy prices continue to soar. A Government energy efficiency scheme makes grants towards home insulation and the replacement of ancient boilers, while if you need building work done on your home, there are "Staying Put" projects operating under the umbrella of Care and Repair, a charity set up in 1986 to improve housing and living conditions among the old and disabled. Their address, too, is at the end of the chapter.
With age and immobility, the telephone becomes an ever more important means of staying in touch whenever you need to be, and BT has several budget packages for pensioners and light users of their services. Under the Light Users' Scheme, you could get a rebate on bills (the fewer calls you make, the bigger the rebate) while with BT Basic you get reduced line rental as well as a call allowance.
There are drawbacks to both schemes though. You will probably not get either if you have an internet connection. Nor will you be able to benefit from discount packages like Friends & Family.
II.d.2 - For those on low income
Some people may find themselves retiring on a low income and saddled with debts as well, but for anyone over sixty and without means to support a decent, safe living standard, help is available first of all in the form of Income Support.
On reaching retirement age, Guaranteed Pension Credit can be claimed on top of the state pension and is available even if you have modest savings and income. You can find out more by either phone or internet and need only give your National Insurance number, some information about your income and details of any savings and investments over £10,000 (a lower amount will not affect any calculation for pension credit).
You can apply for pension credit if your weekly income (including any from savings) is less than £132.60 if single, or £202.40 if you have a partner.
You may still qualify even if your income exceeds these limits - and get more help again if you are disabled, a carer or have housing costs like a mortgage to pay. You can also apply for help with rent and council tax at the same time as you apply for pension credit. You will then need to complete only a single three-page claim form HCTB1 (PCA).
You can apply for extra savings pension credit if you are 65 or over and have modest capital. This could earn you an extra up to £20.52 a week for a single pensioner (£27.09 if you have a partner).
II.d.3 - For the disabled
Extra benefits are also available for people whose physical condition gives them special needs. They range from payments for help in managing independently both inside and outside the home. Eventually there could be help towards residential or nursing home fees as well. Details of all these are set out in Age Concern England's Factsheet 18.
for further help:
1. Call the Pensions Credit Helpline on 0800 99 1234.
2. Your state pension rights are explained in
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_pen
sioncredit.hcsp.
Or you can phone the Pension Service on 0800 99 1234.
3.The Benefit Enquiry Line can be contacted at 2nd Floor, Red Rose House,
Lancaster Road, Preston, Lancashire PR1 1HB.
Freephone 0800 882 200.
BEL-Customer-Services@dwp.gsi.gov.uk.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/DG_10011165.
4. Contact Charity Search to find out if there is a group or organisation that can give
you financial help at http://www.charitysearch.org.uk
5.The Home Energy Efficiency Scheme can be contacted at: eaga plc at eaga House,
Archbold Terrace, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne NE2 1DB