I am very grateful to be able to be able to ask a question on this forum and would very much like an answer to a question that I just cannot find anywhere else. My name is Mark and I am a carer for my wife. Neither of us work for obvious reasons although we would if my wife didn’t have a disability. My questions is, for the purposes of claiming benefits, do pension savings count as capital and do they have to be declared? the reason I ask is that I bank online and have the standard online portfolio of accounts / savings / investments and whatever. I haven’t got much with a few pounds in a current account and £5800 in an ISA. However, after the pension changes another account suddenly appeared under ‘investments’. It is a stakeholder pension from years ago that an old employer used to fund. The fund is worth £5820. Because it is a pension fund I just hope I don’ hav to declare it. If I do it takes quite a bit of benefit money away because it means we are over the £6000 limit. Would you believe that I cannot get an answer to this question from the bank, nor a couple of charities I have asked. Turn2us told me that with that and my other pensions from other employers we are not entitled to benefits at all which I frankly can’t believe. Surely you don’t have your benefits reduced because of your pension pot. Thank you for help.
Hi Mark,
I suggest you contact http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/ whiich is a free Government run service for this sort of problem.
G
Hi, mmm not sure about this. Best ring benefits helpline. They are helpful without needing toknow who you are, with general questions.
I think they will know the answer.
Its a bummer whe we have saved and been careful with money, then only to lose out on benefits.
luv Pollx
I just did a web chat with the pensions advisory service as advised above. I was told a quite categorical answer by somebody who seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. He said that the answer is no, a pension does not become capital until retirement when you are due to take it. If you delay taking your pension it still becomes capital nevertheless. At the present time it doesn’t count. That is a much more plausible answer than I have had before. Thank you for your help.
Glad you got the answer from the right source.
pollx
I have been off the forum for a while and just saw Mark Hawkins post on pensions from 7th May. I had a similar dilimma because I am claiming pension credit. It probabably depends whether you can draw from your pension pot as I can because it is a drawdown pot. The advise I got from the pension service was " if you can draw from it you must do so" Consequently they reduced my pension payment by the amount I drew from my pension.