Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 7, 2019 Page 41
My £132K
pension
windfall
By Samantha
Partington
MoneyMail 41
State pension age guide:
When can you retire?
thisismoney.co.uk/pension-ageMONEY
MORSELS
Gold rush
THE Royal Mint has reported a
40 pc rise in interest from new
customers looking to invest in
precious metals such as gold and
silver, which have a reputation for
being a safe haven for investors.
Political tension around the world
and Brexit uncertainty and confu-
sion in the UK have caused the
recent spike, says the Royal Mint.Clone company
FAMILIES seeking debt advice
are being warned to avoid clone
firms posing as the charity
Stepchange. Some go by the
name ‘Step to Change’ and ‘Step
Changing’ and charge users a fee
to refer them to advice services
which may not be appropriate.
The genuine Stepchange
(stepchange.org) is free.Wrong charges
ROYAL Bank of Scotland and
NatWest customers have been
stung by foreign purchase fees when
buying from Apple’s UK website.
Banks typically charge a 2.75pc fee
on spending oversees. RBS says
customers should not have been
charged and promises refunds.Store deal
JOHN Lewis is offering custom-
ers a £125 gift card when they
spend £1,000 or more on fashion
or homeware in store or online
before August 19. You have 40
days from making your purchase
to claim your gift card at
johnlewis.com/rewardclaimInsure all treasure
NEARLY two thirds of people own
a high value collectible worth more
than £500, according to Direct
Line. Research by the insurer
found 23 pc of these items are not
covered by a policy. This includes
memorabilia, such as vintage
sports collections, music artefacts
and film souvenirs — which nearly
a quarter of adults in the UK own,
according to analysis by the firm’s
SELECT Premier Insurance.Friendly incentive
TSB current account holders can
earn £75 if they recommend the
bank to a friend. New customers
who switch to a Plus or Classic
account following a recommen-
dation will also receive £75.Energy fine
UTILITA Energy has been ordered
to pay its customers £175,000 by
watchdog Ofgem for failing to meet
its carbon emission reduction
obligations. Providers are required
to comply with a scheme which
includes giving savings to custom-
ers by upgrading inefficient heat-
ing systems, installing wall insula-
tion and replacing gas boilers.Card charges
HOLIDAYMAKERS in Europe may
get a better deal if they pay by
credit card. Research by Defaqto
found that paying for a €25 meal
with a debit card could add
between 40p and £1.88. Credit
card charges were 46p to 68p.contact you again.
Deferring your
state pension can
be highly benefi-
cial, particularly
if you continue
working into
retirement, as it
can reduce your tax
bill. And for every
year you delay, it
increases. At present,
you typically get an extra
1 pc for every nine weeks you wait,
or 5.8 pc a year.
Peter unwittingly deferred his
pension for 11 years. A retired
manager of a truck company, he
has dyslexia and struggled to
understand the letters about his
pension. His claim then went
missing after he sent it to Belfast
instead of Wolverhampton.
Under the old system prior to
2016, if you deferred your statepension you would
earn an extra
10.4 pc a year on
what you were
entitled to at
retirement age.
You could then
opt to take the
back payments as
a lump sum or get a
higher monthly
income (today, you can
use the extra money only to
boost your monthly payments).
It meant Peter, who retired
before 2016, could choose
between a £132,800 lump sum
and a basic state pension going
forward, or no lump sum and a
higher monthly income of £2,000.
Peter says: ‘When I heard how
much they owed me, I was
elated. I said: “I’ll take the lump
sum, thanks very much.” It is a
life-changing sum for me andmeans I have now been able to
start modernising my house.’
Peter’s equity release adviser,
Graeme Donegani of Responsible
Life, says: ‘The first thing we do
is to check whether a client is
claiming all the benefits they are
entitled to. Our job is to point
out the alternatives to taking an
equity release mortgage and only
offer it as a last resort. Peter was
crying with happiness when he
heard the news.’
Steve Webb, director of policy
at insurer Royal London, says: ‘If
you are over pension age and
have not received anything, you
should call the Pension Service.
‘If it does not hear back, the
Pension Service assumes that
taxpayers want to defer their
state pension. But the letter may
not have reached its destination.’
Under the new system,
introduced in 2016, you need 35years of National Insurance con-
tributions (NICs) to qualify for a
full state pension — £168.60 a
week. If you have fewer than ten
years of NICs, you’re not entitled
to any state pension but can
claim other benefits, such as
pensions credit.
A Department of Work and
Pensions spokesman says: ‘We
want everyone to be able to
claim what they are entitled to
and have a wide range of
channels where people can get
information and advice.’
You can claim online at gov.uk/
get-state-pension or call 0800 731
7898 and ask for the forms to be
posted to you.
[email protected]WHEN retired Peter Williams
got down to his last £200 of
savings, he reluctantly decided
he must release some cash
from the home that had been
in his family since 1965.
But when an equity release adviser
visited his £240,000 house, he discov-
ered Peter had not claimed his state
pension for 11 years. And just one
call to the Pensions Service revealed
the retired bachelor was now owed a
£132,800 windfall.
Peter, 76, from Cardiff, had
applied for his state pension by
post when he turned 65 in 2008 —
but after hearing nothing back,
he assumed a decision he had made
20 years earlier to opt out of the
State Earnings Related Pension
Scheme (SERPS) meant he’d for-
feited his right to a state pension.
He then spent the next 11 years
surviving on a private pension of
£500 a month, dipping into his
savings to top up his income.
It is not known how many people
are — like Peter — unaware that
they can now collect a pension. But
experts say he is not alone.
Some may be missing out as a
result of a common misconception
that retirees will automatically
receive the money when they reach
state pension age; whereas, in fact, if
you do not claim the state pension,
it will automatically be deferred.
Others, like Peter, may wrongly
believe they are not entitled to one
at all.
This is because the state pension
used to be split into two parts: the
basic state pension and SERPS.
Many workers made the decision
to ‘contract out’ of SERPS, which
meant they and their employer paid
less National Insurance.
The downside was that you gave
up your right to the Serps top-up
and received a lower state pension.
The idea was that your employer
would enrol you into a company
pension to make up the difference.
However, opting out of SERPS
does not affect your entitlement to a
basic state pension.
Around four months before you
reach state pension age, you should
receive a letter and a booklet from
the Pension Service explaining how
to claim. If the Pension Service does
not hear from you, it will
assume you want to defer
your state pension to a
later date and not
Did youknow?
The first U.S.
coin bore the
inscription ‘mind
your business’ at
the bottomPeter wrongly
assumed he
would never get
a state pension
— but has
just banked
a six-figure
cheque. So how
DID he do it?
MPs have called on the Health Secretary to
help practice nurses who have been denied
a fair NHS pension.
Money Mail told how the country’s first
practice nurses were blocked from the
NHS pension scheme until 1997 because
they were considered privately employed.
Yet GPs, district and hospital nurses,
were allowed to pay in all along. We arecalling for the nurses to be given the pen-
sions they deserve, perhaps by allowing
them to make backdated contributions.
After launching our campaign, we
received more than 100 letters and emails
from practice nurses who say they were
cheated out of a proper pension. Joanne
Hamilton, from Dudley, West Midlands,
wrote to the Health Select Committee toask for help. Committee chairman Dr Sarah
Wollaston has now demanded answers
from Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
She wrote: ‘I would be grateful for... an
indication of what options are available to
address it in the interest of this important
group of staff.’
[email protected]
Last Word — Page 46Plea for answers over GP nurse retirement row
Backdated: Peter Williams, 76, received 11 years’ worth of state pensionРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS