now theres an interesting thought the government assume you get 5% interest on savings

ok they have assumed that for probably the last 25 years
you probably wont know i took early retirement at age 59years old 4 and a half years ago on a then about £72 pension and a lump sum off about 22k
now above 16K household savings or assets you will tend to get no benefits help at all and off course was happy with that
my son is about to move out now with his income out off the equation i decided to do a check on what help i may get as my savings where at £9800 and my pension was now £306.38 per 4 weeks or under £77a week
on the on line calculator i still had to many assets if you include the £450 i was owed by relative to get other than the 25% single person reduction
if i had 1K less i would get £19.58 a week or just over 1k a year
now i put in a 2.9% pension increases thats the expected increase and off the 2.22p i will get as an increase i will loose 44p which reperesents a perhaps 25% tax on someone who doesnt earn enough to pay tax
now it seems daft that i need to spend 1k to save loosing the same amount
i have always been frugal and saved thats why 75% off the way to my state pension i have a little under 45% off the lump sum left
now i have decided to spend on nesisarry works an a wee bit on new toys to bring it down to around 9k
now the point off this thread is not to avoid paying what you should its more to say being frugal and not doing essential repairs can be at your expense

big-all said:

now the point off this thread is not to avoid paying what you should its more to say being frugal and not doing essential repairs can be at your expense

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Well that's one way of looking at it, but the systems not intended to help you, it's supposed to be a safety net. Unfortunately, we've been seduced into thinking we can rely on it, and make use of it. When you've gone through sufficient of your savings, then you'll get what you want, but not necessarily what you need.

I stand to be corrected, but I'm pretty sure that at least some compensatory payments through the courts have gone up, to reflect the lower interest expectations nowadays.

Doggit said:

Well that's one way of looking at it, but the systems not intended to help you, it's supposed to be a safety net. Unfortunately, we've been seduced into thinking we can rely on it, and make use of it. When you've gone through sufficient of your savings, then you'll get what you want, but not necessarily what you need.

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shall i just have the first holiday away in 7 years then am i entitled to that ??
shall i just get a sky subscription i dont need
or a flutter on the horses
if i get to my totals through reasonable means then i think i am entitled what the law say i am entitled to
did you hand back the child benefit in a month you didnt need it ???

I went 12 years without a holiday because of various circumstances, and then splurged this year when the missold endowment policy paid off - only got half of what I was told I would.

But the law doesn't say you're entitled to anything, it just says that some benefits are there if you get to a certain point, and if you want to play the system to take advantage of them, then I'm certainly not going to condemn you. We make choices, and then have to live with them, and if you spend you're savings to get some extra benefits, you may find you've cut off a leg just to get something, and then find you've lost something you need at a later date.

I could wait till next year to get my full pension, but not sure how long I'll survive to enjoy the top amount, so may take it early at a reduced rate, and get another holiday this year. But would that short term enjoyment cause me similar problems to you later. I have a lot of financial decisions to make this year, and some of them (like yours) may not work out for the best. But the last few years have been struggle getting here, and some years have been lean to say the least, and it's been a juggling game at every turn.

I know I should look to change direction, and try and earn a bit more money, but am too tired to do that, and I'm not sure whether you're able to either, but that's how it goes at our age. Difficult decisions that don't always work out in hindsight.

Single person, live on my own, no child benefit, or any sort of handout from the government ever; the pension will be the first one I get.

to be honest i would have reached the level by xmass anyway and my son still hasnt left
its as blunt as £9790 no help £9750 you get around £19 a week for every £20 less you have in savings or assets you get 40p more and for every £2 extra on income you loose 40p
if i was dishonest i could simply transfer money out or not declare any savings or the £400 owed that i dont really expect to get back and possibly get more but i will do a full disclosure off assets as i have a clear conscience so will sleep well at night

Whoa, cliff edge decision, no doubt. Tackle the £400 debt, and if you don't think it's going to come in, then your figures are okay, and your conscience is clear.

But you can give away £3000 a year tax free and it won't count towards your inheritance tax bill, so can you give someone a few quid, and bring the figures down. All totally legal.

As usual with these things, you could blame the rule makers for such inflexible nominal limits.
Plus the fact that if you had always spent every penny, you would be 'entitled?' to more.
That's the system, then it gets abused.


Anyway, you don't have to spend any money if you don't want to.
Draw out some and put in under the mattress if you are that way inclined.

benefit rules, like tax rules, are not designed to be fair or logical, and it is a mistake to suppose that the governments we elect are.

We can however, as citizens, make our feelings known and do our best to elect people who demonstrate a commitment to improving the mess they walk into.

Citizens value logic and fairness more than governments do.

Fairer taxes for billionaires and multinationals are another example.

Doggit said:

Whoa, cliff edge decision, no doubt. Tackle the £400 debt, and if you don't think it's going to come in, then your figures are okay, and your conscience is clear.

But you can give away £3000 a year tax free and it won't count towards your inheritance tax bill, so can you give someone a few quid, and bring the figures down. All totally legal.

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benefit rules are quite different to tax rules
whilst you are free to give money away to reduce the chance off exceeding the inheritance tax threashold they can deem for the purpose off benefits you have purposely deprived yourself off the money and include it as if you still had it if they deem you have done it to to gain a benefit
now council tax is a different matter so may be different i know the threashold for getting unemployment benefits was assets less than 16k and council tax used to be a bit less
but that was several years ago so may be wildly different now