mums had a fairly priviliged latter life, living rent free with my brothers family in thailand and prague, and she's not had to really look at what she spends.
dad died a few years ago, bro's on his travels again back to prague and mums decided in her late eighties that its time to settle down and has moved into a residential block of flats in our village, so shes got plenty of support from 'our side' of the family now and she's perfectly happy.
as she's not so savvy with money, shes asked me to have a look at her finances and make sure she'll be ok for the rest of her days. i think she will be, but im no expert, so just wanted to ask a couple of questions please.
she has around £30,000 to her name, no property, she rents her flat. a meagre pension means that shes 'living beyond her means', more going out than coming in, so i just want to give her peace of mind that she'll be fine.
ive made up a spreadsheet of her finances so we can see how her money is going down, and how long that would last. however, shes been told by some of the other residents that when she gets down to a certain amount of money, she can get help with certain things such as tv licence, council tax etc. im just not sure what that amount is, or what she could get help with.
she doesnt have expensive tastes, and has probably bought all the 'big things' that she's likely to need, the only substantial expenses now for her could be if her macbook dies, or her hearing aid system which is pretty pricey.
my spreadsheet shows she spent around £5000 more than went in over the last 6 months, so if that trend continues then very simply she's got 6 years worth of money. thatd take her into her early 90's but i just want to be able to reassure her that she'll be ok no matter what, and if not then work out what if anything she can cut back on.
so are there any considerations that i can build into my forecast, such as when she gets down to x amount of money then her outgoings will lessen and her money last for x more years?
thanks
5k on 6 months = 10k p/a = 3 years before the 30k is gone, no?
I think Age Concern have advisors who can help with this sort of information, and most usefully, help with the form filling when making claim for benefits, they know what to write for best success.
5k on 6 months = 10k p/a = 3 years before the 30k is gone, no?
whoops of course it is 😀 maybe more important than i thought to get the info on what might be available to her then.
I think Age Concern have advisors who can help with this sort of information, and most usefully, help with the form filling when making claim for benefits, they know what to write for best success.
ok thanks, we'll contact them.
cheers
Worth checking, but is it like other means tested benefits where you don't get anything if you have more than 16K savings, or something? Not sure if that would also aply to OAPs aswell, but she may have to spend a bit, and then start claiming for stuff when she gets low enough on cash?
But yes, speak to age concern, they will know all that stuff.
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/ may also be useful.
Worth checking, but is it like other means tested benefits where you don't get anything if you have more than 16K savings,
£16k is the top figure and at that amount, if it is a means tested benefit the deductions are as follows
The starting figure is £6k and over that about they deduct about £4.50 per £250 over that (£6k)amount
So if you had £7k savings.investments/cash, they would deduct £18/month
£16k is the top figure and at that amount, if it is a means tested benefit the deductions are as follows
The starting figure is £6k and over that about they deduct about £4.50 per £250 over that (£6k)amount
So if you had £7k savings.investments/cash, they would deduct £18/month
@dyna-ti just following this up......im not sure who 'they' are that youre referring too. council tax? housing?
ive now been in touch with age uk and also been on citizens advice site and used their calculator.
age uk will send someone round for a chat about benefits, and the CA calculator has thrown up some figures which i just wanted to check sounded about right to you.....
it does indeed seem like 16k is the figure where she would start getting benefits. i put in different figures assuming her savings would be going down, and these are the figures the calculator told me.
if she had 17k in savings she would get no help.
at 15k she would get £78 per week housing benefit and £10 p/w council tax benefit.
12k - £82 p/w HB and £12 CT
10k - £85 p/w HB and £12 CT
anything under this right down to 1k is the same as 10k.
so you see this is why im checking as these figures dont particularly marry up with the £18 per month deduction at 7k. thats why im asking what you were referring to specifically as i dont want to tell my mum the wrong information.
thanks for your help
I don't know how this works across countries but,
Do you have both Lasting Power of Attorney agreements in place?
Definitely LPA if you are managing finances. We had to do it PDQ for MIL once FIL passed away as she never took any interest in the bills, FIL did it all. She said she didn't want to, so we did the POA ourselves. It's still a ball ache, as you often have to send copies to the Utility companies, then they want to speak to the 'relative' - MIL wasn't even interested in speaking to them, but we had to make her - she basically didn't listen and just said 'yes' when she needed to. Stubborn !
yes, we have power of attorney set up. thinking about it theres a couple arent there, so we need to make sure we have both the money and mental capacity jobbies sorted.
thanks.
There's the basic state pension and if you get any more than that you are not usually granted any discounts, winter fuel allowance, etc etc. This is the experience of my Mum anyway, but https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit/eligibility may be more useful than me.
Also, it goes without saying that if she needs care it can get ultra expensive, although it sounds like there are no assets to strip to it may be up to you, or a state provided lowest level possible facility. Also, speaking from early experience of a father-in-law in the grips of vascular dementia while owning his own home (for now).
Useful thread, thanks all. It confirms what I thought and will help me convince the others concerned.