Hmm, it’s a bit too public to ask this, so maybe don’t actually reply, but have the answers in mind for research elsewhere.
Depending on their ages (and apologies if I’m way off 😉 ), it’d be worth them looking into Pension Credit. Details on the DirectGov website here.
Have in mind the equalisation of state pension age will impact on this – (basically anyone born ‘twixt 1950 and 1955 is transitioning to the equalised State Pension Age (SPA) of 65 so can’t claim Pension Credit until they get there – use the link on that page ^ to help with this).
The starting questions are:
How old is the lady in question … and when you say ‘husband’ and ‘retiring’, is that he’s ‘reached state-pension age retiring’, or just stopping work ‘retiring’?
He might be able to claim PC now, plus there might be extra State Pension he can claim for her / she can claim from his contributions (when he reaches his SPA). That’s more complex tho’ – but ask for a Pension Forecast now to help plan for that, (but if he’s within 3 months of his SPA he won’t be able to get a forecast).
One of your local voluntary sector providers will [probably] have a welfare-rights worker who can help them by looking at the whole household and advising from there, be that working tax credit / pension credit / preserving NI et cetera …
(Not relevant to this question, and maye a bit geeky, but NI conts aren’t actually paid ‘as such’ whilst on JSA/ESA, rather the period required to qualify for a full State Pension at State Pension Age is reduced by the period that is ‘protected’ by that relevant claim – but in a practical sense the effect is the same – as the NI conts are still ‘credited’).