Can I ensure my parents have a decent pension?

I cant advise about pension Tina but its probably worth while checking to see they are getting any benefits they may be entitled to such as pension credits, housing and council tax benefits, and if they have any health issues perhaps DLA, Carers allowance, also free bus passes now available to everyone over 60. Lot of info on line where you can explore any of these avenues. One thing you may not be aware of is that pension credits start at 60 for men and women so your dad would be ellible to apply. Also dont forget that once your on certain benefits then you get free prescriptions and dental treatment and glasses etc. Indivudally they may not seem a huge amount but together can make a difference as i found out recently. Best of Luck

Bitstring , from the wonderful person linkuk said

Just to add that the way the government has set it up with the 'minimum pension guarantee', you need to check carefully before making any extra provisions, since it can work out that every extra £ pension/income they get causes the means tested benefit to drop by £1 (and there's probably a pathological case where several means tested benefits drop, resulting in a >100% marginal tax rate).

You (or someone) needs to understand exactly what they are going to get, from where, and then figure out if it is worth increasing it by some official means, or if you are better just bunging them £50 a week in some fashion that doesn't count as income (I didn't say that ..) like a box of groceries or taking them out to dinner or whatever, or stuffing the money away (e.g. in a cash ISA) so you/they have a lump sum if needed.

They can apply to Department of Work & Pensions (using form BR219, iirc) to get a forecast for their state pensions (and to discover if they can enhance it by paying any voluntary contributions). For any company/work pension, they should get a forecast from the trustees.

One last comment on insurance .. in general, insurance companies make money. I.e. what they charge you is more than they (expect to) have to pay out. It follows that, in most cases, saving the money yourself is a better bet. The exception is 'wipe out' levels of risk, like having your house burn down, or a tree fall on a passer by .. it might only happen to you every 9,000 years, but when it does very few people could afford to self insure for the rebuild costs or the damages.

'Insuring for' dental costs is at the other extreme - you pay £20 a month and get £60/year of treatment. If you are really unlucky, you need £500 worth of gold crowns, but you won't need it every year (and if the dentist thinks it's likely, you'll be paying £40 a month instead of £20 a month anyway).

You could pay into a pension on their behalf, but at their age, and your income, it would be way to expensive to contribute anything that is likely to make a difference. Also it could lead to them losing benefit entitlements, particularly housing benefit.

I looked at dental insurance, and all the ones I found don't cover expensive treatment, only regular work, which was the complete opposite of what I was looking for.

Thats how it seems to work for nhs exemptions as well. All basic stuff free but anything more including dentures you pay in full for.

Bitstring , from the wonderful person linkuk said

Like I said .. 'Insurance .. heads they win, tails you lose ...'

In message , Tina writes

No, well not a cost effective one.

What you are looking for doesnt exist I'm afraid and the cost levels that would be affordable. You cat insure against 'falling on hard times' in any event and I cant see any point in medical insurance. You could pssibly get a policy that would pay out a monthly sum if your mum was unable to work until her retirement date (Permanent Health Insurance) but it wouldnt be worth it.

Suggest you just put as much as can afford aside each week/month in a building society or high interest account and build up a buffer which you can fall back on. You probably wont need to use it.

I think the kind of thing you are looking for is bound to be too expensive because most dental work is wear and tear. Denplan, for example, is perceived as an insurance scheme but it isnt, you just pay your dentist monthly but it DOES have insurance for certain events, and that is what insurance is for.

Put another way, you wouldnt expect car breakdown insurance to pay for your annual service.

To take the car breakdown insurance analogy, it seems that most dental policies cover the annual service, new tyres, windscreen wipers etc, but not anything more major.

That wasnt what I meant. I could have made it clearer. Imagine paying for your services on a monthly basis, directly to the garage, and having a separate breakdown cover which only covers breakdowns, not routine maintenance. Denplan, for example, is a monthly payment to your dentist for your annual service plus a tiny bit for breakdown insurance.

Bitstring , from the wonderful person John Boyle said

Except 5 minutes with a calculator will reveal that paying via Denplan probably costs 50% more than 'pay-as-you-go'. I particularly objected to the fact that my 6 month check-up / hygienist visits were only happening every 8 months, because it took me 2 months to get booked in each time they reminded me. Sometimes the paperwork got lost in the post and they didn't happen at all - but Denplan still collected their £20 a month, whether the dentist did anything or not.

In message , GSV Three Minds in a Can writes

Get a new calculator -not true at all, 4 checks up with the dentist and hygienist visits plus any number of visits, fillings etc. per year Only pay for lab work.

Ahh! keep the calculator after all, its your dentist that is faulty. thats pretty poor service.

!!!! dont they ring you a few days in advance to check?

Change dentist to one who has a phone and a diary, well at least a diary that has space for things other than his hols.

Bitstring , from the wonderful person John Boyle said

4 per year? Good God, that seems a bit OTT (OK the hygienist used to see me that often when I smoked, but never the actual dentist). I think I had about 1 filling per 3 years.

The paperwork that got lost was a 'contact us to make an appointment', not an actual appointment itself. IME they only ring to confirm that you are going to attend appointments.

Thus speaks the urban resident. Out here in the sticks the first trick is to FIND a dentist. I dun good - mine's only 12 miles.

In message , GSV Three Minds in a Can writes

Luckily for you, you havtn seen the inside of my mouth!, but this practice has done quarterly checks for over 20 years. prevention is better than cure etc.,

I havent had any new ones, just replacing old ones!

Ahh, mine makes the next appointment when you leave after the previous appointment

Fair comment!

GSV Three Minds in a Can wrote

This makes good sense. A lady friend of mine has the full State Pension, having paid full contributions throughout her working life, and is able to claim Pension Credit to raise this to around £106 pw. She also gets assistance with her rent, leaving her about £15 pm to pay. Her £6000 or so in ISAs does not affect these benefits.

It still leaves her struggling with rising power bills, and I help her out in the way you describe. Ironically, if we married she would get half my small company pension when I died, but would lose Pension Credit and Housing Benefit.

At least, that's what I tell her. :-)

GSV hit the nail on the head -

For this reason insurance for them is out of the question, they must rely on state benefits as a basic minimum. Any extra income they receive is likely to mean clawback on state benefits, so if you want to do something, simply save/invest money yourself for later use in an emergency. Use an ISA and consider the iShares FTSE Dividend Plus fund . Why ? Because investing for income has a long history of beating all other investment strategies and automatic index tracking funds have a long history of beating human fund managers .

If they ever need treatment, and are suffering on a long waiting list on the NHS you can pay for treatment privately (pay-as-you-go). The private sector built too many hospitals some years ago so they encourage individual patients as well as patients from health insurance companies - . There's several brokers who will negotiate the best deals.

Their tenancy agreement may be a valuable asset, and if taken out before 15th January 1989 it may give you succession rights.

Daytona

Thanks veryone for the advice - it's a lot to take in so I will do some research. The general message seems to be that I should put money away into a savings account. However, I am worried that I would dip into it myself for my own emergencies in future and would rather put money away in something that cannot be cashed in by myself. Maybe I'll consider a bond or something that will at least penalise me if I try to withdraw from it...!

.

Talking of power bills british gas gives a rebate to people on benefits worth 90 per year for customers on gas and electric. Its paid in two parts. I only found out by accident so i guess there are many others out there who dont know.

Bitstring , from the wonderful person John Boyle said

I'm never sure what my diary looks like 6 months out (or even 3 months0 and dentist is pretty low down the priority stack compared to real life ...