redundency at 58 what now?

[lilacben]

Hi my husband is due to be made redundent next month and he is now 58. he is wondering what his alternatives will be ie. retire early-working part time ect. Would he be able to retire early? would he be able to get a pension.? All these questions are going around our heads and we do not know if there is someone who can help us or if anyone else can give advise. many thanks Brenda

[dzug]

If the company that is making him redundant has a pension scheme and he is a member then its rules may allow for early retirement, possibly with a reduced pension.

He will not get his state pension until he is 65.

His options - apply for job seekers allowance while he looks for a job. His choice of whether full or part time. He will get national insurance credits while he is claiming it. Once he is 60 he will get them anyway.

There may well be other benefits he could claim - maybe the Citizens Advice Bureau is the best first port of call.

I'm sure there's a lot could be added to this but that's a start.

[WendyS]

If your husband belongs to a company pension scheme he should be able to draw his pension now but if he can afford not to draw it and survive by getting a part-time job he should try and do so because if his pension scheme stipulates normal retirement at 65 his pension will almost certainly be discounted by around 5% for every year under 65, which in his case would be 10 years x 5% = 50%. So the pension he would draw would be 50% of the normal pension. He should talk to the person in his company who administers the pension scheme. He will not be entitled to any State Pension until the age of 65. You don't state what occupation your husband has but companies like B & Q and Tesco have a good reputation for employing older people. If he gets a redundancy payment this might be offset against any job seeker allowances he is entitled to. If he is fortunate enough to get a redundancy payment of over �30,000, anything above this allowance is taxable but you can sometimes get round this by putting any money over �30,000 into a pension scheme. But for this to work I believe the employer would have to effect the payment. If you don't have a company pension scheme, an indiependent financial advisor might be able to advise on how to set up a personal pension to take any excess.

[lilacben]

Many thanks for your replies. Brenda