Hi SunnyM.

I can understand how this will be very tricky for you at home.

It does, unfortunately, look like the extra cash that your husband is looking forward to will not be available until after your trust deed ends.

TDA thanks for this. Will I be allowed to keep any of the money at all do you think. Am I allowed to put any of it away...don’t mean it all of course.

Hi SunnyM.

Provision for modest levels of savings can be made, though this will be at the discretion of your trustee.

Ultimately however your trust deed payment will continue to be based upon affordability. If income increases faster than expenditure then it's likely that the trust deed payment will increase.

Hi SunnyM,

It’s always tricky when someone’s partner isn’t aware of the Trust Deed and something like this comes up a you are then trying to balance everything.

When it comes to the Trust Deed your payment is always based on affordability and it’s calculated by completing an income and expenditure. If you qualify to receive your state pension then this will be taken into consideration and a review should be carried out.

Since you signed your Trust Deed some of your bills and just general cost of living could have increased (I know mines have) and therefore things like this should be taken into consideration. Also if you want to reduce your working hours you can do this and again this should be accounted for.

Once all of this is taken into consideration you could find that your payment doesn’t increase too much. Important thing is to communicate with your Trustee about all of this and for a thorough review to be done.

You can have “contingency / savings” and the guidance sets this at 10% of what your monthly payment is capped at £20 per month. If you pay £150 per month then you would be allowed to have £15 per month towards savings.

Ultimately though if you can afford to pay more than you payment needs to be increased for the remaining period.

Hi Swandog....very many thanks for your reply. I have been upfront with my Trustee and I did ask if I could defer it but they said no - even although they cannot, apparently, use your Pension. However I do know that any additional expenditure you have has to be accounted for.

I agree that definitely bills have increased and I now pay out more than I used to. My Trustee advised me that if things need done in the house i.e. new door etc then I just have to advise them first and send on the receipt to them and everything should be okay. I wish I didn't have to keep this a secret but there is NO way my husband could find out - I couldn't even contemplate the problems this would raise. That has been made very plain to me over the years!

Re the contingency/savings. I note you say it is capped at £20 per month. I pay in £250 so still can only save £20 is that right, or have I picked this up slightly wrong?

I do understand that I will probably need to pay more but by going down a day at work then this will take at least a chunk of the money and it's only for another 18 payments so I just have to live with that. I seriously can't wait for it to finish so that I can stop with the stress and strain I feel under when I can't justify why I don't have enough money at times.

Thanks again.

Do you have the right to defer your state pension or is it something that you automatically receive when you qualify for this at your retirement age? I’m not sure about this. If you can legally defer this it might be worth looking into again.

You are right in that if all of your income is a pension and state benefits then no payment can be taken from that. If you have a private income/private pension along with a state pension or benefits then a payment can be taken up to the maximum value of your private income.

Contingency is capped at a maximum of £20 so even although your payment is £250 you can only have the contingency of £20 per month.

It’s always a hard choice to tell a partner or not and only you know what’s best under these circumstances. Do you think you could tell your partner you have some small debts and you want to use your extra pension money to pay these and not necessarily tell them about the full Trust Deed? For most people they have a small credit card or even catalogue.

Sounds like your Trustee is willing to work with you on the bills side of things which is good.

I wouldnt think it would be up to the trustee if you defer your pension or not whether it be state or private. I’d certainly look into that for sure.

Thanks Swandog and Black Knight....love the names. Anyone is allowed to defer their state pension for as long as they want. I did ask the Trustee but she said I wouldn’t be allowed. Legally I don’t know if that’s correct. Swandog....simply cannot tell my other half ....it would really be the end I’m afraid and that’s because, stupidly, I’ve been down this road before and was told, when everything was finally finished, that if I got into debt again we would split up. He had to have the house put in his name so I know they can’t come to me for my share of equity in the house. I just have to, horribly, go on deceiving a really good husband and ensure this never, ever happens again.

Any further forward on this SunnyM? 9am genuinely interested in how this plays out. Perhaps one of resident experts could give us their thoughts on deferring a pension state or otherwise in this situation.

I was somewhat surprised to read SunnyM's last comment about the trustee's position on pension deferral Black Night.

Hopefully someone else can share more insight on this than I can though.

A trustee cannot stop someone from deferring their state pension if they choose to do so. However, if the Trust Deed was entered into on the understanding that you would be taking your state pension as soon as it becomes available then they could view such a deferral as non-compliance and seek to terminate or extend your Trust Deed as a result.

Was the pension discussed at all when the Trust Deed was set up, SunnyM?

Hi Kevin and TDA....yes I was surprised at that. Nothing was ever mentioned to me at the outset regarding my pension. Should I be contacting my TD company to ask the reason why. I know when I initially asked...she didn’t seem confident but just said “no, I don’t think you would be allowed to defer”.

You might want to call them SunnyM, so that you know where you stand.

You could instead simply defer the pension and wait to see whether this is queried by them at the time?

Won't deferral also create a challenge for you at home?

Hi TDA....thanks for your advice. I’ve fired off an email and will await their reply which will probably be Monday. If I defer it, my husband wouldn’t mind....he is leaving it up to me. However another dilemma is that the pension kicks in beginning of Sept and TD finishes 2020 in October. My question is, if I defer it for a year will they come after me for the lump sum minus a whole load of income tax, in October?