Hi HB , spoke to DWP this morning . Private pension paid monthly is counted as income so that amount is taken off any PC . Taking a lump sum is classed as savings nothing is taken unless your savings are more than £10,500 , then £1 is taken per week for every £500 above £10,500 . They would frown upon trying to lower your savings by spending a lot , by taking lots of holidays for example , and would treat it as if you still had that money , but paying off debts is perfectly acceptable . Thanks again HB . Keith.

Will do .

Thanks HB , if I am reading it right it looks like it will be classed as savings , if so it will make very little difference to our PC . I'll give DWP a bell in the morning and see what they say . Once again many thanks .

Hi all . I receive pension credit for myself and my wife . My wife receives a small private pension ( £62 per month ) DWP know about this . She now has the option of changing this pension into a one off lump sum in the region of £11500 ,before tax , which would be very useful to clear a few debts ( bank loan , credit cards etc in the region of £7000 . If we decided to take the lump sum how would this affect the pension credit ,would it be classed as income or savings . Thanks in advance.