Even if you are retired, you still have some vibrancy left in you and are able to work. In fact you are trying some part time jobs and consultancies. Under such circumstances, when you are still able to earn a reasonable sum, you might think of deferring your state pension benefits by a year or even for some more time as one of your retirement options.

It is not mandatory for you to take the basic or additional state pension for which you are eligible at the age of retirement as fixed under the laws of the land. You can defer it for indefinite period. The best part of it is that the original pension due shall be increased by 1% for every five weeks of such deferment. Hence if you defer your state pension benefits for one year, you gain no less than 10.4% increment by the end of the first year. This also improves substantially your scope for creating stakeholder pensions for your children.

There are even more to it. Instead of availing the higher pension after the period for which you deferred your pension, you can still have a lump sum for a part of your pension of entire pension. But to get such lump sum in full you have to defer your pension for at least one year.

You will ordinarily have two options. You can take the increased pension that would be payable to you for lifetime and buy some short term benefits like the private medical insurance policies. Or else you can go for a one-off payment and your weekly pension will be payable to you at a normal rate.