Q My wife, aged 56, retired early but, as she mostly paid only the married woman's National Insurance stamp, she has only six qualifying years that count towards her State pension. She will have to wait until I am 65 before she can claim a pension based on my contributions. As I am now 57, that will be when she is 64. Should she pay four years of voluntary contributions to give her enough qualifying years to get the minimum State Pension?

A Voluntary contributions are currently £7.35 a week and the minimum State Pension, for which you need ten qualifying years, is £20.50 a week. So at today's prices she would have to pay about £1,500 in contributions to get four years pension totalling about £4,000.

Q Did I understand David Blunkett to say that the amount of savings people can have before their benefits are affected is to be doubled?

A Not for everybody. The changes, from next April, affect Income Support, Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance and Housing/Council Tax Benefit for the under 60s. The amount of savings ignored goes up from £3,000 to £6,000. The level at which these benefits cease to be payable rises from £8,000 to £16,000, matching the rules for Housing/Council Tax Benefit. The capital rules for Pension Credit will be unchanged.

Q When I give up my part-time job, we will have just weekly State Pensions of £136.47 and £49.34 and my husband's four-weekly Disability Living Allowance of £64. We have no savings. What would we be entitled to?

A Pension Credit of £14 a week and Council Tax Benefit that would reduce your annual bill to about £116.

Q Having recently retired, I unsuccessfully claimed Savings Credit but wonder if I can claim a reduction on my Council Tax of £145 a month. Our State Pensions are £151.31 and £49.44 a week plus my wife's private pension of £26.45 a week. Our savings are £13,200.

A With Council Tax as high as that you can qualify for a reduction even if you have a biggish income. In your case you are due a reduction of about £17 a week.