What to do without a pension?

You should have been given a credit to maintain your pension when you were claiming JSA. If found this on the government website:
“For each week that you are in receipt of Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) you would be given a credit to maintain your National Insurance account for the State Pension.
If you feel that you have not been given the correct number of credits for your claim then please contact the Benefits Office where you made your claim and they will be able to check for you.
If they have not awarded you enough credits then they will be able to allocate more to your National Insurance account.
Credits for periods of Full Time Education are not given and you would need to pay voluntary contributions to maintain your National Insurance account for this.”
community.hmrc.gov.uk/customerforums/ni/9948759b-3b95-ee11-a81c-6045bd0bdee0

I wasn't totally clueless but I believed what I was told and also every penny was needed when I first got married then when we had a family.

"If I knew then what I know now" is very pertinent.

No one has mentioned that if you have so much in savings, it could well prevent you from having Pension Credit.

Spencer2009

My sister worked here for 8 years then lived in America, but has no right to claim pension

Do you mean claim a pension in the UK? I don't think you get to claim a pension here, but the contributions that she made here while working (if she did contribute, that is) may be claimed by the US tax people to contribute to her pension in the US.

I think it's important we areb't judgemental about someone else's circumstances. Life can throw some fastballs and some women can get left in an absolute financial mess by divorce. I don't wish to ask all the reasons and circumstances - I can't imagine living abroad for a long time.

Early on the poster was advised to check out CAB and also check out her overseas contributions to possibly have them transferred to the Uk. It isn't that she didn't pay - she paid in a different country and was then unaware she wouldn't get credits when on universal credit. Presumably the gov didn't give her the information (just as they didn't the Waspi women).

The whole jobseekers/universal credit system is extremely complicated these days I believe, not as black and white as it was forty years ago when I claimed it briefly when between jobs.

If you were unemployed for a complete year you would be credited with 52 NI credits. (I can’t remember about incomplete years and working). The exception is Invalid Care Allowance where each week of NI credits counts but not if you are paying NI.

If you worked but paid no NI you were not credited NI credits.
This is what I think is unfair. I'm absolutely in favour of people looking for work and caring for those who would otherwise be in a home being paid NI credits, but why doesn't that apply to those in work, too? It sometimes feels that the more people do to improve their circumstances the more they are disadvantaged compared to those who don't work.

Does the minimum wage take everyone over the NI threshold, if they work full-time? It really should. If people want to work half time (or whatever), that's their choice, but they can't expect to get a full pension.

If you have received Child Benefit each complete year counts towards your pension.
Except if you also work. Another anomaly. I don't know how the system could reasonably recognise that working parents also look after children, but maybe we should all be allowed X years of free credits so we can choose to stay at home doing whatever we like at any point in our working lives and not lose pension contributions for doing so? It seems wrong that only parents can have this perk. Those without children, and people who just fancy a few years at home should be entitled to it too, and it should be available to both parents.

It needn't be compulsory - probably most people couldn't afford to do it - but the option should be available to everyone, not just the better off.

I got my NI credits while I was a mature student (8 years) but most of the time I had a part time job so I was paying NI. Back in those days students were still able to sign on in the holdays. Otherwise I would have had quite a gap in my contribution record.

There Universal Credit, not sure what the T& C are though.
I'm 57, would love to retire, look after grandkids (even though they're 300 miles apart!)
How do I keep my home and retire ? Any suggestions?

I hope things are better now:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/financial-education/

I can’t get my head around this. I thought every British Citizen is entitled to a Basic State Pension at the very least. 🤔

Appleseeds

Allira

Not NUPI!!

NI sorry.

I did receive jobseekers allowance for a while but that doesn't pay NI contributions (people should really be told that fact).

According to Gov. Web site, if you are on Jobseekers allowance or employment and support allowance you automatically receive NI credits.
I really think non of this is explained clearly or maybe not even enquired about.

gentleshores

I think it's important we areb't judgemental about someone else's circumstances. Life can throw some fastballs and some women can get left in an absolute financial mess by divorce. I don't wish to ask all the reasons and circumstances - I can't imagine living abroad for a long time.

Early on the poster was advised to check out CAB and also check out her overseas contributions to possibly have them transferred to the Uk. It isn't that she didn't pay - she paid in a different country and was then unaware she wouldn't get credits when on universal credit. Presumably the gov didn't give her the information (just as they didn't the Waspi women).

The whole jobseekers/universal credit system is extremely complicated these days I believe, not as black and white as it was forty years ago when I claimed it briefly when between jobs.

Some Waspi women. Many were notified, and it was televised and written about.

crazyH

I can’t get my head around this. I thought every British Citizen is entitled to a Basic State Pension at the very least. 🤔

No. It is a contributory benefit, so no contributions means no benefit. I think the old system allowed women to claim on their husband's pension without paying in, but the new one is based on your own contributions, which is much fairer.

Who did you think would pay for pensions for those who hadn't contributed in their own right, crazyH?

Some Waspi women. Many were notified, and it was televised and written about.
I don't know a single person who was notified. I definitely wasn't - I wrote and asked under FOI, and was told that no letter had been sent. I was aware, because I have always been in a union, and they ensured that we were kept abreast of developments, but that doesn't apply to everyone.

Do you have any evidence that 'many' were notified? I suppose that 'many' means different things to different people, but I have no idea why th government would single people out to be notified or not. That just doesn't make sense.

I was never notified about any pension changes.I did have a particularly busy life so the news if it was headline bypassed me so I was someone who needed to be informed as did thousands more.We weren’t.

I've never understood why some women refuse to believe that others were unaware of the changes. What would they have to gain by pretending they weren't told?

Any AVCs I paid into my pension are swallowed up now in increasing taxes. It gladdens my heart that people who arrive here with hands held out and empty pockets will get a very similar income to the amount I’m left with after deductions.

I'm assuming sarcasm here, rather than genuine kindness and charity?

AVCs will have grown in value, and they were tax free when you paid them. You'll pay 20% in tax if they bring your total income to over the personal allowance - or 40/45% if your pension is high enough, but that would be considerably above the level of support given to asylum seekers. They get £49 a week on a pre-paid card if in self-catering accommodation and £8.86 a week if in catered hostels. To have AVCs you must have an occupational pension as well as a state one, so you will have significantly more than that, even after deductions. I don't know what you mean my 'increasing taxes' either. Which increased taxes are swallowing up your AVCs?

Everyone pays tax on their pension. I can see no reason why pensioners should be exempt from tax, can you? Paying tax is only fair, and is very different from the anomalies that mean it is possible to get more money in pension credit for paying nothing in than you do if you pay NI for decades and just get a pension.

Im pretty sure you will get pension credit presently making your income around £220 per wk. You will be entitled to free dentistry and the WF allowance, plus housing and council benefit.
Unlike myself who only gets the state pension of £225 with no WF allowance , doesn't seem fare

paddyann54

I was never notified about any pension changes.I did have a particularly busy life so the news if it was headline bypassed me so I was someone who needed to be informed as did thousands more.We weren’t.

I'm not sure what this particular letter notifying is meant to be. I did receive a letter - when I was in my late forties! Telling me my pension age had changed to 66. That was all. Some time later, a big fuss had been kicked up and they changed it down to 65 - and I had a letter saying that too. Then some time later again I had another letter saying it was now 66 again - I was probably almost 50 by then. So to me, the argument was about it was wrong to change the goalposts, so close to retirement age. For people who had planned to retire at 60 and made financial and other provisions to do so - expecting the state pension at 60. I think I was 12 years off state pension age when I received the last letter.

So is the argument that they weren't notified or that it was wrong to do it so close to retirement age? At the time I thought - fine put the pension age up but only for 21 year olds and under - while they still have time to plan for the future.

I think the argument Waspi are saying is "lack of notice". That doesn't necessarily mean no notice, just not enough notice to prepare for the future. But I'm not sure.

OldFrill

gentleshores

I didn't realise jobseekers allowance didn't give you NI credits either. You're maybe expected to make voluntary ones. If you received any disability benefits you should have had pension credits. I'm surprised the tax office didn't write to you letting you know you didn't have enough contributions and asking if you wanted to make some. I had a shock when they wrote to me saying I had missed a few years (which I disagreed with but couldn't prove it) and would I like to pay £5,000 to cover those years. I didn't pay because I already had 35 years worth of contributions which was all that was needed.

Job seekers allowance does give you Class 1 NI credits. Maybe it didn't used to.

JSA did give pension credits, but it would need to have been for a whole financial year. Otherwise they don't count.

But Doodledog the OP was working.

When people who aren’t working anymore need to have an income to survive, I am pleased there is a way for them to gain an income.

I'm a Waspi. I was never informed of a change to pension age. I was in a union too.

Yes of course. I said that upthread- there can’t be any people with no income at all. That doesn’t make it fair to those who pay in though.

My comments weren’t directed specifically towards the OP anyway. They are much more general and about the system as a whole.

I don’t know what the answer is, as (as I’ve said) we have to have a safety net, but if pensions are at risk of means-testing or generally decreasing in value there has to be a conversation. Too many people (in general) seem to expect to be ‘carried’ by those who work. It’s not just pensions - it’s health, education, roads, defence and all the other things that come with living in a country like ours. There are those who seem to think of these things as rights, based simply on being born British, when in fact they have to be paid for.

Again, we can’t have a two-tier system of access to those things, but nor can we continue as we are doing. The WFA debacle has highlighted the fact that there are many people just above PC level who have paid into occupational pensions only to find they are disadvantaged compared to people who haven’t even covered the costs of a state pension, which is a disgrace.

If we want a state pension in future it has to be based on a reciprocal arrangement. I don’t know how we can ensure that everyone contributes but one way or another it is important that we do.