state pension NI contributions, and no job, problem

I' 61 and am doing this - making up the additional years to total 35 by paying class 2 stamp through self assessment by being a self employed writer / artist.

I earn very little (a tiny amount!) but it is legit and allows me to continue adding to my NI record. I have another 2 - 3 years to go and my aim is to get to the full state pension. It is the only pension I will have.

I paid the married woman's stamp in the 70's (as advised) and worked full or part time throughout but still found myself a bit short of the required 35 years so this is a good way to ensure I do reach the full state pension amount when I get to 66.

A zombie thread resurrected! But still a very live topic for many of us. For some reason I've been sent a GN email linking to this, so they must know it's a subject dear to my heart.

I'm another WASPI woman, made redundant a couple of months before I turned 60. I'm lucky in that I've a small private pension and I'm not on my own, so I'm hoping to manage without paid work until I finally get the SP at 66. I always promised I'd help look after any DGC we may have when I retired at 60 (hollow laugh), and now at 63 I have four, so I'm keeping the promise. The youngest will start school shortly after I turn 66, so I'll come in handy for a few years yet!

Good info there from abbey. Another thing to point out is that if you at any time opted out, as I did, the opted out years no longer count towards your SP under the new scheme, so it's really important that anyone in this position gets an individual pension forecast. Mine showed that I would have got a higher amount under the old system (I have 41 years contributions, but was opted out for 20), so in line with a transitional arrangement that's what I will get. The "universal" state pension is far from it, and there are many people who won't get the full amount.

There's another thing that may be of use to people in my position who are doing childcare to enable their DC to work. As the DC would have been entitled to NI credits towards their own pensions if they were at home, but are paying NI contributions while out at work, the person doing the childcare is entitled to the NI credit, which counts towards SP and certain specific benefts only.

You've to apply directly. It's a simple form, but the information on the government website is a bit lacking. I have been told by a very nice lady at the DWP that you can claim if you only do the odd day with a particular child, and I can tell you that you can't claim if your son or daughter is entitled to Child Benefit but doesn't claim it, unless they ring up the DWP to register that they are eligible but don't want to claim it. Confused - you will be!

I haven't yet heard whether my claim for credit for the last two tax years has been accepted. But it's worth a try, as a successful claim could add around £5 a week to your state pension for each year you claim the NI credit, without having to pay anything.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-credits-for-adults-who-care-for-a-child-under-12-fact-sheet/specified-adult-childcare-credits-fact-sheet

Oops, sorry, just realised this is from 2015. Well the info is still correct if the OP is around.

Having been looking at this myself - so I can bog off and leave a job I am beginning to hate. I can answer nearly all of this I think:

a) I am nearly 60 ( born 1955 - after April 5th).
b) My state pension retirement age is 66.(2021).

yes, that would be right.

c) I have worked for 29 years thus far. The other years I stayed at home and my husband kept me ( yes I know thats not what you are spoosed to do thesedays but back in the 1970's and early 1980's it was acceptable).

I can remember those days too.

d) I have no NI contributions for this period. I was toldat the time I did not need them as my husbands NI covered me. I was even told during those years I could not sign as unemplyed because I was married.

You are right . Part of the moving goal posts scenario.

This is not the case now and I may well have been incorrectly informed by the labour exchange/ employment office then

e) I have never paid the " married womans stamp"

No, you wouldnt have because the married womans stamp finished around 1972.

f) I went out to work parttime in 1994 and have done this ever since

g) I have been made redundant
h). Its a low paid job, doesnt have an employers pension.I wasrelying on husband and state pensions.

No chance of getting another job, but a sitting target for the job centre staff I know. Try writing to your MP and claim harassment.

i) We have too much in the way of savings ( and hubby is retired anyway and gets state and his workpension and that keeps us but it is not a luxury lifestyle., but we never asked for or expected more.) for me to get any benefits from the system.

j) I signed on. I cannot claim benefits, so I get no money. I am being harassed to get a job - not that I am not trying but frankly at 60, no skills, no one wants me.
I was told by a whippersnapper of a lad I was not trying hard enough and he even " suspended my benefit" , which I dont get anyway, until I told him that was the case. I was upset and in tears and I am not happy about going there to be harassed.... I could go on about the things I see there around me and why I am upset but I wont.

Dont bother. I think I can guess from other posts you made.

Apparently at 60 people would go onto pension credit and get their last5 years of NI paid up but that is not the case now. I have to sign until I am 66 or lose aproportion ofstatepension or pay formy NI myslef. - so I am told by the DWP Is this correct?

This is correct now.

(not as I think they know what they are talking about really. These are the same people who told me back in 1985 and in 1994 when I asked, that my husband would cover my missing NI with his married man state psension and so I did not need to pay missing years).

That was probably true then. The changes made in 2011 stuffed a lot of people. Most haven't yet realised how stuffed they are!

k) The problem is I need 5 years of NI to make up my state pension contributions to 35 years. That is the five years between now and retirement. My husband reached stateretirement in February this year andwas given his pension. I have to earn my own now they say ( no married mans pension).

If you do not pay up NI for 35 years you lose roughly a fiver a year from your full state pension.

Since you have 29 years in then you would be short by 6 years. That means roughly £30 short of the £155 a week ( assuming all stays equal between now and when you retire. So, you would get probably around £120 a week in pension.

l) I looked at how much it costs to just pay up the NI but its more than we could afford frankly( £13.+ a week at the moment).

To get the pension you would have to do this. You can pay voluntary contributions. If you sit at home and "retire" the DWP will send you a bill every April telling you how much you need to pay to ensure your pension record is maintained.

Its around £1000 a year - but for that you will get a lifetime of state pensions.

m) I know if I went self employed I could pay class 2 contributions ( £2+ a week and that would pay for state pension apparently ( is this true?). However, I have nothing I can be self employed at.

n) Is it possible to be self employed and earn nothing and just pay the contributions?

It isn't supposed to be but I know people who do that. You could claim you are doing art or something and relying on the paintings selling. Then make a tax return for a few bob only. You could get away with that for around 3 years max though before the Inland revenue were on your back!

What a terrible situation you're in, so sorry to hear that. I think the situation can be resolved and you can sort out these financial issues you seem to be having.
I hope you've managed to find the help you need, this site is rather useful for all sorts of tax related calculations:

tax calculator

I have used it many times in the past, and it's proved to be quite handy!

dtfgsdvgfDW

My sister gets roughly, she says, £100 a week.

For personal reasons ,family related,I did not work for several years and then part time so have no work related pension. However I get a Dss pension of £270 a month on my H's contribution. Does this not now apply? I must own up to not knowing if I would get any more from the state if I were to be left but I would get half of his "work pension".

My married friend paid the 'wee stamp' too, number. She was awarded the princely sum of 38p per fortnight once she retired. !

No, she`s married, husband retired.

Is she divorced or widowed numberplease?

I`m a bit of a numpty about financial matters, so forgive me for sounding thick. I didn`t work all my life, but a good bit of it, and only ever paid the so called housewives NI stamp, not finding out till much later that it meant I wouldn`t be entitled to a retirement pension. My husband is now 71, I`m 71 almost 72, he gets a hundred and fifty something pounds a week pension, for both of us, plus we each get a pension from work, mine is £157 a month, his is more, over £200. My younger sister has just informed me that although she also paid housewives stamp, she gets a pension in her own right, so does that mean that I should also be getting my own pension?

Anya I wasn't expressing an opinion - I was making an observation about what life was like for a lot of young women in the 50's/60's/70's. I don't know why you find my remarks "odd in the extreme". I think they are borne out by the facts.

The Observer in March 1968 had an article entitled
"Censored Report: Shock Report on Women Censored". "Most of the jobs done by working women were at low level. About two-thirds classed as non-manual - clerks, typists, shop assistants. Only about 1 woman in 20 was employed in a managerial capacity. Half of Britain's working women earn less than 5 shillings an hour."

And further research indicates that it was not just difficult for a woman to get a mortgage but impossible without a male guarantor.

I and the majority of my school friends in Greater London (and then subsequently at another school in Suffolk) went into office, shop or, less commonly, nursing jobs. Married women workers were often described rather disparagingly as earning "pin money".

A friend of mine, now sadly deceased, who attended a writing course with me and who was a talented writer told me she had excelled at school but her parents were only prepared to allow her much less academic brothers to continue their education. She still felt sad all those years later at the opportunities that had been denied her. It was she that, while bringing up her own children and working as a childminder, also looked after her father in his old age while her brothers made themselves scarce.

Lyndylou explained why she didn't work for a number of years and that she had also cared for elderly relatives. Unfortunately, the caring work that women do seems to count for nothing even though it is arguably one of the most demanding and essential jobs. She says she has worked part time for the last 23 years so she's hardly been sitting on her backside.

Just in case you were under the impression that I think women shouldn't work, I have worked since I was 17 years old - not what you would probably describe as a "career" but I could always get a reasonably paid job and was employed for all but three years of my working life.

I don't think there's a lot of point in those who have worries about the new pension arrangements having a go at younger people who they believe are having a much cushier time - a lot of them are not. The "divide and rule" principle encourages people to blame each other rather than to see who is really screwing the system.

I did ask Lyndylou twice about any provision her husband's occupational pension might give her, roses, but had no response.

It's worth finding out. Good Luck Lyndilou with it all.

Would you not receive a half of your husband's work pension?

There is a bit in this document Ana under the heading "What is happening to inherited or derived rights for those reaching State Pension age after single tier starts in 2016?", that may be informative but it is still hard to clarify and this is a government document.

The new Single Tier Pension comes in on 6 April 2016 Ana. If your State Pension age is before that date you will come under the current pension rules, after that date there are big changes, many of which affect older married women.

I do think there will be many more arriving on here asking for information and requiring a bit of understanding. It has only been in the last few years - under this government I think - that people have been told of the changes.

This give a bit of information about the changes.

Obviously I know the rules are changing on 5th April, but I don't know whether you would no longer be entitled to any Additional State Pension your DH may have if you were widowed.

How new are these rules?

You clearly do not know the new rules Ana, under the new rules ( I am subject to them ) no woman can claim against her husbands state pension.

GillT57, I do not know ifyou realise but it is not the number of hours you work that gets the NI for your pension but the factyou pay NI at all.

I have paid all my NI for the 30 years I have accrued in NI contributions ( not credits).

If I had made a career of being unemployed and signing on I would have been given NI credits and when I reached retirement I would still have got a full pension. Is that fair?

Does your DH's works pension die with him, Lyndylou, with no provision for you, as his widow? If he did go first, you may be able to claim a proportion of his state pension, depending on how it's made up - the CAB will be able to advise you on this.

Ana,I am mostly worried about what happens when my husband dies if I have no pension. I am comfortably off now. I may not be when his pension is taken away on his death. Of course I may go before him .... and then I may not.

He and I hadworked out I would be able to survive with a single persons pension and the widows gratuity he would leave me. But no full pension changes that.

If I thought I could manage on a less than full pension from the state, I would say B*gger 'um and not bother. But then we pay taxas my husband has more than a state pension - so we actually pay for those benefits others get dont we?

It seems to me some posters here lack joined up thinking. First I am supposed not to claimand get NI credits but yet I am supposed to pay for other claimants and their NI in our taxes ( and the taxes I paid when I was working too).

My father and grandfather believed that an education was wasted on a girl because she got married and had a family.

Had I passed the 11+ and gone to grammar school things might have been different.
For the record.I was born in 1955.
I started school in 1960.
Went to secondary school in 1966 and left in 1970.

Thats growing up in the 1960's and early 70's.

I gota job in a in a factory, couldnt stand the noise and cold and then I went to work in a small shop. I didnt have qualifications to work in an office.

I met my husband and got married.

I wanted a family. I had three pregnancies -that was the 10 years when I was not working. After my first baby died I stayed home and hoped to start a family .

I also looked after my father and my mother and my grandfather in that time. All unpaid and without any of the modern carers allowances etc. But that was the way.

In 1992 i got a part time job and kept that until this year. A career never really entered my head . I was never clever enough. I know somany go to university these days and then have "careers in retail". I just had a job ( did the same things as they now call a career) But in the 1960's /70's you had to be clever to go to university. Otherwise you got a job and you hoped to marry and get a home of your own where I grew up. That was my real ambition too. I wanted to be a wife and mother.

I can see so many of you do not understand that but that was what I wanted. Now of course if you do not want a career you stay single and go on benefits for a lifetime.

I am glad some of you had things go welland you were clever and got those careers.

I have been making further enquiries about my situation. Thanks to those who provided links.