How much pension for a comfortable life?

Do you have children? That counts as credit. Also some years in full time education can count.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I am still reading, and still trying to find a way of justifying giving up work to my husband.

I got my state pension forecast which tells me that if I work until I drop at 66 years (if I get there and don't snuff it first from stress) , I will get £155.35 ( a full new pension). There will be no deductions for any other pensions it seems as mine are converted to investments not pension pots.

It also tells me that if I give up work now, I would get the grand sum of £133.11 a week at current rates when I reach 66.

I am assuming this is correct. I have no quibble with it, although I find the figures of my contributions dont add up.

It claims I have 26 full years NI and I am missing 17 years.

However, that cannot be true as I wouldnt have enough NI to get a full pension (as stated) because I would be short of the 35 years required.

I am not quibbling the alleged 17 years either. For much of the time between 1975 and 1985, I was in university. After that my record would be bitty as I was unemployed/employed but on a small amount/ further studies/ didnt sign sometimes if between jobs (mainly because the labour exchange/ job centre/ Manpower services/DHSS as it was then told me that I was not allowed to do so..... that husbands married mans allowance was quoted here and I was informed his contributions would lead to a pension for us both , so were they also misinformed all those years ago?

I do seem to have some NI credits and some NI payments for most of these years but probably not enough to have a full record.

Clearly though, I made enough to have a full record by the time I retire at 66 ( which is 4.5 years away, even though I have missed 17 years of payments). 26 +5 = 31 at 66 years, not 35 years for the full pension. So, I guess I have 4 years of credits in all that somewhere and only 14 years where I was not working or working and not paying NI for whatever reason.

I assume though they are crediting something since they are claiming that if I work until I am 66 I will get a full 35 year NI contributing/credited pension. That also means I must have around 30 years including credits by now rather than the 26 working years they state.

Am I right in assuming though that the £133.11 (barring the government moving the goal posts again) will stand even if I gave up work tomorrow and didn't make the last 4 years of contributions?

If you're eligible for income tax then the government thinks you're getting too much.

I hope this was HELPFUL (says a disgruntled tax payer).

I don't think any amount will be enough for you.

Hi Abbey, hopefully you are still reading the responses oh this thread, and I hope to give you a constructive answer.

Firstly, you could have asked your question without laying all your finances open for discussion - bad move, and obviously it has influenced opinions.

Secondly, I really don't understand your lack of knowledge regarding married woman's insurance stamp contributions. Jalima is spot on with the rules that existed at the time of the change. I know it was certainly made clear to me by my employer, and there was plenty of information circulated at the time. As a side, a friend of mine stayed on married woman's stamp, and bragged that she invested the money she saved through low contributions in a savings policy, and now is campaigning for fairer pensions?The mind boggles!

Anyway to get back on topic, your husband is being very unfair and a tad greedy I think. It does sound like you have a full on job and its sometimes hard to let go if it's been an important part of your life. You used the following words:

I do not intend wasting her gift to me, spending it on keeping my early retirement going. I have worked for my NI contributions and I am being made to work even longer before I get my state pension, the least that should happen is that I should get it, in its entirety and not give more scumbags money by leaving my work and letting someone else do it probably less well than I do it.

The 2 things that jump out are you should be enjoying your legacy, your aunt would have wanted that, get your head out of the sand Abbey for goodness sake spend some of it, I promise you will not end up destitute! Don't see it as waste, just don't waste 3 valuable years for an extra K1 a year.

The other thing is the suggestion that your successor in your job will probably do it less well than you do!!! Google The indispensable man!! It says it all.

Best wishes and I hope you take on board that you are in such a fortunate position financially it's not worth struggling on for a few more crumbs! But just my opinion! And in answer to your question as what is enough - there is no stock answer, as those of us who have to just cut our cloth accordingly.

Okay Abbey, I will give you the straightforward answer you asked for...you need £15,000 per annum to have a really nice comfortable carry on provided there is no mortgage to pay. Enjoy!

particular not particularly

That is a little harsh Abbey. Some responsibility for the answers has to be born by the questioner and how they phrase the question. You asked "How much pension for a comfortable life?" which is an 'how long is a piece of string' question. With the piece of string the only reasonable answer is 'twice half its length'. In other words your question, in the way that it is phrased, is unanswerable. Unless you have a particularly challenge in understanding how questions need to be phased you must have recognised that.

People tried. Some suggested that, if what you were really asking was 'How much pension do I need for a comfortable life?', then you needed a financial advisor not a forum such as this. Some also suggested how they had kept track of current outgoings and explained how they worked out what they needed.

Others tried point out that your specific question was unanswerable but kindly shared their own experience in order to help to help which, of course, showed that people can manage in different ways on different amounts.

Others tried to give advice on the situation you described in your third paragraph - your relationship with your husband and his relationship with money. You may not like their answers but they took time - as you had presented the situation - to offer an opinion. They could not do more than that as all they know is what you offered in your OP.

Many were a little annoyed with the way you presented your situation because many could not see what the problem was. I was always taught that, if people did not understand what I was saying it was my fault for not communicating clearly. I don't think we know even now what answer you wanted.

Your question may have been 'genuine' but it was unanswerable and now you are complaining that people did their best to help but haven't given the answer you wanted but that was never going to happen was it and I rather think you were well aware of that.

I do not understand how the original question was genuine when you said that you could afford to buy 2 more houses without selling your present one? To me that is more than comfortably off and we are not including your husband's pension which is more than enough for two of you alone.

Well, no comments since Sunday from the OP. Is she genuine?

If you read a few posts back you will see someone suggested I needed to shut up. So I did.

It really annoys me that so many here simply have to discredit a genuine question with big wooden spoon rattling and stirring - just to have a nice little gossip with nasty comments no doubt.

The figure for a "living" pension seems to keep pace with the personal tax allowance, i.e., £11,500 for 2017/18 and is a good place to start. If this was the basic state pension I understand it would lift all pensioners out of benefits other than housing and none means tested disability ones. After that any additional earnings would be taxed.

Having read articles which say this could be cost neutral I can only see it as a good thing. Whatever the OP needs to live on I think this would ensure the vast majority - particularly of women - where out of poverty.

The only other thing which could make a large difference is to stop the Council Tax being a poll tax by any other name and make it a local income tax.

PS. Thanks to people for the information. I'd heard Damian Green going on about the triple lock and bus pass, etc, but thought I might have missed something.

@Welshwife

I don't really care if the state pension is called a benefit. It's just a word.

What really annoys the hell out of me is when people go on about the massive UK benefit bill without deducting the cost of the state pension and other old age 'perks' from the total.

I think I may have got it wrong, Damian green's plan is probably what I heard,*Welshwife*.
And back to tax returns,I think declaring your house value only comes in when applying for benefits, or to join the french health system. And the different depts. do pass round your finance info. Including the banks (interest on accounts.)
Nothing is private any more. As an english neighbour of ours found when he tried to hide a large sum of money in a 'private' bank account.

The tax system would go a long way to redressing things instead of means testing - the State pension is usually less than the personal allowance so no tax normally paid if that is your only income.

Think daphnedill is right, Damian Green was reported earlier this week as advocating changes to triple lock and pensioner benefits, which I interpreted as things like the bus pass rather than basic pension, but not before 2020. Apparently to even out the impact of austerity if my memory is correct, and it may not be Sorry, can't do a link. Hope that helps find more information.

I did a quick google yesterday daphne and nothing more recent than 2014 came up, and that was just articles from various sources.
I agree with you that the new system is partly intended to simplify the system and reduce top up payments, which are means tested.
If any government wants people to save for their own pension, means testing the state pension to which they have contributed all their working lives is hardly the way to do it.

If anybody has any further information about means testing the state pension, I'd be interested.

The whole point of the new flat rate pension is to move away from means testing.

I wonder if this was about the old age 'perks' such as bus passes, Winter fuel allowance, etc.

We don't have to declare the property value but they can see from the Fonciere tax and all our tax files are accessible to all the tax offices. But we do have the question with regards to the wealth tax - but that catches people with their own pension pot - not the likes of us with a Govt pension.

I think it was on LBC, but not sure.
I imagine they would go from your tax returns.
Here we have to declare all our bank accounts and capital eg property values. That kind of information is accessible to the tax authorities from most of the world.

Tricia where did you hear that about the State pensions?
I wonder how they would do the means testing. Up to a point it is already means tested as the basic amount is somewhat low and only those with little else get topped up a bit - but still hardly a fortune to live on and many older people must worry a lot of the time about affording what they need. It annoys the h**l out of me when it is referred to as a 'benefit' as if we were all scroungers!

We both took early retirement - as it is a second marriage we decided to do so to spend more time together . We did our sums and decided if we felt we were short of cash we would get temporary jobs. We spent the first eighteen months doing up the house we had bought and moved into and we survived on my pension which was not a full one as taken early and the same for him. Then when we had done the house we had nothing much to do so both took temporary jobs which we could say yay or nay too - mainly we took each job for an agreed amount of time. When my state pension kicked in we thought we were rich but carried on and saved a bit more. We downsized just as OH was taking his state pension and managed to have no mortgage. This was such a boon - like having another wage coming in!
We are far from rich but have a nice life and can do things such as go out to lunch etc. Because we live in France we tend not to take holidays - feels a bit like we are on holiday all the time - and visiting family in UK or USA is all the breaks we need - although we do keep promising ourselves we will go for a road trip here other than just to the port!!
We go to UK at the weekend - are stopping at a nice place on the way up and then have a night crossing so sort of have two days out getting to the port. We both love the ride north looking at the changing colours etc and vary our route a bit to take in new things. Life is simple but lovely. OH was seriously ill a couple of months ago and almost died - I feel we have been given an extension of life so am enjoying it even more - I cannot help but think how things could have been so very different for me now.

Abbey - just to cheer you up, if you're still there - I heard on the news the other day that the new govt. is considering making the State Pension means tested .
I also worry that my local govt. pension will dry up one day, as it's based on a fund with worldwide investments. Who knows?
We have no savings, but do have another small house which is rented out (with a small mortgage) and we live well on just over £20k pa.
2 other points, what happens when one dies, will their pension come to the survivor?
And who knows how long we'll live, Will the money run out?

Could be gilly, could be.

I know the kind of 'friend' you mean. Sad people really.

I think the OP has always known that she is well off Wilmaknickersfit.I think perhaps she has always known whether or not she will retire too.

Maybe she is one of those people (and there are a few about) who delight in making other people feel bad or belittled . I had a "friend" like that who seemed to "get off" on my misfortune.