How little is too little for a pension?

I get £209 every year on 6th January from a pension into which I paid £25 per month for eight months, with a very generous employer who made it up to £100 for each of those eight months. Needless to say, I left the job, and when I turned 55years they gave me £1800 in cash and this lovely late Xmas present of £209 every year!

How comforting to know that Mrs May seems to assume that all the WASPI women have adequate private pensions or husbands with generous private pensions to live off until the magical age of 66....shame on you Theresa for pretending we don't exist !

My DH has a pension of 69p a month.Paid through the PPF scheme and generates loads of paperwork too!

Part time workers didn't qualify to join company schemes. Only full time workers and before that if you left a company within 5 years of joining you just got your payments back. Between these two forms of exclusion I lost out on over 11 years of potential pension acruement.

My DH has a pension from 5 years work in Switzerland, and every year we have to go to the local Spanish judge for a Fe de Vida to prove he is still alive. Is is worth it? It most certainly is; 5 years work in Switzerland pays him more than 50% of the paltry amount he gets for 28 years in the UK...and that's before the recent fall in the pound's value against the Euro.

I get an annuity here in Canada, from South Africa, paid to me twice a year. I have to get my Doctor to sign a "Certificate of Existence" every year to prove that I'm still around. It's less than £200 pa, and I've thought about saying "sod it", but it's the principle! I paid into the retirement policy for years. It's my money. And I like the wine idea! I could get a few bottles of something nice with that money!

The 'good wine' bit made me smile - I recently went on the committee of a small local music festival, and was asked to buy the wine for an evening's entertainment. 'Not too good' I was told, so I said that I needed a price 'well,anything over £5 is good' they said! I should add that the music is better than the wine!

I would claim for almost any amount, unless it was less than the postage or fees incurred. I used to sign an affidavit for a friend to say she was still alive and at the same address, and she would always give me some home-made jam or similar. You don't say if your official does charge a fee.

I get my state pension which isn't great as I only worked part time, I do get a very small private pension from Greenwich Council which I joined when I worked in a school. That's about £182. Per month.
If anything happened to my husband, not sure if I could manage on my pensions. Have savings but they would soon dwindle away.

When I had my eldest son in 1977, you were allowed to draw out your local authority pension from before, I think March 1977. Stupidly I did so and we bought..... a colour TV with the proceeds.
Again, being foolish, I did not opt to add the 3 months contributions to my teachers'pension in time. Hence every month I get £3.80 from Bedfordshire County Council. I have asked if I could just have a lump sum and save them the postage, but it's not possibly apparently. So I suppose I get about 6 bottles of cheap Prosecco a year. ?Cheers!

MOnica - I can really understand how this makes you feel. My husband paid into a scheme for some years but whilst unemployed payments lapsed. We then discovered that all his contributions were absorbed by the company in admin charges and he will not get a penny from them when he reaches retirement age.

Breda It is that feeling of being cheated but with no right to challenge the decision.

Sheilasue, does your husband's pension pay out some to you when he dies? A number of pensions do - whoever survives out of DH & me will get half of the other's pension.

What makes me smile is that there are some conditions around the age of the spouse and the length of the marriage! I read a detective story once, based around the true story that a number of US Civil War soldiers had married in old age, to young wives who were then entitled to their pensions, which were still being paid 100 years after the war ended.

I don't know whether it has anything to do with this thread but I've had the equivalent of a begging letter from a ? Catholic priest who wants investment. I've naturally blocked them but I hope they that know one else has or succumbed. I can't report it as it's through Gransnet email. The sender is called trustee and is obviously fake. I'm reporting my own post so that hq might have a look.

I was interested to hear of some old local firms that still paid out a pension to 'the oldest unmarried daughter' of a deceased employee. Very Jane Austin ish!

I was a supply teacher for years, because it fitted in better with bringing up my DD's, as a supply teacher.....no pension, but i took on a 'proper' job as a teacher for almost 5 years. I was stunned beyond belief when it paid me a nice little lump sum and £114 a month! (after tax of course). it pays the car tax for both cars and for a few treats

Yes, it's terrible. I now have to work till 67, thanks Mrs May!

Nana rose when my husband died suddenly just a few weeks ago his private pension went with him. I now have only the state pension which amounts to £637 a month, just above the limit for pension credits , I don't think ANY of political parties is aware of the realities because they will never xperience it or have any friendships or relationships with people who do either.

I think those in government from whichever party live in cloud cuckoo land with regard to how much pension the majority of people receive. I worked part time as a dinner lady and then various clerical jobs for several years and luckily all these employers paid my full stamp so I was only 3 years short of getting full state pension. (Which I made up.) I did cash in a pension pot when I left work to start our family which paid for a new car - as we figured a pension pot of £1,800 wouldn't buy much pension.

But I do have a private pension from my last job which I always thought was peanuts until I just read what others received. I get £144.31 each quarter. Index linked! How lucky am I?!

I agree, last 2 posters, and remember that it was the subject of pensions that led to the famous Gordon Brown gaffe.

Quite rightly 'the oldest unmarried daughter' pensions are dying out, but I'm sure the thought was a valuable one. I'm from a background where women always worked from necessity. However, when I began community nursing at the beginning of the 70s, I came across a few women who had never worked, but 'looked after' their parents, then sometimes other family members. They had never been in employment, so no NI contributions, and inflation of that time eroded the money their families had thought would provide for them. There was a kind charity that was very helpful (by the name of something like 'distressed gentlefolk').

Totallylost, my heart goes out to you, and I hope you can find a way to make your life work.

Stansgran was it this message? The moment I read the first phrase I binned it! I have just retrieved it from the bin to read the whole thing. Any other email service would have sent it to the spam folder.

"God bless you and thanks,
how are you? Happy to meet you. I got your contact via this site, I seriously have interest to invest on a profitable business in your country, the money I want to invest was acquired from my church member, and then I was his financial adviser. The amount to invest is ($14.5 million US dollars) presently, but I’m the present Catholic Church leader in my parish, if you will like to assist me as a partner, you must have the fear of God? Kindly indicate your interest, and all other details relating to the funds will be revealed to you as we progress on. Confidentiality contact my direct e-mail address ([email protected] or [email protected]) also indicate your direct telephone number, when replying this mail, God will guide us and with good health Amen,
God bless you and your family,
Rev, Chris"

That rather sounds like "support me or I'll set God on you"! I fear there are many who will respond.

I worked part time to fit round ex husbands work ..job and finish type thing..but as children got older went for a better job in my 40s where a pension was offered and taken up.Unfortunately I had to leave work to take custody if my DGD when I was 50 and my pension was frozen until I claimed it at 55 it was £28 a
month used not to buy wine but necessities it has risen each year to £45 a month and added to my basic state pension I did reach my 40 years of contributions ...my pensions pay all household D/D with nothing over.My younger partner works over 60 hours a week to cover rent etc with nothing left over...If on my own I dont know how I could manage ,I certainly couldnt eat...we dont have holidays given up car and outings
Unless free are very rare

Totally lost so sorry for your loss and how you must be feeling with the added finacial burdens

Yes i get £36.14 every quarter ha ha