no income

Well with some of the responses on here I wonder if the lady will actually return at all. Yes, I understand that many of us worked, contributed, etc but life is not always as cut and dried for many people. There were couples who agreed that mum stayed home with the children and husband went out to work. The kept woman comment is an insult, I always thought men and women should be a partnership within a relationship, no one keeps anybody.As for the lady who got her degree, thats great, but not everyone has academic capability or even opportunity. We really dont know this lady's circumstances. If she has come on here asking for advice, advice is what she should have got. To the lady re the 12 year old, I apologise, all I meant was I could not do that. It was not meant as a personal judgement. I do understand posters here being upset about folk who have never worked getting same pension as those who, like myself ,worked for years. I think though that has changed now. I also agree that the pension both needed to be at age 65 for men and women, but it's the way it was done. However, I will now withdraw from this thread. I hope the lady comes back and gets some help from the replies.

Class 2 contributions are for the self-employed and people living abroad. Class 3 are £15 a week, and are for everyone else.

Perhaps lilywill come back and give us some more details I too was wondering if she has been kept at home by a controlling man who now doesn’t give her any money as his own circumstances have changed perhaps by retiring
As the husband is getting his pension and pension credit (which will be as a married couple won’t it?) and two sons living at home paying their way(or are they? 2 grown men paying for broadband etc doesn’t cut the mustard) the poster shouldn’t be living in poverty so I think what lily means maybe, is she has no money of her own that she doesn’t have to ask for and again I say get a little part time jobs or work from home and build up a few pounds that way very hard for you if you ve never worked out the house
Was it your choice to stay at home all these years Lily ?

You have adult children living at home, therefore all the bills for electric, phone, council tax etc. should be share equally amongst you. Four adults in the house, I would expect each adult to pay a 25% share, including food.

Secondly, can you not get a part time job? I am sure you could work on the till in a supermarket for a few hours a week and this would give you your own money.

If you are to ill to work then you need to check out your benefits. You also need to make sure you have a joint bank account so you can see where the money is going.

I am sorry you are in this position but I must admit I do find it hard to believe that you could never have worked.

You should also check what your state pension payment will actually be by getting a Pension statement. Here is a link to the relevant site www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

I'm of the same opinion as Chewbacca and Paddyann and afraid I'm not too sympathetic to the OP.

I too had no childcare, so was a stay at home, mum, living with difficulty, on one wage. However, once my children were older, I got a second degree and went back to work until chronic ill health forced my early retiral. I have always suffered ill health, (RA and lung disease, among others ), but refused to let it take over my life.

I don't understand how anyone can be a stay at home mum for so long, unless you are unable to work. If your health is that bad, you may be entitled to benefits.

I too am a WASPI and it sticks in my throat that my friend who hasn't worked for nearly fifty years, since the day she married, (wealthy husband) gets a state pension, yet having contributed a fortune in tax and NI contributions, I have to wait another two years.
I will probably be dead by then!

Lilylavender I am sorry you find yourself in such a difficult and deeming situation. I can see you have done some general research but I think you need to get some more knowledgeable advice than anyone could give you on GN. I would book an appointment with your local CAB. You may then have to sign on with the job centre. If you cannot work because of ill health you will possibly have to ask you doctor to show this for you. However, the first step certainly seems to be the CAB to see if it is possible to get "in work" benefits until you reach pension age.

The figure I took came from the Government site. There were two rates of voluntary payments If you are paying Class 3 NICS it is £15.00 a week, if Class 2 NICS it is £3. www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/about-pensions/the-state-pension/voluntary-ni-contributions

As a non-working contributor I paid Class 2 NICS and I am assuming this lady would do the same.

I have been paying voluntary NI contributions to bring my pension to a full one, as after 44 years of working and paying in, I am still a couple of years short (contracted out). It now costs a lot more than £3 a week - I pay approximately £200 a quarter, which may well be beyond the means of the OP. Paying extra is not always worth it, though; so she should take advice if this is something she might consider- it can be throwing money away.

I agree that there seems to be more to this story than is on the surface, which is why I think it would be a good idea for the OP to make friends of her own age.

I know we’ve discussed the pension age issue before but there is absolutely nothing unfair about equalising the state pension age upwards - what was unfair was the acceleration of the implementation of the changes and the lack of a comprehensive notification system.

Reading between the lines of the OP's original post, I get a feeling that this lady has been in one of those marriages where her husband calls all the shots and this may well be why she has 5 children and has never worked, perhaps from a background where this is the norm, hence the comment about a lifetime of domestic duties being the situation of most 62 year olds.

What she could do to increase her pension, if she is unable to work and does not qualify for sickness benefit, or whatever it is now called, is pay the voluntary contributions into her state pension until she reaches retirement age. I was made redundant into early retirement in my early 50s and could not get another job, so I paid voluntary contributions of £2 a week (now £3).

This did not make me entitled to any benefit and was entirely directed to my pension. But as a result, together with my contributions while working, even with the deduction of SERPS my pension is above the basic state pension.

I cannot see any purpose in castigating this lady about what happened in the past. I suspect she had little control over it. It is help in dealing with the situation she is in now that is required.

She says that 2 of her sonss till live at home and make a contribution to their keep. If they are not already doing this they should be paying that money directly to her, not to her husband and she should open a bank account, if she does not have one, and put the money in there. She will then have some money of her own, from which to pay voluntary contributions as well as the cost of feeding and doing domestic caring for her sons. If they are both working they should be paying her a minimum of £50 a week.

You really need to research this as you will have had child benefit for the 5 children so may be entitled to some help. I really would look for a little part time job. I think your family have become used to having an unpaid slave and it's time to assert yourself a bit.
I am not sure that for the OP that this was a lifestyle choice, rather that she coped as best she could with what came along.
Something I found helped was being an Avon rep. Find some little way of earning money.

Lilylavender if you are unable to work due to health issues then I would suggest that you visit Citizens Advice to get help . You may be entitled to some form of benefit until you reach retirement age .

Doodledog's last post is exactly what I would have posted had I the ability to put all that was said into words !!

I too find it hard to understand how you have stayed at home for 37 years but expect to be getting a pension ..for what? I didn’t take my kids to work with me and I did take some time out when they were small as I had three with no support but I always did some work even if it wasn’t pension related work
If your husband has always kept you then that’s how it must continue your husband and now your two sons who live with you should continue to support you
Why not find some work now you’re only 62 I worked until I was 69 and would have happily carried on till now if they would have let me if you can’t find a job do Avon or some other selling scheme, take in ironing, sell on eBay, take dogs for walks anything to make your own ‘pocket money’
I think you have been dependant so long you don’t know where to start and that’s very very sad for you

You have the children you can afford. Like others I worked apart from the first few years, paid in full contributions, therefore I feel entitled. It is a life style choice to have 5 children you can't afford, don't pay contributions.

Sorry, but I don't have much sympathy. I absolutely do have sympathy with women who have worked all their lives, made many sacrifices in terms of time with their children - juggling work with holiday childcare, etc. etc. only to have been shafted by the increase in State pension age, the second extension being given at short notice by our so-caring Tory government!!! We don't leave our finances to chance, and deserve what we've worked hard for. I don't include the lifestyle choice of staying at home as meriting any sympathy. Too late now to complain about having no money - I would argue that your household is actually supported by the State being as your family benefit from pension credit, etc. You're only 62, many women are still working and contributing to society - why don't you consider doing the same?

'Women should support each other' is fine, so long as it works both ways. Who supports the women who have to work and have to leave their 12 year olds at home? I was the one to say that, and frankly, if my 12 year olds hadn't been capable of letting themselves in and watching TV for half an hour, I'd have been asking myself why. Much longer than half an hour, and I paid for childcare - I had nobody to help out, either.

Yes, some of it is about luck, but some of it is about planning your work and family and making arrangements accordingly. If you can afford not to work, that's great. But IMO, affording it means taking responsibility (both partners) for all that that entails.

Those who work have a lot of expenses connected with working. Transport, clothes, lunches, tax, NI and probably childcare before they see a penny of their income. Someone who chooses not to work has none of that outlay, so why should the workers subsidise the rest?

That doesn't make me unsupportive, incidentally. Playing that card isn't fair at all. I don't see the need to support all women, whether or not I agree with what they are doing. I am perfectly happy to support people (men or women) who are unable to work, or are ill, or who have pre-school children; but not those who choose not to work when their children are at school, if they are otherwise capable of doing so.

Having said all of that, I do believe that as women were told that they would get a pension at 60 whether or not they had contributed to it, and have made life plans accordingly, it is grossly unfair to stop that now.

I haven't worked out the quote system on here yet; but I agree with you, paddyann, that 37 years 'tied to the house' is ridiculous, unless there is more to the story than we know.

Child benefit includes paying the parent/ mother her NI towards her pension.

If you are 62 Lilylavender you may be entitled to working age benefits until your retirement age.

I would seek benefits and pension advice locally, say CAB or Law Centre.

I know I was lucky to have a business with my husband from we were 22.so my daughter came to work with me at 8 days old ...maybe not SO lucky as having time off wasn't an option .My son was older he was 3 months but only because eh spent the first 11 weeks in SCBU .My mother wouldn't have watched our children she always said she reared her own and it was up to us to do the same with our children.My husband worked 14 hour days 6 days a week for years ,we all have different priorities but 37 years of "being tied to the house" ,honestly...thats ridiculous .

I never said working parents should not be valued, but everyones circumstances are different. The lady who said she was able to take her children to work, that is really quite unusual. I found childcare extremely difficult. My father died when I was 16, my mother had cancer. My mother-in-law was disabled and dad-in-law her full-time carer. There was noone I could leave my children with and paid for childcare was beyond my means. I would love to have gone back to work earlier, it was impossible as husband worked very unsociable hours. Not everyone has childcare available to them. I worked from I left school till I had my eldest, stopped for a while, had 2nd child and managed to go back to work when my children got older. As for leaving children at home alone at 12 years old as one poster said. That may be ok for them , but not for me. Women should support each other.

I agree - it's very unfair.

But it is also unfair to remove their pension now, when at one time all women got a pension at 60, and that was the expectation when life plans were made.

I think that women who could afford to (or opted to) live on their husband's salary in their younger days should expect to continue to live on his pension in later life. If they can't afford to do that, then they should get a job, rather than expecting others provide for them.

If that would mean hardship, then the benefit system should provide a means tested allowance. Obviously this should also apply to men living on their wives' salary, too.

To those who say that stay at home mothers should be valued - I agree. All parents should valued - and that includes those who work to provide for them, particularly when the children are at school.

I don't understand how someone who hasn't paid any full contributions for 37 years can expect a full pension?

Nor me paddyann.

if the Judicial Review wins (or maybe even if it doesn't) there will be two rates - a pension for those who have paid NI, and a benefit for those who haven't.

Is this not how it should be? It always annoys me that I paid for mine and people I know who didn't work get a pension anyway.
As for the OP husbands pension includes a payment for wife so it is their joint income. Sons possibly need to pay more. If too sick to work she would get ESA.

Maybe its hard work but for 37 years? Seems excessive to have stayed at home all that time.Like others on here I have worked for 50 years ..allegedly I'll get my pension in October ....though just a half payment the first month .I have no idea why that is as I've always paid what we called the "big stamp"since I left school in 1969.Never had maternity leave ,took my children to work with me until they went to nursery and school .I dont understand how someone who hasn't paid any full contributions for 37 years can expect a full pension?