Is 'housekeeping' classed as income?

I am not shocked at all and everyone has choices in their lives. I have been to university and had a full career my best friend for over 30 years gave up work in 1993 to have her children , supported by her husband and has never worked since. She has a beautiful home and garden, is a wonderful cook and her children are just delightful. Her life is not better or worse than mine just different which I admire - I am not a wonderful cook for info !
Check that you don't have a small pension running in the background I think you will find there will be a small one .

Casdon

If you had a job until 1989 and you’re now coming up to 66, presumably that means you accrued pension entitlement for 16 years as well, so why not claim what you are due?

Yes, those 16 years, plus the years of receiving child benefit, all count towards a pension. You will be able to claim so please don't think you can't.

There are schemes you can pay into and virtually buy a personal pension - would that be an option?

The housekeeping money is, as it says, money for running the household. So it's not classed as your personal income, for tax purposes.
Yes, that is correct.
It is for household expenditure, food, bills etc.
I'm wondering who paid for the children's needs eg clothing, shoes, extra lessons etc?

What happened to any surplus, if there was any?
I was wondering if you tucked some away in your own account, hope2021 - I hope so!

Shandy57

Did you get child benefit for the children? NI is paid during those years.

It depends how old the children are. I stayed at home from 1966 when my first son was born until 1975 when I started working full time because part time jobs then were few and far between. I believe the NI credit came in that year or soon after so I don’t receive the full pension. I didn’t know you could pay the missing years until much later when I wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

It’s not income in the formal sense.
You husbands money was income that you had an entitlement to. You agreed that we would be employed and you would run the home.
Also your children’s money works just be viewed as paying for their housing etc.

So you do not need to declare anything.

I feel for you as some men are very controlling and you don’t realize the situation.
My ex wouldn’t let me take out a private pension when I stopped working in the UK to come here. I paid UK voluntary contributions for twenty years, thank goodness. My ex strongly disapproved but I fortunately went against him and his family who thought it was a waste of money. Sadly I didn’t keep up the payments, due to lack of money, for the following twenty years.
Couldn’t you pay some back payments, as some security is better than nothing?

When my husband divorced me I was not fully paid up and I paid one smallish lump sum contribution in order to receive full state pension.

I had done some paid part time work during our 30 year marriage which began in 1955.

Hope should not feel she must excuse her choice. She has worked as a home maker and mother which jolly well ought to be recognised as a legit way to earn one's living.

I don't understand. The OP refers to herself as a 'stay at home mum' then says she doesn't have children to look after her?
Not actually married. Was she the housekeeper in which case she should have had a salary as well as housekeeping money? All very puzzling.

That was definitely NOT the norm in the 1990s. I’m sorry, but you’ve left yourself extremely financially vulnerable and it sounds like you’re starting to bear the brunt of that now.

No one knows how long they have left,My OH's friend was told he wouldn't live past his 55.th birthday ,hes now nearing 66.Hopefully he'll live a lot longer as he's just become a GF and we're all delighted he's around to see tha wedding of his son and birth of his GS .

Your partner should have paid your NI contribution for you and I am quite shocked he didn't tbh, it has left you in a very precarious situation. Check the link Castilemon has put in her post and follow up to see how short you are of your contribution and top it up if you can. For your own sake.

No one cares that you were a stay at home Mum

Sorry Hope just read your post, you have 2 years left, I am indeed sorry to hear this, you didn’t put it in your original post

While you are saying you were a stay at home mum and not wanting to claim a pension that’s totally your choice, but what I’m more shocked about is your children will look after you always, I take it you mean financially!I wouldn’t expect any of my AC to contribute to me and look after me always, that’s not why I had my children, Are you in the U.K., I’m very surprised that you expect your children to do this, I wonder what their wives / husbands think

hope2021 - I am struck by your comment 'only 2 years left'. I am sorry to hear that. Please look up, not just what pension you may be entitled to, but also if you are ill, what other help may be available. Some depends on contributions, some not.

Families organise themselves in different ways. depending on circumstances. Whatever may or may not have been 'normal' (whatever that is) at any era isn't important. I hope you find the answers that will help you.

NellG

I was always under the impression that women's liberation intended that women should be free to choose their path in life and not have it dictated to them. Yet here we are in 2021, with women questioning other women's life choices...

I don't think anyone is questioning her choice. I think we all respect the right to choose. For me it is more the timing. In the 1990s it was not the norm as the OP seemed to claim, is all.

Also, it doesn't take 30 years to raise children. I don't imagine a 25 year old, even if still living at home, needs to be cared for by Mum, unless disabled.

If this WERE Mumsnet, the women would tell her that she has made a massive error by not being married, because she has relied on a man, with no protection that marriage gives, should the relationship break down. I am NOT however, saying that.

I think as others have said, there is reduced pension entitlement which is worth looking in to. As for children looking after parents, that also is a thing of the past. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not really. And finally, where is the partner (Dad) now? Is he still around, in which case why is he no longer supporting OP?

Is housekeeping income ?.

If you are not married and you are being given more than your personal allowance (£10K or so) in theory it would be taxable, because your partner might be seen as paying for a service.

This is the situation I am in I get a monthly allowance part goes on housekeeping rest remains in my account.

I'm fairly sure you will be entitled to a reduced pension and then could apply for pension credit.

I don't understand the carping about pensions, on this thread.
The OP had no intention of claiming a pension, but others have said she may be entitled to something.
Entitled - get it?

The housekeeping money is, as it says, money for running the household. So it's not classed as your personal income, for tax purposes.

NellG

I was always under the impression that women's liberation intended that women should be free to choose their path in life and not have it dictated to them. Yet here we are in 2021, with women questioning other women's life choices...

I don't think anyone is questioning the OP's choices - they are pretty clear, are they not? Of course people (men and women) should be able to choose their path, but they are not free to expect everyone else to pay for it, outside of a welfare state which provides (and should provide more) for those who are unable to do so for themselves for whatever reason.

Those who paid NI for decades had their offtakes dictated to them - it adds insult to injury to be told that there is not enough money to pay for pensions when we expected them, but there is enough to pay contributions to those who choose not to work, and have not paid childcare, commuting, or any of the other expenses of working.

I think that couples of whatever sex should be able to decide how to arrange their finances and working lives, but that should be on the same basis as everyone else. If there were a way of taxing working partners so that they covered the non-working ones, then it would be fair for both of them to have pensions in their own right, but as long as they pay in one contribution between them, there is no logical reason why they should get two pensions.

I don't understand what you think this has to do with women's liberation - I am not discriminating here. I feel the same about men who choose not to work.

I did have a job til 1989 tho
Did you pay a full stamp for those years when you worked?
Then, as others have said, I think Home Responsibilities credits would accrue, (if you were in receipt of Child Benefit) giving you several years of NI contributions so you may have enough to claim a pension in your own right.

You can ask for a pension forecast
www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

I was always under the impression that women's liberation intended that women should be free to choose their path in life and not have it dictated to them. Yet here we are in 2021, with women questioning other women's life choices...

I'm not 'condemning' the OP, but in answer to your comment, Esspee, the OP was subsidised by the state, inasmuch as her husband paid only his own tax and NI (which she acknowledges), so she did not contribute for many years. Assuming that she used the roads, hospitals and all the things that are paid for by the state/taxpayer, then of course she was subsidised.

Legally, as long as the NI contributions were paid for by the state then yes, she will be entitled to a pension, but what I don't understand is why her partner can't continue to provide for her now, after doing so for so long? Given that so many women who have paid NI for decades are being denied pensions for six long years, apparently because the country can't afford to pay us what we were promised, I genuinely can't understand why people who have not paid in should be entitled to a pension in their own right. If the couple are unable to afford retirement on one salary, then a means tested pension would, to me, make more sense.

I am shocked that anyone would condemn any parent who was able to and made the choice to be a full time mother.
The OP was not subsidised by the state, she was home bringing up her children supported by her husband.
Hope2021, you are entitled to a reduced pension and should claim it.

It seems to me like an odd combination of values. On the one hand, you speak of not working as something people did ‘in those days’, as if it was the 1950s. On the other, your arrangement seems to have rejected the traditional convenience of marriage, which is a much more contemporary choice. And yet your partner gave you ‘housekeeping’ rather than the two of you sharing the family income as would have been normal in the 90s and later.

Hey ho! If it worked for you, what right do any of us have to criticise?