Scared about lack of pension contributions. Is there anything I can do?

Davida1968

Sheep, it's my understanding that "buying in" the years you've missed, can be done on a monthly basis. Therefore £650 a year (if this is the sum needed) would be slightly over £54 a month. IMO this is an investment well worth making, if you can manage it. (I find that having my own retirement income is a great comfort. We none of us know what the future holds.) Good luck!

Thank you.
At the moment I've been looking at how much it might be to make up the back payments. It appears that one can only backpay for the last 6 years so there will be lost years that I couldn't do anything about.
As for going forward, there would be some months I could pay £54 (or whatever) but some months I don't earn as not working. However, if it was an annual payment, I may well be able to manage that now I know about it and am more focused.

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MawtheMerrier

^As for the deeds, the house was my husband's when I moved in, and I'm not on the mortgage so I'd been assuming that was it. I'm in the will, so it would come to me^

So not “homeless and destitute” as you feared?

Currently, I am neither homeless nor destitute, clearly.
However, my fear is that should my husband pass away first, I will be so poor that I would end up losing the house and becoming homeless or whatever.
Can you not read the fear in my OP?
I am prone to anxiety and this has caused me perhaps to panic a bit.

MawtheMerrier

^I have been at my current job for about 13 years^

Not quite the same as temping then?

Aldi had signs out yesterday saying they were hiring, starting rate £10. something ph., no particular skills required.
A six hour shift, 5 days a week would presumably equate to £300.
Are you saying your present job of 13 years pays less than that?

I didn't say that my current job was 'temping', I said that the jobs I've tending to have all my were life were low paid/temping.
My current job is an 'ad-hoc', zero hours 'as and when' job. Basically, I only get paid when I work, and that's when they need me. Even when I do work, I don;t earn enough in the month to qualify for NI contributions

Sheep, it's my understanding that "buying in" the years you've missed, can be done on a monthly basis. Therefore £650 a year (if this is the sum needed) would be slightly over £54 a month. IMO this is an investment well worth making, if you can manage it. (I find that having my own retirement income is a great comfort. We none of us know what the future holds.) Good luck!

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As for the deeds, the house was my husband's when I moved in, and I'm not on the mortgage so I'd been assuming that was it. I'm in the will, so it would come to me

So not “homeless and destitute” as you feared?

I have been at my current job for about 13 years

Not quite the same as temping then?

Aldi had signs out yesterday saying they were hiring, starting rate £10. something ph., no particular skills required.
A six hour shift, 5 days a week would presumably equate to £300.
Are you saying your present job of 13 years pays less than that?

growstuff

Meanwhile, you need to try and find a job which pays a minimum of £123 a week regularly.

Yes, I do need to bite to bullet and try and get a decent job with a regular wage. I don;t think I have skills to offer though
I have been at my current job for about 13 years and in none of the time have I earned enough. I feel loyal and attached to the workplace and colleagues, so it'll be hard to leave.

growstuff

Didn't you pay into the Teachers Pension Scheme teacheranne? You won't get full pension for the years you contributed. I have a total of 47 years of contributions. I bought extra years because I didn't have 35 years when I hadn't been contributing to occupational pensions.

Yes I was a teacher and knew my NI contributions were less so bought extra years in my Teachers Pension when I began to earn a senior teachers salary. I only became a teacher when I was 40 ( I retrained ) so had full contributions from an earlier job and got my 35 years in. My SP is lower still but my Teachers Pension is enhanced!

Meanwhile, you need to try and find a job which pays a minimum of £123 a week regularly.

BlushingSheep

growstuff

£650 a year? Are you sure? With 32 years of contributions, you would receive approximately £650 13 times a year (ie every 4 weeks).

No, I mean that's how much it would cost me to bring myself up to date, back payments I would have to make. It'll cost me thousands.

You could set yourself up as self-employed and pay voluntary Class 2 contributions, which are £3.15 a week. It doesn't matter if you don't reach the threshold to pay the contributions because they'd be voluntary.

Didn't you pay into the Teachers Pension Scheme teacheranne? You won't get full pension for the years you contributed. I have a total of 47 years of contributions. I bought extra years because I didn't have 35 years when I hadn't been contributing to occupational pensions.

You need 35 years contributions to get the new state pension. You have 17 years already and can still work for another 15 years so could have 32 years by the time you retire/are eligible. That means you need to pay additional contributions for three years.

I think when I got details of my years, it listed the years I had not paid enough and gave the amounts I needed to pay which were not the same as it depended on how much I’d actually worked during the year. My short years were because I went part time from age 57 to 60 when I retired early, I am now almost 66 so will be getting my pension next month. I did not pay any extra contributions as I already had the 35 years needed.

growstuff

£650 a year? Are you sure? With 32 years of contributions, you would receive approximately £650 13 times a year (ie every 4 weeks).

No, I mean that's how much it would cost me to bring myself up to date, back payments I would have to make. It'll cost me thousands.

£650 a year? Are you sure? With 32 years of contributions, you would receive approximately £650 13 times a year (ie every 4 weeks).

MawtheMerrier

As Growstuff has pointed out, you have 16 years to sort this out and get your ducks in a row. But without wishing to intrude, is there a reason why this has only come home to you in your 50’s?
Perhaps you have recently married, but why is your name not on the deeds already?
Better late than never, but the main thing is to have the facts at your fingertips rather than worry “in the dark”

Both are excellent questions.

Really, in both cases, it's just me being lame and not thinking about the future enough.

In the case of the pension, it's really because the husband, who is older, is starting to think about his own retirement and it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't really given it much of a thought. I've never earned enough to be 'putting money by' or indeed to pay into a pension. I suppose I just thought it would just magically happen! I have lost both my parents very recently (Dad was 3 months ago) and I suppose that's made me realise I should really be thinking about my dotage.
As for the deeds, the house was my husband's when I moved in, and I'm not on the mortgage so I'd been assuming that was it. I'm in the will, so it would come to me. I've only very recently discovered that you don't have to be on the mortgage to be on the deeds.

I don't think I've been very good at adulting in my life, due to a few reasons, including MH, but mostly down to me being a bit pathetic.

Thanks so much for all your advice everyone.

I have a feeling, but have yet to check, that I won't have enough income in future years to make enough voluntary payments as I earn very little currently and even then it's not regular.

I checked on the gov. website as suggested earlier in the thread, and it says I have:
17 years of full contributions
15 years to contribute before 5 April 2036
19 years when you did not contribute enough.

It tells me that, as of today, I would be getting £89 a week. If I continue to contribute then it goes up, obviously.

It tells me that I can make up the shortfall and bring myself up to date, typically about £650 a year, give or take. That's a lot!

Most occupational pensions pay a proportion to a surviving spouse or named person on the death of the main beneficiary, so definitely check out the situation there. Women no longer get a share of their husband's state pension, as there is no longer a couple's pension but we all claim in our own right. This means that you are right to start to ensure that your contributions are up to date.

The good news is that you can backdate them for 6 years, and at 52 you have another 15 years before you can claim, so if you buy back the 6 years and pay in until you retire you will have 22 years plus whatever you have already.

Unfortunately, the system of means-testing means that depending on your circumstances, paying up might mean that you make yourself ineligible for pension credit (or whatever replaces it), which opens the door to numerous other benefits such as rent payments and council tax exemption. As I never tire of saying, means-testing (often disguised as 'targeting') works against those of modest means who try to save or otherwise secure their financial future. It is very difficult to predict what is the best course of action if you might find yourself on the boundary of such a benefit. As you can only buy back for 6 years, you don't have the option of waiting to see what position you are in when your pension becomes due.

I agree that you should take advice, but whatever happens you should be able to improve the situation you describe now. Good luck.

If you can manage to "buy in" the extra contribution years, then my advice is to DO IT! People I know who did this (I had enough paid-in years & didn't need to) have found it to have been well worthwhile, financially. You can research all this on the Gov.UK. website. Look in their menu for: "voluntary national insurance.

BlushingSheep

Could you not contact them & ask if you can pay what you have missed, maybe a lot maybe not ... saying that, about your husbands pension, check as I get my husbands, but not what he actually had when he retired

I think you can buy years. I know I did. I have forgotten what they are called, but I definitley did!

As Growstuff has pointed out, you have 16 years to sort this out and get your ducks in a row. But without wishing to intrude, is there a reason why this has only come home to you in your 50’s?
Perhaps you have recently married, but why is your name not on the deeds already?
Better late than never, but the main thing is to have the facts at your fingertips rather than worry “in the dark”

Go to this site. www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions It will answer many of your questions. From the look of it your pension situation is better than you fear.

If you are not working or signed on, arrange to pay voluntary contributions. It will be another 15 years before you reach retirement age and, whether you buy back missing years or just make voluntary monthly payments for the rest of your working life, you will be able to increase your pension significantly.