Pensions

I am learning that Pensions are and can be a very complicated subject...also it can be more so if there is/was a big age gap between the person that died and the younger person left behind, from what I can gather, because my DH was 20 yrs older than me, he of course got to his pension age long before me, hence he had been drawing on his contributions, therefore he had not enough left for me to draw on them now in the form of bereavement allowance, if that makes sense..I don't know if it does or not I may be totally wrong.... but I and many others will just have to wait for that brown envelope to drop through the door when they see fit, until then it's just muddling through each day.

kiora - I think you are mistaken to say that 99% of women did not work after children and relied on husbands contributions
those of us now in our 60s joined the work force in the late 60s early 70s and we certainly were very liberated, independently minded women who realised the importance of careers and used child minders/ relatives to continue those careers even when children came along.
I agree it is hard that the pension age has increased for the younger women coming through but crying 'immoral legislation' when it was known about and necessary is a bit OTT.

mollie I can only remember one of my wide circle of young mum friends and neighbours who went back to work when the children were small. Certainly there was not the nursery provision there is now, and many of us did not have family nearby who could or would help.

I did notice when we moved to the London area, however, that more mothers of young children went to work, but I don't think it was the norm in other areas.

Rose - when are you talking about? In the 70s/80s I had friends all over the country and we all worked and used a mixture of au pairs/ child minders/ nannies/ nurseries depending on jobs and earnings. None of us lived near parents. In the 60s I'm pretty sure less mothers worked.

just to clarify
bereavement allowance rather than widows pension was introduced in 2001 (so blame Gordon Brown then)
this link explains how it works
www.dwp.gov.uk/international/benefits/bereavement-benefits-and-widows/
the rules are that it is payable for up to 52 weeks (at the same rate as the state pension) or until the beneficiary hits the state pension age (logical) at which point any state pension earned by the widow/widower will be enhanced by their late partners contribution.
sadly the OP has to wait until 65 to receive state pension so has a few years to cover, but this is true of all those currently 60 who have to wait for another 5 years.

just to add - it is payable for 52 weeks or until the beneficiary reaches state pension age whichever comes first
it is intended to help the bereaved over the initial difficult period

Mollie, you have explained it very clearly. I had not realised that, but of course, with pensions being paid at increasingly later dates it is logical that there will be a gap.

Diane, I do not know whether either you or your husband were in the Forces, but there could be help available from the RBL or from SSAFA. Alternatively, some firms do have welfare sections that help their retired pensioners and dependents, or at least could give advice, in addition to the CAB.

Good luck.

I am another one who gave up work when the children were born. I never expected to go back, it was just what we all did. There would have been no provision for childcare if I had wanted to work. I think, where we lived, it was only the ones whose husbands didn't earn very much who worked. None of my friends did.

It was only many years later when we had a lot of unexpected expense that I retrained and went back to work. Of course this meant that I didn't have 39 years of contributions (you don't need that many now) and I didn't get credits for looking after the children so I don't get a full pension. In some ways it is better now. I think it is only fair that pensions start to be paid a bit later now that we are all healthier and living longer. It means that the money which would have been paid out in pensions can be put to other uses. We do need to bear in mind that the money has to come from somewhere.

Diane54, sorry to read of your loss, and the way in which you discovered you are not as financially secure as you had anticipated. I hope some of the suggestions already made will be helpful to you.

I have always worked. When my oldest was little in the 70's, I worked from home, typing reports etc. I also worked as a Saturday sales assistant during that period. I did half days from her starting school at 4. I later re-trained, had two more children in the 80's, by which time the world was changing, and decent maternity leave was available.

I was warned by the older women, on starting work at 17, to always pay a full stamp, otherwise I'd be dependent on my husband's pension in later life. This was in 1966, and the older women largely worked in the packing section of the converted mill where I was in the office bit.

The changes to pensions have been the subject of lots of media coverage, and a number of campaigns.

Nonnie, I am not sure when your children were born, but in 1978 the Government introduced Home Responsibilities Protection, which meant that your stamp was paid if you were at home looking after children and in receipt of Child Benefit.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/cf411-notes.pdf

There was no room in our semi for au pairs or nannies! DH was away for months at a time and DP were a long way away. MIL worked and also had her mother to care for and a younger child still at home. So I stayed at home to look after my DC (did a couple of shelf-stacking jobs to earn some extra) but didn't go back to work until DD2 was 7. I am so glad I did even if we went without and my pension is smaller than it could have been.

sorry Nonnie: www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/cf411-notes.pdf

Head's a bit all over the place this morning!

There was no way I could give up work after I had my children. I went straight back to work 6 weeks after giving birth to my son as I was a single parent. He was in a day nursery. Later when I had my daughter I went straight back to work as my (then) husband had quite a low paid job. I worked evenings he worked days so we barely saw each other.

My husband (number 3) is 11 years older than me but neither of us will be retiring anyway as we have no pensions to speak of.

molly I didn't say 99% of women. I said 99% of my friends. We were in the forces so perhaps it was different in civvy street. Although saying that lots of my family didn't return to work while their children were young. I also said I was talking from personal experience. Some of my friends are now in the position described and life is difficult for them. It's bad enough they are mourning without the worry about finding a job in their 60's in the current climate.

I can't imagine anyone will disagree with you about that Kiora. Most of us will have loved ones in similar situations.

Even if we aren't ourselves, I should add.

I worked until 2/52 and 6/52 after having my children as well.

Sincere sympathy Diane. I lost my darling husband of 40 years exactly a year before you (uncanny!) It is a hard path but I am now a year on. It doesn't get easier but his staunch belief in me keeps me fighting on. My husband was ill for 10 years with the last year being devastating. I do work and continue to. My grumble was having seen him draw only one month of his hard earned pension before he died, I have to wait until I retire to benefit from it and with the government keep moving the goalposts for retirement age I may never get to it. Try to keep strong and take comfort in your family and friends. I wish I knew more about pensions to be able to advice you but my circumstances are such that I get a Widow/Child pension so I just don't know. Warm wishes

Diane, if you looked after your mother for a number of years before 2005 did you have a NI stamp paid for you under the Home Responsibilities Protection Scheme (in my above post)?

I don't think it will make any difference to what you receive now, but could boost your pension, unless of course you would receive more on your late husband's contributions.

Good luck, and hope you can find the advice you need (not just the information from the DWP).

I always paid the big stamp. I went back to work part-time when son was 8. Not earning enough to pay a stamp. Then when he was 18 I went full time and paid big stamp. I got credits for the years I didn't work or didn't pay a stamp by virtue of caring for a child.

However, I did get caught out.
I thought they were paid while child was at school.
My son was at school until 18 and then uni.
Child benefit was paid until he was 18.
But the credits were only allowed until he was 16.

Thank goodness it wasn't for long, Coolgran65.

I worked for a Health Authority after I was married (late 1960s) and before the DC arrived. They brought round forms for us to sign, practically ordered us to do so, saying we would get a 'full pension on our husband's stamp and we should not be paying the full NI stamp'.

Most of us did, so I missed out on several years of contributions as the Home Responsibilities Protection did not come in until 1977.

That is shocking rosequartz! How very irresponsible of them. I always paid full stamp because my mother told me I must or not be entitled to my own pension on retirement at 60. As it happened, I carried on working until I was 63, but then had a lovely lump sum I was not expecting. I was very grateful to my clued up Mother!

I returned to work when DD2 was 7 and then had to pay the full stamp even though I was part-time. Thank goodness for that, although I didn't have enough stamps for a full pension, it is not better than it could have been.

I was already paying the full stamp when the new rules came in (early 70s?). There was the option for those paying the 'small' stamp to change to the full one, but a lot of the older women I worked with didn't bother.