What is/was your attitude to pensions?

Summed up beautifully Granny23!

From what I gather also the government is also trying to persuade the insurance industry to phase out final salary schemes. These sounded really good on paper when they were first thought up but mean in practice that those at the very top can give themselves enormous salaries in their final years which result in enormous pensions which the schemes simply cannot afford to maintain. A bit difficult to do when all involved in doing it are members of this sort of scheme!

It may be too late for some Gransnetters but do keep your letters in relation to your pension,
Unfortunately I was widowed when I was 29 and my wife was 6 months older.
I was issued a letter saying I would be paid a pension from her occupational scheme from when she would have been 60.
I heard nothing and decided to contact them about 4 months before it was payable.
They replied they had no record of her pension.
I then sent a copy of their letter and I received a reply that as I had got married again no pension was payable.
I had a copy of the scheme rules at the time and it did not say anything about getting re married.
I then complained and they then said that unfortunately the person who signed the letter is now deceased and there was no way they could talk to him about the letter.
I got my solicitor to write a letter threatening legal action if it was not paid.
A week later I got a letter saying there had been an administration error and a pension of £1,500 per year is payable which just about pays my council tax.

Martin

Good for you, Martin, for being so determined. It can be very difficult to take on a government department.

could not agree more.

Like most Gransnetters, I spent a lot of time at home when my children were young but I have always been very independent, I always wanted to return to work and I didnt want to be financially dependent on DH more than was absolutely necessary so in the years I was working between marriage and motherhood and when I was working part time, so excluded from occupational schemes, I always paid the full NI stamp. I never opted for the married woman's rate.

When I was 40 and returning to work full time it was with a large company with a good occupational scheme. Because I was starting paying into a pension scheme relatively late I immediately started paying additional voluntary contributions, the salary hike from a part time job was such that I thought if I did that immediately I wouldnt miss the extra cash. I expected to stay with the company until I retired but when I was in my early 50s it had to drastically reorganise its operations and lose a lot of staff. There was a very good redundancy scheme, which I took, as my future wth the company was uncertain if I decided to stay. As I had a small pension from the time I left I paid voluntary NI payments from the time I left until I hit 60, apart from a short period when I was able to return to work.

Neither my state nor occupational pension is as large as if I had worked until I was 60, but, with Graduated Pension contributions and SERPS my state pension is just above the basic state pension level and my occupational pension gives me a reasonable income and as DH also has his state and occupational pensions between us we are comfortably off.

DS is fortunate to still be in a final salary pension scheme. DD was, but changed jobs and despite me constantly nagging her has made no pension provision for the last 5 years. I am really relieved that the new state scheme is going to force her to put money aside for the future.

I trusted the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance, as it was then, to provide a pension based on the contributions I and my employer made. I trusted the Australian equivalent when I moved here.

I was happy to be part of this social contract, even though the contributions in the UK and the taxes here in Australia impacted on my income: we still managed to bring up and educate our two sons. I worked full time all my life apart from 8 years of part time work when our sons were little, and enforced early retirement when the company I worked for folded. My husband always worked until ill-health and other circumstances forced him to retire.

We are now retired on the Australian State Pension,with a small amount based on our UK contributions before we came here.

It is adequate: we eat well, pay our bills, and save a little.

The State should continue to take this responsibility. I do not trust private finance.

It really annoys me when I hear people say "we did without......so we could provide ourselves with a pension" did without what? Food, heat,clothes?

I really don't think some people get what it is like for those literally living on the breadline where it's not an option to put aside a few pennies never mind thousands of pounds ( because that's what we are talking). Those stupid adverts on TV make me sick. Do they really expect us to believe that paying a tiny amount each week will result in a comfortable retirement? Don't make me laugh.

gillybob, I agree. We keep hear about those who save and cannot get benefits and those who spend their money on wine women and song and live off the state in old age. I was a benefit advisor with Age Concern for some years in what until recently was a predominantly rural area and the vast majority of older people I visited who were dependent on state pensions and benefits were in that state because their wages in their working lives had been too meagre to do more than, at best, save enough money for their funerals.

Yes, there were the occasional spendthrifts and those that never thought and planned ahead but mostly it was farm workers and labourers crippled with arthritis in old age because of the hard manual outdoor work they did to earn a low wage and who I felt deserved very benefit they were entitled to.