Pension warning

Mrs_pbradley936

I can only assume that she thought someone ought to have told her. I honestly don't think that I would have known and I would have expected a letter when the SSP stopped to say that you should do such and such. In the absence of any warning and what else she was having to deal with I can see why this happened. It just seems ironic that she would have been entitled to benefits AND pension credits but because she did not claim she forfeits her full pension.

peterbaker

Mckneff, it is ever so slightly rude, actually.

I can vouch that these things are not common knowledge to that age group. I am not far behind in age terms and despite living and working in the UK all my life, I am not sure I yet have the requisite number of years contributions, myself. All it takes is the cumulative effect of a few typical new millennium redundancies or other setbacks plus that typical British pride in not lowering one's standards to prostrate yourself once a fortnight in the pits they call Jobcentre Plus.

As for the price of buyback stamps, I recall when I worked during the holidays as a teenager at age 16 or something I actually had earned just a few quid short in the tax year of enough to qualify for a full year's stamp. I still have a brown envelope somehere with a DSS notice offering me the chance to pay the two quid. I never did. I had no idea what the hell it meant and could not possibly imagine that since I was in full time education for a further 5 years i.e. not yet in 'real work' that it could possibly ever matter in the grand scheme of things.

How wrong I was !

McKneff

As for the price of buyback stamps, I recall when I worked during the holidays as a teenager at age 16 or something I actually had earned just a few quid short in the tax year of enough to qualify for a full year's stamp. I still have a brown envelope somehere with a DSS notice offering me the chance to pay the two quid. I never did. I had no idea what the hell it meant and could not possibly imagine that since I was in full time education for a further 5 years i.e. not yet in 'real work' that it could possibly ever matter in the grand scheme of things.

How wrong I was !



I understand what you are saying here, but you were a teenager, by the time you are in your fifties surely you should be a bit more worldly wise.
I have just hit 60, got my state pension (half the norm) the reasons being in my first post, i was a naive teenager.
an 18 year old with a child.

In adulthood Its up to us as individuals to look after ourselves and arm ourselves with the knowledge of these things. I am not a high flyer with a great knowledge of the world. I am a receptionist/accounts clerk and have been a tatie picker, a chicken gutter, a shop assistant, a cleaner, i really have done some crappy (literally) jobs. I just dont think we should rely on people telling us these things and be annoyed if they dont. I am responsible for me and it was me who chose to pay married womens stamp but although i am a trifle bitter that it wasnt explained to me the implications i blame myself for not going into it more. But Say lavvy eh. Lifes too short.

And my apologies if i came over as rude. I merely meant that the lady could be a little naive.

Savvy_Sue

Mrs_pbradley936 wrote: »

I just don't think she knew about any of it but she is just dismayed by it all. I am not sure that that it was as obvious to to her as it may be to others. Perhaps when the SSP ends they ought to tell you that you should register/claim because there are consequences for failing to do so.

You're right, 'they' ought to have told her what she could / should do when her entitlement to SSP ended, I believe there is a standard form which an employer should pass on to an employee if they are no longer paying SSP. I think there is also a note about what to do if you're not entitled to SSP on the certificates she would presumably have been getting from her GP, at least until she was retired.

However, are you sure that Tesco didn't pass this information on, and your friend just didn't register its implications? It would be easily missed when there's a lot of other 'stuff' going on.

Mrs_pbradley936

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

You're right, 'they' ought to have told her what she could / should do when her entitlement to SSP ended, I believe there is a standard form which an employer should pass on to an employee if they are no longer paying SSP. I think there is also a note about what to do if you're not entitled to SSP on the certificates she would presumably have been getting from her GP, at least until she was retired.

However, are you sure that Tesco didn't pass this information on, and your friend just didn't register its implications? It would be easily missed when there's a lot of other 'stuff' going on.

You may be right - I honestly don't know and it is too late for her anyway. The purpose of my post was to highlight the situation in case others find themselves in similar circumstances.

chesky369

I do suspect that your friend may have received a letter from DWP at some point, warning her that she might be short in her NI contributions because it cannot be just the three years she missed out recently - there must have been gaps before. I noticed in one of my old files recently that I got such a letter years before I retired. It's very easy to ignore them or just not read them properly and fail to understand whaqt they say.

moonrakerz

tanith wrote: »

What a shame the HR department of Tesco didn't inform her when she was medically retired... I don't know if they have a real responsibility to do this or not but it would of been helpful if they had...

Tesco would not have been aware of her previous employment/contributions and would not have been supplied with that information had they asked - DPA etc !

stilernin

I too fell foul of the system, but in a slightly different way.

A couple of years ago I decided to downsize my life; gave up my job and was fortunate enough to take a year out to decide what I was going to do with myself.

I have a little money behind me, I wasn't seeking work and I have the 30yrs contributions to get a full pension so I saw no need to sign on; although some friends said I could have blagged the system for 'Job Seekers Allowance'.

A year later I was employed but was made redundant after only 12 months. At this point I decided it was fair to sign on to claim JSE. However, I was turned down because they only looked at the previous 2yrs contributions for eligibility and I hadn't paid for 11 mths of that period.

The fact that I had paid for most of my life and hadn't tried to con the system when I wasn't actually looking for work counted for nothing. If I continued to sign on, they would pay my weekly contribution, which was pointless as I already had the full 30yrs!!

I am now back in work.

seven-day-weekend

Yes, you have to have paid at the right time; just having paid in the past will not suffice.

I suppose it's like an insurance policy. If your policy has lapsed for two years and you have paid no premiums in that time, you wouldn't expect to be able to claim on it, even if you had paid in for twenty years before that.

margaretclare

You do not have to 'prostrate yourself to claim benefits'. What you can do is to register at the JobCentre as unemployed but not seeking work - that way you get NI contributions credited.

My late daughter did that while she was on a one-year college course - obviously she didn't want to have to take a job, but she didn't want to be short of her contributions either.

How did she know to do that? Who told her? Who tells anyone anything - quite often it is chance, but also it is down to reading the 'Money' pages in newspapers, to listening to useful programmes like BBC Radio 4 'Moneybox'. Or you may know someone who has useful information. As McKneff says, often we are given wrong information or simply not told the full story. The information IS out there, though.