State Pension For Married Women

mleonard79

Hi Everyone

Sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find it. My mum is 58 now while my dad is 83 and has been getting his state pension for nearly 20 years. He now gets £100.58 a week. My mum plans to continue working until she's 65 and has pretty much worked all her days - maybe a few months off for having me and my brother and a few months when she switched jobs once but apart from that she's worked continuously all her life so I can't see any reason why she won't have reached full NI contributions.

She's under the impression, however, that because she's married she'll not get much of a state pension and that it'll be a joint state pension of around £150 per week that they'll pay out to my dad. I don't think this is right - I thought everyone was entitled to the same basic state pension plus extra based on how many extra NI contributions they may have made after reaching the 39 years regardless of marriage and that it would be paid out to people as individuals and not a couple. Can anyone enlighten me on who's right and what the entitlement really is for a married woman reaching the age of 60?? As she is planning on continuing working to 65 my mum feels it would be better to defer her pension and take a lump sum as she thinks she'll get more that way. Any insights would be a great help. Thanks a lot.

Michelle

margaretclare

Hi Michelle

Your Mum can get a state pension forecast by contacting The Pensions Service: http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/atoz/atozdetailed/rpforecast.asp

She'll need this before she can make any kind of a decision about whether to defer or not.

Your mum may be right, however, it's not so much a question of being married or not, but whether she chose to pay the reduced contribution which was an option available to women who got married before April 1978. This reduced contribution, called the 'married women's stamp' or the 'small stamp' was attractive because it was more money at the time, but carried no entitlement to unemployment or sickness benefit and importantly, no entitlement to building up a pension in her own right. Many women in those decades thought they 'had to' change to the reduced contribution, or they preferred 'money now', or they thought they should leave entitlement to a pension to their husband. Whatever.

There are only a minority of retired women who're getting full state retirement pension in their own right, I think it's about 30%. I'm one of them, thank goodness. Your mum needs that pension forecast, however, as a starting-point.

Best wishes

Margaret Clare

mleonard79

Thanks Margaret Claire. I didn't know about the reduced contributions thing, that's very interesting. I'll need to ask her if she did that. When did the recuced contributions start and stop? I'll get her the pension forecast and then come back and we can see from there. Thanks again for the advice.

Michelle

margaretclare

mleonard79 wrote:

I didn't know about the reduced contributions thing, that's very interesting. I'll need to ask her if she did that. When did the reduced contributions start and stop? I'll get her the pension forecast and then come back and we can see from there.

Hi Michelle

It started in 1948 when the National Insurance scheme - what was called the 'Welfare State' - was set up.

It ceased to be an option in April 1978 for any woman getting married after that date. But - this is important - it continued to be an option for any woman who had opted for the smaller contribution before then. This means that there are many women who are only just retired, or just coming up to retirement, who got married before April 1978, made the married women's option and just carried on with it, for the reasons I said before. This could be why your Mum is of the opinion that she won't get much of a pension in her own right. She doesn't have to pay any NI contribution from age 60, no matter how long she goes on working.

Opting to pay full NI contributions was one of the very best choices I ever made. Now I'm married for the second time we both get full state retirement pensions in our own right. But like I said, I'm in a minority in my age-group.

HTH

Margaret Clare

mleonard79

Hi again margaret claire

Well I've just talked to my mum and she says that she's always opted to pay the full contributions and never took the married woman's stamp so that's good news. She was under the impression she wouldn't get much just cos she thought it was a joint married persons pension and it would all get paid to my dad. we worked out that since starting work at 15 she's only not worked approximately 3 years due to pregnancies and changing of jobs so all in that would mean she's paid 40 years worth of contributions already and it would be 42 years worth by the time she reaches 60. She must be entitled to the full pension and something extra I would think. Will get that forecast done though just to be sure and let you know. Thanks for all the info and your help.

Michelle

margaretclare

Hi Michelle

Good news indeed! Opting to pay the full contribution was one of the best choices your mum ever made. Now she needs to get that pension forecast we talked about, but if she works continually from 15 to 60 it looks like she will get a full state pension in her own right. Depending on her earnings she should also be in line for some SERPS.

Even if she had time out of work for pregnancies etc, assuming she was getting Child Benefit and assuming that was after 1978, she should be credited her contributions. Home Responsibilities Protection came in after April 1978 for any woman who was paying full NI contributions and claiming Child Benefit (it also applies to anyone getting Carer's Allowance).

So your Mum should get at least the £84 whatsit a week plus some SERPS. Importantly too, SERPS can be inherited, she can inherit your Dad's when he dies and he could inherit hers should she die before him.

My DH gets as much in SERPS as he does in SRP, so his total per week is approx £170.

What is so sad is that I hear of so many women who worked all their lives, like your Mum, but who were conned and misled into not paying the full NI contribution, and after a lifetime of work, they don't get a pension in their own right. So many of them say they 'thought you had to'....Don't get me started on that one.

Best wishes

Margaret Clare

seven-day-weekend

You can get a State Pension Forecast form online. Fill it in online and send it to the Inlan Revenue. Or, you can ask them for a form .

Sorry, I only have contact details for the Centre for Non-Residents, but I'm sure you can find the address online, or any IR Office.

I've just had one and only need to pay a year's worth of contributions to get my full pension. :-)

seven-day-weekend

Sorry, just noticed Margaret Clare's link above!

CIS

Just a note, HMRC only deal with overseas State Pension Forecast, the Pension Service (Future Pension Center ,TyneView Park) deal with UK forecasts.

The worst pension that you rmam will receive is 60% of your dads basic State Pension - when she claims , they'll look at her own pension and at his - if her own basic pension is less than 60% of his basic pensionm, they'll top hers up to that 60% figure - otherwise , if shes got more than that 60% figure in her own right , she'll get her own pension,

example
Assuming your dad had a full pension (£84.25), then 60% is £50.55

If your mam had a basic pension of say, £25.55, then she would get this topped up by £30 to the £50.55 level.

Is he had a pension of £65.00 in her own right, then that would be higher than the £55.55, so she would get no top-up.

margaretclare

But if she has a full contribution record herself, as Michelle says she has, won't she get full SRP in her own right and nothing to do with what husband gets?

I don't get 60% of my DH's pension. We both get 100% of the basic SRP each, plus SERPS (now called S2P).

FWIW, my DH and I both have over a century in the workplace between us - we both worked from ages 16 to 67. Admittedly, I had 3 years out in the early 60s but was back at work when my younger daughter was 6 months old. I even worked every summer when I was a mature student at university.

Margaret Clare

seven-day-weekend

margaretclare wrote:

But if she has a full contribution record herself, as Michelle says she has, won't she get full SRP in her own right and nothing to do with what husband gets?

I don't get 60% of my DH's pension. We both get 100% of the basic SRP each, plus SERPS (now called S2P).

FWIW, my DH and I both have over a century in the workplace between us - we both worked from ages 16 to 67. Admittedly, I had 3 years out in the early 60s but was back at work when my younger daughter was 6 months old. I even worked every summer when I was a mature student at university.

Margaret Clare

Yes, if she has paid full contributions for 39 years, as the OP says, she will get a full pension in her own right; nothing to do with her husband's pension.

My word Margaret Clare, no-one can say you or your husband owe the State anything!