State Pension For Married Women

seven-day-weekend

mleonard79 wrote:

. My mum's now seems straightforward but I can tell her's is an exception to the rule and she made some pretty good decisions along the way without really knowing it! It must be terrible to get to pensionable age and find you've got virtually nothing. My mum's very pleasantly surprised by all this as she didn't expect it all all. She genuinely thought pensions for married couples were a joint thing and you got less for being married and it was paid to the husband. I'm not sure what made her think that or if it's ever been like that but its good news for her for once.
Michelle

I think I know why your mum thought that you got a 'married couple's pension'. When the State Pension Scheme first started, most married women didn't have paid employment and therefore could only claim a small pension based on their husband's contributions. Then later, married women only paid the 'small' stamp, and again had no pension in their own right, having to claim off their husband's.

My friend is the same today, she has never had paid employment since she was married (although being a Pastor's wife she worked d*****d hard!) and therefore has to claim off her husband's contributions. I think she gets about £60 p.w. She says she is very grateful for this as she has paid none in and didn't think she would get anything!

Good news for your mum....bet she's pleased!

seven-day-weekend

AFAIK, Class 2 (self-employed) contributions are just over £100 a year for the 2006-2007 tax year.

Voluntary contributions are nearly £400.

CIS

As for paying the class 2 contributions I'm not sure about that as I think they want several hundred every year and that seems a little unfair when I hardly work. I don't know though it's all very confusing.

I can see where the confusions coming in, you've got a current Small earnings exemption, which means you dont pay class 2 - they've been sending you letters asking if you want to pay class 3 volunatry NI (~£380 p/a).

If ask for your class 2 small earnings exemption to be revoked and start paying class 2 NI, you'll pay £2.10 p/w, get exactly the same benefits as paying Class 3, at 1/3rd of the price, and you'll be accruing State Pension.

Class 3 is for those not working or with a deficent NI record, and it is quite expensive, compared to class2.

mleonard79

Hi seven-day-weekend

Yeah she is very pleased -its nice to be the bearer of some good news! I think you're right about why she assumed she wouldn't get much. There might be a lot of women out there assuming the same but from what I can gather she's the exeption to the rule as most of them will have paid the married women's stamp and not be entitled to very much. I'm just glad she opted out of that!

Regards

Michelle

seven-day-weekend

I paid the 'small' stamp for a few months and then changed jobs and thought I ought to pay the full. Don't know why I thought that, I was only 21 and not financially 'savvy', but I'm glad I did make that decision!

mleonard79

Yeah I wasn't sure on the differences between class 2 and class 3 contributions. They've sent me bills for both I think - they sent me one for over £300 once I'm sure! With being granted exception from paying class 2 contributions due to my low earnings what does that mean? I always assumed that was the best thing to do since I earn so little. I also thought that you should only pay class 2 if you're solely self-employed and I'm not ( some MS companies are PAYE although as I say none of it amounts to much.)

When I phone up they always tell me the bills are a mistake and I am exempt and just to ignore them. The guy I talked to seems to think I can get my NI contributions credited due to my illness without my having to pay anything though - what do you think? He told me to talk to jobcentreplus as they deal with it.

Regards

Michelle

mleonard79

Wow Seven-day-weekend,

yeah that was lucky, that was a great decision! Well done.

Regards

Michelle

CIS

From experience, class 2 exemption is about the worst thing for people to do, unless they are covered by some other means for their NI.

For £2.10 p/w, your building up a basic state pension, which could be worth near enough the same amount ,guaranteed for life. So your effectively get 100% + return on your £2.10.

Technically , class 2 NI is due for nearly all self employed people, those with very high earnings in PAYE can sometimes get class 2 exemption as they are judged to have paid enough NI on the PAYE, otherwise PAYE paying people do not get class 2 exemption.

Depending on your disabilities, you may be able to claim benefits which wil cover your NI for free to the same level as class 2 NI.

margaretclare

seven-day-weekend wrote:

I think I know why your mum thought that you got a 'married couple's pension'. When the State Pension Scheme first started, most married women didn't have paid employment and therefore could only claim a small pension based on their husband's contributions. Then later, married women only paid the 'small' stamp, and again had no pension in their own right, having to claim off their husband's.

Not quite the case. Many married women did work. They had enjoyed the independence of earning money in their own right all through the war years (both world wars in fact). In the 1950s there was a tremendous labour shortage, unemployment was extremely low because almost anyone could get a job of some kind, and who were the people who were willing to work part-time, in and out of jobs, doing unskilled and badly-paid jobs - married women of course!

It was always the case that a woman could choose to pay full NI contributions. It wasn't publicised though, and in practice, because of low pay, part-time hours etc, it was hardly worth it, given that she was working for money for her family and not, as the common misconception was, for 'pin money' i.e. non-essential luxuries. Also, the common idea was so widespread, that it was what you did when you got married. For many women they just did not realise that they had a choice at all. Lots of women have said to me 'I thought that's what you had to do' or 'I was told I had to'. Like changing your name when you got married - it was a few years after I got married in 1957 that I found out you don't have to! My first husband said he knew that (but he didn't tell me!) a bride in a neighbouring town kept her own name and she made the national press!!

There was a married woman in the village where I grew up who always bought her own stamp every week at the post office and stuck it on her card. She said someone had advised her to do it although she didn't go out to work. She just wanted to have her own pension in her own right. Like my mum did, although, as a single mum, she was supposed to have her employer do it for her, but in practice they were too lazy and didn't bother. She always did it for herself. I can see her now...

Women have always gone out to work, to a greater or lesser extent. Except for university 1978 - 81, and 3 years when I was having children 1961 - 1964, I've always worked, from age 16 to 67. Even while a mature student I worked for 14 weeks every summer. As I was mainly in office work and then in nursing and later in midwifery, obviously I worked with a lot of women, and they weren't all young single girls!

Margaret Clare

mleonard79

Hi CIS,

God that's very annoying - I wish they'd explained that to me at the time! I'd gladly have paid £2.10 a week over the last three years if it meant it gave me full NI cover for those years. I doubt there's any way I can get it back though. I had asked them what was the best thing to do at the time and they said to get the exemption certificate :mad:

I'll look into getting my contributions credited free through benefits but if not I'll pay the £2.10 a week, like I say if i had known it was so little I would've been paying it before now. Oh well you live and learn. Thanks for the info.

Regards

Michelle