State Pension For Married Women

seven-day-weekend

OK thanks, Margaret Clare, you're obviously more knowledgeable than me about this.....all I can say is from my own experience, all the women I knew of that age, relations, friend's mums, my own mum and much older sister etc. etc. - none of them went to work after they were married - I knew about three married women who worked - and I was the first married woman in my family to do so when I got married in 1971. One of my (much older) sisters did go into nursing later on.

Sorry, I was only speaking from my own experience!

seven-day-weekend

In fact, my sister, a shorthand-typist/PA to one of the top guys at Goodyears, was told she HAD to give up her job when she married. Her husband then didn't want her to get another one, so she never did. She's 72 now and recently widowed.

CIS

Ideally HMRC would have referred you to the Pension Forecast dept so that all the options could be looked at for you, but they either tend not to advise people or try to give them advice on pensions themselves (often wrong).

As far as Iam concerned, the exemption certificate was one of the worst things invented, Ive dealt with cases where people have had a Small earnings certificate for yrs and yrs and not realised they weren't covered , its very disheartening for the people involved.

I would ask about backdating the class 2, they MAY allow you to, nothing ventured,nothing gained.

margaretclare

Yes, there were jobs where you had to give up on marriage. Mostly things like that changed in the 1950s though, due to shortage of labour, which was why it was widespread for women to do part-time casual unskilled jobs which they could fit in with the family.

When we took on our first mortgage in 1962 almost all the women round about were doing some kind of part-time job just to help with the things they needed for the home and family. Where we lived was about 3 miles from Rowntree's in York, later Rowntree Mackintosh, later Nestle! There were special 'twilight shifts' put on in the evenings so a woman could do 3 hours or so. There was a 9 - 4 daytime shift. I eventually worked in their offices and there were a lot of part-time women doing copy-typing, sending out apology letters for damaged chocolates! They were good though - I achieved 3 typing qualifications through them. Then there were the hospital part-time night shifts, 2 nights a week, or 3 hours a morning doing a clinic maybe twice a week - there was a lot of this kind of thing. I hardly know a woman who hasn't done something like this at some time, which is why I said to Michelle, historically a woman's career could be a mish-mash. The worst thing was - it was so disrespected! The ideal - the middle-class scenario - of a woman at home being supported by her husband, was such a widespread belief, and I've known women who did these part-time jobs down at the bottom of the scale, that would say 'oh no, I don't go out to work!' In her mind she DID NOT, you see!

Margaret Clare

seven-day-weekend

margaretclare wrote:

Yes, there were jobs where you had to give up on marriage. Mostly things like that changed in the 1950s though, due to shortage of labour, which was why it was widespread for women to do part-time casual unskilled jobs which they could fit in with the family.

When we took on our first mortgage in 1962 almost all the women round about were doing some kind of part-time job just to help with the things they needed for the home and family. Where we lived was about 3 miles from Rowntree's in York, later Rowntree Mackintosh, later Nestle! There were special 'twilight shifts' put on in the evenings so a woman could do 3 hours or so. There was a 9 - 4 daytime shift. I eventually worked in their offices and there were a lot of part-time women doing copy-typing, sending out apology letters for damaged chocolates! They were good though - I achieved 3 typing qualifications through them. Then there were the hospital part-time night shifts, 2 nights a week, or 3 hours a morning doing a clinic maybe twice a week - there was a lot of this kind of thing. I hardly know a woman who hasn't done something like this at some time, which is why I said to Michelle, historically a woman's career could be a mish-mash. The worst thing was - it was so disrespected! The ideal - the middle-class scenario - of a woman at home being supported by her husband, was such a widespread belief, and I've known women who did these part-time jobs down at the bottom of the scale, that would say 'oh no, I don't go out to work!' In her mind she DID NOT, you see!

Margaret Clare

Margaret Claire, I too have seen the scenario you mentioned, but in the mid-to-late 60s, not the 50s (I was born in 1950, but my sisters were in their teens when I was born). As I say, neither they, or my mum, or my friends mums, went out to workafter they were married, in fact where I came from it was frowned upon if you worked if you were a married woman, because you couldn't be looking after the house properly. I can rmember one lady being a teacher, another one working for a doctor....that's about all. We lived near loads of factories, being in the West Midlands, and the women who worked in these were clessed as rather 'common' - I don't know why, we were only working class! - but I didn't know any women anyway who worked in factories. I did know one who was a lollipop lady (I was one myself when my son was small:beer: ). I hasten to add, we were not rich, my dad only worked a capstan machine in a factory, and my mum looked after the home and family. That was her 'job'. and as I say, all my friends' mothers were in similar positions.


In my early 20s which coincided with the early 70s, I went to work in an office in a factory, and then yes, there were the women on twilight shifts etc. etc.

Maybe I just led a very sheltered life!:rotfl:

keaskin

CIS wrote:

When the husband clams his pension (if its after the woman), the pack he gets has a claims form in for the wife to complete to claim off his, if the woman retires after the man then she just completes the standard claims form (BR1) that she gets and the rest is automatic.

Providing hes got his pension already, and they've claimed theres, then the top-up will be automatically applied, if it hasn't then 99/100 there not entitled to any top-up.

A man at any age can stop paying NI, unless theres an accrued liability to pay NI (employment/some S/Employment), in which case it has to be paid.
If a man stops paying NI at 60, then he will get the next 5 yrs NI credited for him , providing hes not S/E withan NI liability, and not outisde of the UK for more than 6 months of the tax yr.
Note that if hes accruing qualifying yrs through employment/benefits between 60 and 65, he wont accrue Auto Credits as well, its 1 or the other.


The initial plans are that for people retiring after 2010, there will be a requirement for 30yrs to get a full pension , so it will in theory be easier to achieve, however, tehre are rules taht have not been clarifies yet: no mention has been made how existing HRP will affect this figure of 30yrs (will it reduce it as present) as after 2010 then plan is to change HRP to a credit system.
As of yet, no plans have been offically confirmed, later in the year they should be issuing some further information regarding the changes.

thanks cis
one friends husband is 61 still working got full quallifing years for full pension and ni contributions are still been taken from his wage so is it possible for him to get this stopped if so how does he do this and is ther any disadvantages to doing this.

also one is nearly sixty is there something he can do now so when he reaches sixty his payments stop.

seven-day-weekend

I believe that if you are working between 61-65 you have to pay NI contributions if you earn enough, even though you may have enough qualifying years already.

CIS

If you have a liability to pay NI, ie through employment, this must be paid, this liability continues until State Pension Age.

You can only voluntarily stop paying NI , if you give up employment, stop paying class 3 or stop paying class 2 NI (small earnings exemption)

mleonard79

Yeah as far as men are concerned I'm sure you have to pay NI contributions until you're 65 so long as you are employed. If you take early retirement, as CIS expained better than I can, it is different. For women, as far as I'm aware, it's the same except you can stop paying it at 60 instead. This is what the pension service told me. As my mum plans to work til she's 65 she will have to get an exemption certificate as they will continue to take NI unless she specifically asks for it to be stopped. As she already has all her qualifying years I don't see any reason for her to continue paying it after 60 but correct me if I'm wrong!

I looked up a savings calculator that does compound interest and it came out that if my mum took the lump sum after 5 years she'd have £30,738 with the interest at 6.5% or £38,134 if she left it for 6 years. Of course I'm not sure if that's calculating the interest daily, monthly or annually or how the pension service calculate it but I don't expect it could deviate too much from that. Of course she would have 22% tax at 65 too which would cost her £6,762. What does everyone think about her perhaps not claiming her pension til she's 66 to avoid the tax and get the larger lump sum? Is this allowed? It says you can defer it for as long as you like so I can't see a problem with it but there might be something in the small print I'm missing!

M Claire and Seven-day-weekend - it's very interesting listening in to your conversation about the way women's working lives differed so much not that long ago! I can see where all the confusion comes from and how someone like my mum would think like that or not know her entitlement. As I say I studied history and even did some stuff on working women during and after the wars and the attitudes seem to have changed so much. It's funny to think that some women worked yet as it was part-time didn't class themselves as workers and would actually have been ashamed to do so! Fascinating.

As for my situation CIS yeah it is very disheartening to realise you've been given wrong advice. I was never refered to the pension forecast dept or anything, just told it would be best to get the excemption certificate. I'll ask about backdating - can't hurt!

Regards,

Michelle

CIS

In theory an employer could take NI after exemption age (60/65),but the HMRC should spot that and arrange for it to be stopped.

The actual interest amount is calculated daily, but as the bank of england base rate doesn't change very often, uisng the 6.5% for thr calculation is as good an estimate as you'll get.

She can keep deffering until the point where her tax % is lower if she so wishes.

There is an option where she can cease her deferment, claim her current weekly pension ,and ask for the lump sum to be held until the next tax yr for payment, if that is financially better for her. However, if this is done, I dont know if you continue to accrue interest on the amount or the interest is frozen.