State Pension For Married Women

margaretclare

seven-day-weekend wrote:

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. 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.

I was born in 1935 and have been in the working world since the summer of 1951 following 'O' levels.

I worked in an office in an engineering works from days after my wedding in 1957. There were married and single women there. It was so easy to get a job, as a copy-typist, I couldn't even type properly then. When I left and went back home in the summer that year, I applied for nursing and was accepted even though married (but separated). Matron's only concern was 'you won't get pregnant, will you, nurse?' I assured her I wouldn't. We'd split after a few weeks, and he was 250 miles away.

When we got back together again a couple of years later, we were in Cyprus for 2 years and then when we came back and bought our first home in 1962, that was when I noticed that most of the young women round about did a job of some kind. And there were lots of different shifts they could fit into. I did a lot of different things in the late 1960s - part-time clinic sessions, night shifts, agency typing, you name it. Until I realised we weren't getting anywhere and I decided to do my midwifery, that was 1970 to 1971. I worked full-time after that, right through to the late 1980s (except for university, and I worked in the vacations). Following redundancy which coincided with widowhood in 1992, I've done all sorts - agency nursing, care work, agency office work, you name it.

Margaret Clare

mleonard79

Hi CIS,

Thanks for that. I thought it would be calculated daily but its nice to know for sure. I think you're right that it won't deviate very much from the 6.5% - I can't see interest rates going down all that much in the near future. As for taking the pension but deferring the lump sum I think that would bring my mum's tax payments down to 10% as with her other pensions and her state pension she'd be over the threshold of I think £7,800. I also think its frozen and you don't get any more interest on it for that year - that's the impression I got from reading up on it on the website anyway. So that's why I thought just leaving it completely deferred for another year would save her the most money (so long as, of course, she had some savings giving her enough to live on with just her other pensions.) Still thinking that's the best thing to do as things stand but all your help's made things clearer for me - thanks again.

Regards


Michelle

margaretclare

Hi Michelle

As your Dad is 83 does he get married man's tax allowance? - this only applies to anyone born before April 1935 but someone of 83 will still be getting it. I say this because it might be beneficial to split this allowance between them. That's what we do - (DH was born in December 1934 so we just squeaked into it).

My Notice of Coding reads as follows:

Personal Allowance £7280
Married Couple's Allowance £2350
Total £9630

State pension £5789
Other earnings or pension £2721
Total £8510

Tax-free amount £1120

(£9630 minus £8510 is £1120)

To get the married couple's allowance split, all you have to do is to write to the tax office and tell them. That's all we did when we got married in 2002.

Best wishes

Margaret Clare

margaretclare

seven-day-weekend wrote:

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.

Yes, that's absolutely right.

My DH worked from age 16 to 67 and it was only the last 2 years that he didn't pay NI contributions. By the time he was 65 he had 49 years paid (or credited for periods of unemployment in the 1990s) from his first day as an apprentice in January 1951.

Margaret Clare

mleonard79

Hi Margaret Claire,

Thanks for pointing that out. He does get the married couple's allowance but as he earns just over £8,000 he doesn't need the whole allowance and its transferred to my mum via her tax code (saves her over £500 in tax every year so not to be sniffed at.) They've given her £579 of it for this tax year so that's pretty good. Hopefully there aren't any people out there who aren't using the full entitlement.

Regards

Michelle

keaskin

thanks to all for info passed it on to several friends one has come up with novel idea to get full pension at sixty not sure if legal though but she says knew someone who did it.

if you divorce just before you are sixty you can claim full pension from ex husbands stamp, you still live together as before but are £84 pound a week better off,if this is true and made known more wildly i can see lots of divorces happening maybe then goverment might sit up and take notice as surely this is discrimination.

CIS

You wont always get 100%, but 999 times out of a thousand you will, and its a perfectly legal way of doing it.

I believe I have a copy of the formula that determines the rate of pension payable for a divorcee, I see if I can dig it out.

CIS

Heres the next installment to MSE's guide on calculating pensions

You need to calculate 2 parts, the most beneficial is the one used :

STEP 1)

X = A x (B / C )

A = the number number of complete tax yrs in the claimants working life between 6/4 in which they where 16 and the 5/4/ after the date of divorce

B= the number of qualifying yrs held by the divorced spouse from the 6/4 in which they where 16 up until the 5/4 prior to the date of divorce.

C = the total number of complete tax yrs from the 6/4 in which the divorced spouse was 16 up until the 5/4 prior to the date of divorce.

The resulting figure of the calculation above (X) is then added to the number of qualifying yrs accrued by the claimant from the 6/4/ after the date of divorce to present.

Example
Claimant born 1/1/1950
Spouse born 1/1/1950
Married 1/1/1970
Divorced 1/1/1990

Claimant worked every tax yr after the divorce until the end of thr last tax yr, so has 16 yrs.

There are 25 yrs in the cliamants working life from 6/4/1965 to 5/4/1990

spouse worked all there life so has 24 qualifying yr between 6/4/1965 and 5/4/1989

There are 24yrs in the spouse working life between 6/4/1965 and 5/4/1989

So X = 25 x (24 / 24) = 25

so 25 + 16 = 41yrs that the client would be awarded, giving 100% pension for her as she needs 39


STEP 2)
Y = D x (E / F )

D = the number of complete tax years in the cliamants working life between the 6/4 prior to the date of marriage and the 5/4/ after the date of divorce

E = the number of qualifying yrs the spouse has between 6/4/ prior to their 16th birthday and the 5/4/ prior to the date of divorce.

F = the number of yrs in the spouses working life between 6/4 prior to their 16th birthday and the 5/4 prior to the date of divorce.

Example
Claimant born 1/1/1950
Spouse born 1/1/1950
Married 1/1/1970
Divorced 1/1/1990

Claimant worked every tax yr after the divorce until the end of thr last tax yr, so has 16 yrs.

There are 21 yrs in the cliamants working life between 6/4/1969 and 5/4/1990

spouse worked all there life so has 24 qualifying yr between 6/4/1965 and 5/4/1989.

There are 24yrs in the spouse working life between 6/4/1965 and 5/4/1989

So Y = 21 x (24 / 24) = 21

so 21 + 16 = 37yrs that the client would be awarded, giving 95% pension for her as she needs 39


However the caclulation takes the best of Step 1 and Step 2 , so the claimant wold get the 100% predicted in step 1.

keaskin

so it is possible, then perhaps some sort of campain should be started to highlite this to general public as surely it is discrimanation against married women ,

perhaps martin could start thread on it as it is brilliant moneysaving .
pay small amount for divorse and recieve full pension for life .maybe then goverment will alter rules.

sadly i wont benifit as 0nly 5 years stamp and 14 years home responsibilaty but think of the number that could.

CIS

Have you checked the figures to see if you'll be any better off ?, what people can also do is to contact pension forecasting and ask for a prediction of what happens if they get divorced, you just need to supply an estimated date and they can calculate a figure (not sure if the online facility will)