Married Womans Reduced NIC

margaretclare

Yes, the 'dependant adult' claim will no longer apply after April this year. There have been threads dealing with that very point.

jem16

margaretclare wrote: »

Yes, the 'dependant adult' claim will no longer apply after April this year. There have been threads dealing with that very point.

I take it you meant this thread?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2290673&highlight=dependant+adult

jamesd

Beenie, please get a State Pension Forecast and then call the Pension Service to discuss your situation with them.

The main thing that could be interesting besides confirming what you expect is whether it's possible for you to get a higher state pension in your own right. That will depend on your exact contribution record and how many years you're able to buy towards the 30 years it takes from April this year to get a full state pension for each person. You can't buy past years for years where you were paying the reduced stamp. We don't know just how old you were when you got married so I don't think we can know whether you might have enough years getting young person's NI allowance or buyable that might combine with the next ten years to get you more money.

We also don't know how many years there are until you reach your own state retirement age, so we don't know how many more than ten years there are between now and when your own state pension would be payable.

At the moment it looks most likely that you'll not gain from changing from the reduced stamp now but most likely isn't as good as checking and discussing your personal record with the Pensions Service.

McKneff

zygurat789 wrote: »

Basic state pension 97.65
Married womans pension 58.50 60%

Married couple's pension 156.15

There is no such thing as a married couple's pension nowadays.

Both pensions are paid separately even though the married womans pension was claimed off her husbands contributions.

Beenie

This has been very interesting - thank all very much for the replies.

I didn't think that you could discuss 'what ifs' with the pensions bods. Whenever I've contacted a government department, they've said they don't deal with hypothetical situations and have definately declined to give advice. In fact, they've said that I should ask an independent financial advisor .

I started work when I was 18 and got married at 20. I am 54 now and have paid MWRR all those years. My state pension age is 65 so I've got 11 years to go. My husband is 55 now so will be drawing state pension (if there's any left in the pot and it's not means tested by then) in 10 years. Luckily, he has a decent works pension to draw on, and we will not be reliant on the state pension but it's nice to know that you're getting what you thought you were entitled to all those years ago. I will take your advice and get the pension forecast and am also going to look in my Yellow Pages for the Pensions office to ask about the value of paying a full stamp from now on.

margaretclare

Beenie wrote: »

This has been very interesting - thank all very much for the replies.

I didn't think that you could discuss 'what ifs' with the pensions bods. Whenever I've contacted a government department, they've said they don't deal with hypothetical situations and have definitely declined to give advice. In fact, they've said that I should ask an independent financial advisor.

No, they don't deal in 'what ifs'. They couldn't possibly, when you think about it.

I started work when I was 18 and got married at 20. I am 54 now and have paid MWRR all those years.

Can I ask, just as a matter of interest, just WHY you changed to MWRR?

By my calculations, you got married in 1976. The rules changed in April 1978. A woman who got married after that date no longer had the option of paying MWRR, although those already paying it were allowed to continue - a bad mistake IMHO, although perhaps it was too much of a political 'hot potato'.

I got married in 1957 and 'it was just what you did' unless you got good advice from a knowledgeable person or an enlightened employer. By the time you got married, 20 years later, the 'times they were a-changing', the Sex Discrimination Act had been passed, married women were well established as a normal part of the working population, and the atmosphere was completely different. Why did you feel at that time that paying MWRR was what you should do?

Thank goodness you have a private pension, no matter how small.

My state pension age is 65 so I've got 11 years to go. My husband is 55 now so will be drawing state pension (if there's any left in the pot and it's not means tested by then) in 10 years. Luckily, he has a decent works pension to draw on, and we will not be reliant on the state pension but it's nice to know that you're getting what you thought you were entitled to all those years ago. I will take your advice and get the pension forecast and am also going to look in my Yellow Pages for the Pensions office to ask about the value of paying a full stamp from now on.

Try http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsandretirementplanning/StatePension/StatePensionforecast/DG_10014008

Beenie

Simple economics at the time, margaretclare. My husband was a student with no income; I was a civil servant and gambled that I would never be out of work and did not want kids, so would have no need of Maternity Pay, Unemployment Benefit, Supplementary benefit etc. (and in fact was right in my gamble). The extra money in my pay-packet each month due to the reduced NI was more welcome to me at the time (and the next 34 years).

jamesd

Beenie wrote: »

I didn't think that you could discuss 'what ifs' with the pensions bods. Whenever I've contacted a government department, they've said they don't deal with hypothetical situations and have definately declined to give advice. In fact, they've said that I should ask an independent financial advisor .

They definitely won't do hypothetical but what they can do is tell you for every year that you worked whether it counted or not and give you the exact number of past years that you are eligible to buy, if any. They did it for me on the phone a few years ago so I could be certain of my own exact situation.

The State Pension forecasting team would be a good starting point for a call once you've received a state pension forecast. I think it was those people who I called to get my full history.