Married Couple State Pension

SUPERHAWKE

My wife has been in receipt of State Pension for 4 years, having worked and paid full National Ins all her life. (45 years).
I'm due to hit 65 in 6 months time.
Will she lose her state pension and have it merged with mine as a "married couples" state pension when I receive mine ?
Thank you

ALIBOBSY

There is not nor ever has been a "married couples pension". It is a term coined by the media as a quick way to describe the income for a pensioner couple.
It usually refers to a couple where the man gets a full pension, but the wife (usually because of child rearing or being on the married womens NI stamp) claims a reduced "married womans pension" based on her husbands NI.

However in all cases the pensions are paid separately.
The only time there would be a joint payment so to speak is where the man retires and the woman is much younger and isn't of retirement age. He claims his own pension plus an addition payment to support his partner, because this is the same amount as a married womans pension it has been referred to as a married couples pension, but is his entitlement not hers in any way.

In your wifes case when you retire her case will be reviewed and a married womans award made, but this runs along side her own award and she is paid the higher of the 2 basic amounts plus any additions.

In other words she will either stay the same or get a higher award.

From the sounds of it she is on a full pension already so it will just stay the same.

From a point of view of pensioner credits (assessed at the same time as pension usually, but 2 separate benefits) the would look at your income and saving as a couple to decide if any award is due.

ali x

margaretclare

I can't count how many times this erroneous idea has been raised on here. Many, many times. You'd only have to do a little searching to get the answers you want. Alibobsy is absolutely right. There hasn't been any such thing as a 'married couple's pension' for very many years. That said, I'm not sure that Ali is correct in saying that when your retirement date arrives your wife's pension will be re-assessed. The two are completely separate.

What happened when I reached women's retirement age in 1995, I was given the option of claiming state retirement pension against my late husband's contributions OR against my own, whichever was the more favourable. I chose the latter. As your wife is already claiming state retirement pension against her own contributions I would imagine that this should continue. If she claimed against yours she would only get 60% of the full state pension. But even in that case it would be paid to her separately and not lumped together with yours.

He claims his own pension plus an addition payment to support his partner, because this is the same amount as a married womans pension it has been referred to as a married couples pension, but is his entitlement not hers in any way.

I believe that this is no longer possible since April this year.

ALIBOBSY

I think you are right Margaret about the additional payment being phased out as it was intended to help where a woman had been fully or mostly supported by her husbands wage for their life (as it was in the majority of marriages when the legislation first came into effect).

I was doing pension awards during the nineties and can tell you we used to assess both the awards (for the wife herself and then either the married womans pension-or in your case a widows pension). The computer would show the award as one page for the customer herself, next page the married woman/widows/divorced award and the final page the combined actual award.

However now I think back it would depend on if the wife/widow was already on pension and then filled in a fresh claim for the review to happen. IE if already on a full pension in your own right little point claiming for the review if you won't get any extra money.
So you are right you can choose not to claim, but the way the system was set up if you did it would automatically pay the highest amount anyway.
I finished doing pension awards in about 2002/2003 to look after the kids (now am a mum of four lol-no time to work outside the home, 4 kids, 1 hubby, 1 cat, 1 rabbit (lost 1 6 wks ago), 1 hamster, and 4 chickens).

ali x

mwd

margaretclare wrote: »

I can't count how many times this erroneous idea has been raised on here. Many, many times. You'd only have to do a little searching to get the answers you want. Alibobsy is absolutely right. There hasn't been any such thing as a 'married couple's pension' for very many years. That said, I'm not sure that Ali is correct in saying that when your retirement date arrives your wife's pension will be re-assessed. The two are completely separate.

What happened when I reached women's retirement age in 1995, I was given the option of claiming state retirement pension against my late husband's contributions OR against my own, whichever was the more favourable. I chose the latter. As your wife is already claiming state retirement pension against her own contributions I would imagine that this should continue. If she claimed against yours she would only get 60% of the full state pension. But even in that case it would be paid to her separately and not lumped together with yours.



I believe that this is no longer possible since April this year.

Its easy to see why this question keeps appearing,a google search brings up the Pensions advisory service which clearly states.
Basic state pension rates payable from 6 April 2010.
Single person:£97.65.
Married couple:£156.15.

margaretclare

mwd wrote: »

Its easy to see why this question keeps appearing,a google search brings up the Pensions advisory service which clearly states.
Basic state pension rates payable from 6 April 2010.
Single person:£97.65.
Married couple:£156.15.

This is very misleading. If you're a married couple who both have own state pension provision, you don't get it as a 'couple'. You get it as two single people. This, I believe, will be the state of things for the OP and his wife.

Ginger_Red

mwd wrote: »

Its easy to see why this question keeps appearing,a google search brings up the Pensions advisory service which clearly states.
Basic state pension rates payable from 6 April 2010.
Single person:£97.65.
Married couple:£156.15.

I'm confused.

This is what I always that the situation was.

I don't for a minute think that the state pension will be the same when I retire in about 25 years time, but as it stands, if my wife and I have both paid the full allocation of NI contributions, do we get £97.65 each ?

margaretclare

Ginger_Red wrote: »

I'm confused.

This is what I always that the situation was.

I don't for a minute think that the state pension will be the same when I retire in about 25 years time, but as it stands, if my wife and I have both paid the full allocation of NI contributions, do we get £97.65 each ?

Yes.

Reason: there is no longer the 'married women's reduced contribution' - this was stopped in April 1978. Any woman who got married after this date no longer had the option of paying a smaller contribution. So she pays the same as you and therefore gets the same basic as you.

There is still some confusion because women who were already paying this smaller contribution in April 1978 were allowed to continue. Many of these are only just retired or are still coming up to retirement. They don't qualify for a full state pension in their own right because they didn't pay in for it, nor did they qualify for HRP if at home looking after children. They were sold a pup, and many don't even realise it now, how they were short-changed.

stagey_2

margaretclare wrote: »

Yes.

Reason: there is no longer the 'married women's reduced contribution' - this was stopped in April 1978. Any woman who got married after this date no longer had the option of paying a smaller contribution. So she pays the same as you and therefore gets the same basic as you.

There is still some confusion because women who were already paying this smaller contribution in April 1978 were allowed to continue. Many of these are only just retired or are still coming up to retirement. They don't qualify for a full state pension in their own right because they didn't pay in for it, nor did they qualify for HRP if at home looking after children. They were sold a pup, and many don't even realise it now, how they were short-changed.

Well - we do - but no one cared enough or able to do anything about it - I receive approx £3600 pa yet I have been working full time since approx 1984 - before 1978 I did pay married woman's and continued until 1994 when I divorced and since remarried - so I am still working!