Ms Helen Breheny

helenbreheny

I am totally confused by all the pension information which is changing by the minute.

I am also annoyed by the fact that according to my understanding (or am i wrong) that I have been working since 1972 May, age 15yrs 8mths and will work till 65 and will have worked 49yrs and 6 mths by then. My only time out was working part time during my kids young yrs. Basically I can say by 2021 age 65 I will have worked at least 45/46 or 47 years of that. Question: do I get more for workiing 47 years than someone who worked 30 or 35 or 39 or whatever?

Comment: its a disgrace that people who go/went to Uni or higher educ and took gap yr etc - basically started work about 22 -25 will retire after 30 or 35 or highest 40 yrs or 42 of working and I a female will work 49 or possibly if they move it to 67 or 68 (51yrs). I am worried i am wasting my time and money and will get nothing more for all these extra yrs.

Did the government realise that the people who have been working since 15yrs old will work up to 51yrs of their life or even up to 53 yrs - (the poorest who did not go to University, the people who pad tax and NI for the longest time ) but do we get more money than people who paid in for 30 or 35 yrs..???

Appreciate an answer and i hope my comment is passed on to the relevant minister in Govt.
Thanks
HB

jem16

helenbreheny wrote: »

Question: do I get more for workiing 47 years than someone who worked 30 or 35 or 39 or whatever?

Yes you get 17, 12 or 8 years more wages and therefore the ability to pay into a private pension to save for your own retirement for those amount of years.

but do we get more money than people who paid in for 30 or 35 yrs..???

Yes you will get a higher SERPS/S2P than the others. You will also get a higher private pension pot providing you actually bothered to save yourself rather than relying on the state.

You can also choose to retire before your state pension age if you had made your own provision.

kidmugsy

Yes it is annoying isn't it? I've paid in for 45 years, so that's 15 years wasted. There's no point complaining to the government, the change to 30 years was brought in by the previous government. So it was Labour buying votes and I suppose one would have to be very naive not to guess whose votes they were buying.

dunstonh

Did the government realise that the people who have been working since 15yrs old will work up to 51yrs of their life or even up to 53 yrs - (the poorest who did not go to University, the people who pad tax and NI for the longest time ) but do we get more money than people who paid in for 30 or 35 yrs..???

NI is not just about the state pension.

Question: do I get more for workiing 47 years than someone who worked 30 or 35 or 39 or whatever?

As Jem says, you get more income and therefore more you can spend it on. Such as consumer goods, improved lifestyle, improved savings and better personal retirement provision.

Appreciate an answer and i hope my comment is passed on to the relevant minister in Govt.

The previous Govt reduced the qualifying time to get a maximum state pension. Therefore a greater number of people will get a full state pension. You seem to be arguing that they should get less. Why do you think that and why do you think a minister would agree with you?

Loughton_Monkey

The Government does, I am sure, recognise 100% all the points you have made. Most of these were 'done to death' a long time ago when the changes were reaching finalisation.

Like many people, you seem to be falling into the trap of thinking that NI is only about pensions, and that it is something you 'pay into' and get it all back plus interest....

This is not how it works.

Here's how it works:

1. We all pay NI when working. It goes directly into the state coffers and the state pays state pensions according to whatever legal 'prescription' is in place at the time. The current rules are that you only need 30 NI years to qualify for the whole basic state pension.

2. Because you have worked longer than average, you can expect to get more graduated pension, Serps and 2nd State pension than your peers who chose to work fewer years.

3. NI helps to pay also for things like unemployment benefit, sickness benefit etc. Of 100 people who left school with you, I am sure that at least 3 or 4 of them suffered some periods of unemployment and/or sickness - possibly claiming sickness benefit for almost as long as you worked.

I started work a mere 3 months after you did. Hence you and I have lived our working lives through the same period - and the same 53 (or God knows how many) changes to state pension rules, government initiatives to get people to pay more into private pension schemes, and sensible discussions amongst work colleagues have all ensured that the topic has seldom been far from public debate.

I remember very distinctly my own father retiring after 51 years working for the same factory, in 1976, 'blessing' the fact that he had paid into his factory pension scheme for the few years it had become available to the 'common worker' because he claims - even then - he 'could not have lived' on the state pension alone [He lived on his own. Council house. No car. Not even telephone. No expensive hobbies. Didn't go to the pub because he felt beer was ridiculously priced...]

So I find it hard to understand your 'complaint'. Because of your long and dedicated period of work, you are getting more pension than anyone else who (all other things being equal) took, say, 10 years off to look after children. And also you have virtually never been without a salary - some of which should have gone into additional pension provision.

I hope you can pass on some good advice to your own children, because sadly very little has changed. Their state pensions (when they get them) will be small.

jamesd

helenbreheny wrote: »

Question: do I get more for workiing 47 years than someone who worked 30 or 35 or 39 or whatever?

Yes. The basic state pension may be set to 30 years for a full pension but the Additional State Pension is earnings-related and increases for each year you work. You can find out how much you can expect by getting a State Pension Forecast.

helenbreheny wrote: »

I [am] a female

The change to thirty years was intended mainly to help women by making it easier for them to get a full basic state pension even after many years out of work for raising children. That may not apply to you but it was the group it was intended to help. A fairly small number of men with patchy contributions records have also benefited from the change.

Aberdeenangarse

helenbreheny wrote: »

i hope my comment is passed on to the relevant minister in Govt.
Thanks
HB

I've passed them on to the Minister for silly comments.

Marine_life

Your point of view is understandable but we don't live in a society that caters for the individual. In a modern society we need also to cater for those who are less well off and therefore there will always be some "winners" and some "losers".

As a relatively highly paid person I could argue that the amount I pay in Tax and NI is far in excess of that paid by others - but is my consumption of services any higher? No. In fact probably lower as I have private health insurance, send my kids to private school etc. etc. etc.

As others have said - you don't HAVE to keep on working or if you do you should take advantage of private pension contributions.