married womas pension claim at 60

seven-day-weekend

I agree McKneff, there was a choiice and one that I at least always know the effects of. Maybe my employer explained it to me clearly and other employers didn't.

I did actually pay the 'small' stamp for a year, then realised what a no-brainer it was and changed back. I now have a full pension in my own right.

Thank goodness the choice is no longer available.

margaretclare

About the married women's reduced contribution, I remember this very clearly. At the time of my first marriage in 1957 I'm not sure who told me about it first but it was 'just what you do', as normal and as routine as the moment you stepped out of church and everyone started calling you by a different name.

When we went to live with his parents in Dartford I went out and got a job the first week. I do recall very clearly calling into the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance office on the way into town and signing the relevant piece of paper. No one ever explained the implications to me just then, there were no leaflets of the kind there are now, setting out the pros and cons. It was just 'something you did'.

Subsequently I couldn't stand living with in-laws in a little bungalow, there were all kinds of friction and stresses and I left within a matter of weeks. I went home and I needed to claim unemployment benefit before looking for a job. I'd worked in the Ministry of Labour and National Service before marriage and I went there to sign on. My former colleagues explained to me in words of one syllable. I was eligible for unemployment benefit then because my contribution record was up to date for the relevant years, but in the future I wouldn't be eligible for unemployment and sickness benefit and, long-term, for my state pension. If those 2 girls hadn't explained it all to me clearly and in a friendly way for a former colleague, I wouldn't have known. I changed back again pretty damn quick.

When we got back together again half-way through my 3 years as a student nurse, I never even considered changing back to the reduced contribution. I carried on paying it for the rest of my working life, even though I was laughed at many times for doing so. The people who laughed at me for that and for paying into the NHS pension scheme could have done the same. I know for a fact they're not laughing now.

To answer your question, yes, it was a 'choice' but not one that had the pros and cons explained, not what I would call a real choice based on full knowledge of all the implications.

I could have claimed retirement pension on the basis of my late husband's contributions when I was 60. He'd died aged 58, nowhere near his retirement age at 65. I chose not to, because I was better off with my own contribution record which included some SERPS. Incidentally DH and I can inherit each other's SERPS whichever of us dies first.

Mojisola

margaretclare wrote: »

At the time of my first marriage in 1957 I'm not sure who told me about it first but it was 'just what you do', as normal and as routine as the moment you stepped out of church and everyone started calling you by a different name.

I think this is a more common experience that a careful explanation of what paying the "small stamp" meant in the future.

seven-day-weekend was very lucky to have had such a clear explanation.

seven-day-weekend

And of course for some people, the difference in deductions between the 'small' and 'full' stamp meant you could put food on the table. We did not have our son until we had been married for nearly ten years, (by choice) so already had our house, and also we had got used to living on our income, so to me the payment was neither here nor there. But to be a teenage bride with a baby on the way (as most of my friends were), then maybe they thought they needed the money at the time.

McKneff

Yes, you have all hit the nail on the head re the non explanation. I was one of those teenage preggers married woman (ha) in the late 60s

Really, it hasnt bothered me, I have actually never claimed sickness benefit or unemployment benefit (yes, ive been very lucky)
And I did lots of jobs (as you do, as and when) cleaning, tatie picking, cash in hand stuff so I suppose Im not too sorry, No ni was paid in those times so it is all swings and roundabouts, In my present employment I did change to full stamp, but to be honest, I wish I hadnt bothered as I would have been paid in full for a years sickness anyway from them.

and the full stamp Ive paid for the last 20 years, really doenst mean a thing as I could only get half a pension in my own right and claimed off my OHs, but I still work part time, No Ni as Im over 60 so Im quite happy with my lot.
Luckily was born in 1949 so just timed my pension right and dont actually have to work longer to get my state pension (thank you mother) lol

Regards All
Annie

margaretclare

But to be a teenage bride with a baby on the way (as most of my friends were), then maybe they thought they needed the money at the time.

Oh yes.

The year I got married so did a lot of young women I knew, around my age. I was in a minority of those who weren't pregnant at the altar. About a dozen of us, only 3 weren't.

When my first husband and I got back together again half-way through my 3 years' nurse education, he was in the RAF, father having died and he couldn't stand living with his mum either. I made it crystal-clear to him that, having gone through the hardest part when you were everybody's dogsbody, queen of the sluice etc, I was not about to give up half-way. I qualified, he went to Cyprus, I followed at the end of my course. I came back from Cyprus with one baby 13 months old and a miscarriage, to meet a young woman I'd known before. She had 4 by then!!! 4! She asked me what I'd been doing, married the same time as her, why had I only got one? I stared at her and never did give her any sort of a reply.

Anyway, it was sort of assumed that we wouldn't go on working for long, not 'once the babies started arriving'. The job you were doing wasn't taken seriously because you'd give it up in the first pregnancy, then there'd be another, and another...I don't suppose it ever crossed my mind that I'd have a lifetime at work, right up to age 67. I couldn't have envisaged it back in those times.