Married womens NI

hudo

HI,

I am nearly 60 and have worked for 38 years for the same company paying married womens stamp, (as advised to do so at the time) also brought up three children. What would be your advice as I will not be able to get the full pension?

jem16

hudo wrote: »

What would be your advice as I will not be able to get the full pension?

Possibly not a lot you can do now. You should get a state pension forecast to see if you are entitled to anything.

Apart from that you will need to wait until your husband reaches state pension age and then claim 60% of the basic state pension based on his contributions (assuming full NI contributions paid by him).

silvasava

Not sure if I am correct - but - I had a forecast after I reached 60 & only had 7 years qualifying years. I was unable to 'buy' 4 more years to qualify as I was past 60 (my retirement age) I don't know if the op can retire at 60 but if so she needs to get her skates on, get a forecast & see what the options are. You used to have to have a minimum of 11 years to qualify for a pension in your own right but the goal posts have probably been moved since then!

Torry_Quine

You have a few more years before you would even qualify for state pension even if you have enough contributions. Remember that when you were at home bringing up children you got NI credits.

You really need to get a pension forecast

jem16

Torry_Quine wrote: »

Remember that when you were at home bringing up children you got NI credits.

HRP only reduced the number of years needed to gain a pension so probably would not help.

anmarj

plus if you paid the married womans stamp then you don't get the HRP.

jem16

anmarj wrote: »

plus if you paid the married womans stamp then you don't get the HRP.

Eligibility is a bit more complex. You would become eligible for HRP if you had left paid employment for 2 years after 1978. So if you had 5 years out looking after children you would have been eligible for 3 years HRP. As the married woman's stamp was abolished from 1977 it would have been impossible to return to paying it.

However the main problem is that HRP reduced the number of years credits that you needed as opposed to actually giving you credits. So if you needed 30 years NI credits and had HRP for 5 years, you would only need 25 NI contributions for a full basic state pension. You would, however, still have to build up your own NI contributions which anyone paying the small stamp would not do.

As the OP mentions working for 38 years paying the married woman's stamp it is impossible for her to have built up any HRP.