They're taking away all my pension!

abandhev

I think that's what happened to me, as I didn't even know you could opt out of it, and even if I had, I probably wouldn't have, as we were assuming that my husbands stamps would cover me enough. As I never really made much financial contribution to our household, we thought that the reduced pension his stamp would entitle me to, would be enough for us to get by on.

rpc

You have spoken to HMRC several times, have you actually requested a state pension forecast? This will spell out all the bits of contributions and entitlements that you have from all the different sources.

You seem convinced that your entitlements will be taken away under the new flat-rate pension, but (unless you are in some really weird corner case) you are exactly the type of person that is protected under the transition arrangements.

You should also look into any benefits you can claim if you are both in ill-health. Some of these may help you build entitlement.

jamesd

The new rate isn't higher for people with decently full PAYE working lives, it's lower. The Additional State Pension part that is based on earnings is being eliminated and that takes the state pension for someone who works for a full working life on even minimum wage up to more like £190 a week. If you're expecting him to get only the basic state pension part it's worth him getting a state pension forecast to find out what he'll really get. The new rules preserve the higher initial payments to those who reach state pension age before they come in.

If his work pension was contracted out of SERPS/S2P as many final salary types were, he wouldn't have been accumulating any Additional State Pension while doing that job. So in that case if it was most of his working life he might get only the Basic State Pension part.

Best to get statements for both of you and tell us what they say. Then we can look into what your options are to get a state pension in your own right, if that's possible. It might be and it might be possible to get that above the 60% of his level. Depends just what you have so far.

abandhev

Thanks for a;ll the advice!
My husband will only get the basic, because his work pension opted him out. He also gets to state pension age 5 months too soo to be in the new scheme, so will be on the lower payments.

I have only 7 qualifying years because I spent my life working varied parttime jobs, paying the married womsn's stamp. But I also had a long spell, once the children wer older of working from home, but earning below the stamp threshold. We made the decision not to pay, as we had worked out that we would get by on a combination of his small work pension, his state pension, and my reduced pension.

We have requested new forecasts, but have had it verbally confirmed.

I have seen it somewhere that women paying the married women's stamp will be protected from these changes - but it doesn't make it clear if you are still protected if you only paid the married woman's stamp for a short time. I worked it out that I probably only paid it for 10 years at the most.

I am sorry that I came from an age, and a family where it was perfectly acceptable for a woman to want to stay at home and enjoy time brining up her children, that is how times have changed. It was also perfectly acceptable for a man to want to support his wife, if he was in a financial position to do so. I appreciate the view that a woman shouldn't be entitled to anything if she hasn't personally contributed herself, but I think it's unfair to take away an entitlement that we have believed would be there, when it's too late for me to make up those years of contributions.

xylophone

He also gets to state pension age 5 months too soo to be in the new scheme, so will be on the lower payments.

But if he draws his state pension under the existing rules (what you refer to as the old scheme) then the old rules apply to you as well and you will receive your pension as expected when he does?
http://www.savvywoman.co.uk/c7-pages/c7s1.php?art_id=202

abandhev

No, because although he reaches state pension age under the old scheme, I don't reach state pension age till 2020, so I'll be 66.
That's another goal post they changed - we always thought that my payments would start when I was 60!!!!

xylophone

don't reach state pension age till 2020,

Sorry, you had said this in a previous post but it had gone out of my head.

(Incidentally, you were saying that you thought that your spouse would have been entitled to the full single tier under the new system but you have just mentioned that he was "contracted out" so an adjustment would have taken place.)

With regard to your situation and looking at the link in SnowMan's post, you have to start on page 12 with scenario 2

Derived pension entitlement:
37. Individuals in the scenario above, where the Dependant reaches SPa in
single tier but the Contributor reaches SPa or dies in the current system,
will not be able to derive entitlement to Category A or B basic pensions
(but see also pages 17-20, which discuss women with a current or past
reduced-rate election).

Page 17 says

Whom the RRE transitional arrangements will apply to:
53. Women in scope for the RRE transitional arrangements will be those
whose reduced rate election was still in force at the start of the tax year
beginning 35 years before the tax year in which they reach State Pension
age.

Was your reduced rate election in force at that time?

abandhev

It was this that was confusing me. 35 years before I reach state pension age was 1985. I don't know how to find out if my reduced rate election was still in force then.
I have speken to HMRC, who have confirmed that I only have the 7 years in my own right, but they have not mentioned if they know how many years I paid the reduced rate. As I have not worked for an employer now for more than 20 years, I never invisaged that I would need my records of employment, to refer back to. As I said before, I always knew that the only pension I would be entitled to would be on my husbands contributions, so I discarded all my work records about 10 years ago.
I think that I was still paying reduced stamp when I left my last employment, that was in 1991, but I don't know how to get confirmation of this. I know that in 1985, I would not have been working at all, as we moved home, to a new town, and I was very involved in renovations to the new house, and also still had a son at home, of 7 years old.

abandhev

Update - have just managed to speak to another HMRC department, and have been told that my married woman's stamp was in force from April 1975 to April 1987. Hopefully, unless they move the goal post again, I should be protected then.

jamesd

Good news about the protection but do continue with the statement getting because it might make sense for you to buy more years still. This is because you might be able to get a pension under the proposed new rules in your own right and the part of £144 that you get might be higher than 60% of his under the old rules.

60% of his £110.15 (using this year's rate) is £66.09
16 years of the new rules £144 is 16/35 * 144 = £65.82
17 years would be 17/35 * 144 = £69.94

I don't know whether it's possible to get to that sort of number of total years in your own right, or whether it'll be worth the cost. Depends in part on how many back years you can buy and how much ongoing voluntary NI payments until you reach your own state pension age cost and buy you in years.