Married persons pension.

peter_the_piper

I am very confused by pensions. I currently get basic, pre 97 additional, extra basic state, extra additional state and graduated retirement benefit. my wife is due to pass her 60th birthday in December this year and has about 26 yrs NI built up. Will we be able to claim a married couples pension or will we have to wait until 2019 when she becomes 65?
I've looked on various websites and they infer yes but don't say anything about ages.

kidmugsy

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Will we be able to claim a married couples pension

There's no such thing.

peter_the_piper

I may have worded it wrongly but I took this from Martins guide.

""If you’re married, and both you and your partner have built up the full number of state pension qualifying years, you’ll get double that amount so £226.20 a week.
But, if you're married and your partner hasn't built up their own state pension, they'll still be able to claim a state pension based on your record. The maximum in this situation is £67.80 a week (meaning you will get up to £180.90 between you).""
This is why I called it a married persons pension.

nickcc

State pension calculates the age for a Woman born in December 1954 to claim her pension as 66.

greenglide

So she will part of the pensions changes from 6/4/2016.

This does away with substitution etc (using your contributions for her pension). There are transitional arrangements but I have a feeling that they apply to women who have an MWRRE (small stamp).

If she has 26 years at present she should manage 32 or so by SPa which would be worth almost the full nSP amount of around £148 at todays money.

peter_the_piper

So, to sum it up, we will have to wait until 2019 before she is able to claim her pension and Martins advice only seems to apply if both are of the same age and born before 1954. Pity. She's unable to work to joint/back problems.

patanne

Has your wife requested a state pension statement? If she gets one she will have a much better idea of where she stands and exactly when her state pension age is. Have you checked to see if you are entitled to pension credit?

JezR

Since she has 26 years of NI she would have a basic pension in her own right in excess of the 60% pension under the old system, so your NI record is of no significance in any case.

She may also have additional state pensions if she wasn't contracted out.

I suggest you get a pension forecast for her to see if it may be worth making voluntary NI contributions though.

kidmugsy

peter_the_piper wrote: »

She's unable to work to joint/back problems.

Would she be capable of even a small amount of self-employed work? The self-employed "stamp" (National Insurance Contribution) for people with modest incomes is a very cheap way to build up pension entitlement.

xylophone

See page 12 of https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181235/derived-inherited-entitlement.pdf

It refers to introduction of the new state pension in 2017 - this is now 2016. See https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/overview

Regarding your wife's disability, does she qualify for NI credits?

See https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/eligibility

jamesd

Best for your wife to get a state pension statement. It is likely to be a good idea for her to buy extra years of contributions to increase her state pension but we can't say for sure until we know how much her current entitlement is and what the new flat rate will be.

If your money situation allows it and your health is good you might consider deferring your own state pension for a while. You can do this once even after claiming it. the pension increases by 10.4% a year while being deferred, pro-rated for shorter deferrals. That's a pretty good deal. Your wife would get only about half of that rate because she reaches her state pension age after the flat rate system arrives.