Wife worried about no state pension

mgdavid

mrklaw wrote: »

Hi,

My wife is worried that she'll have no state pension when she reaches retirement age,many will be entirely dependant on me, which she doesn't want to be in case something happens to me etc.
........

what widow's pension will your DB (final salary) scheme pay her?

lvader

ozzage wrote: »

She'll get two "free" years for age 16/17, even though she wasn't living here then, as explained to me in the thread here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5133348

According to the State pension calculator you get 3 years for free (16, 17 and 18)

jamesd

mrklaw wrote: »

Interesting from that is that I probably won't qualify for the full one either, as I was contracted out until this year so my contributions were probably messed up

When the flat rate system comes in you'll get a "foundation amount" calculated that is the higher of your current rules and old rules calculations. Old rules will probably be higher for you. Then after the flat rate comes in each year will increase your state pension entitlement by 1/35th of the flat rate until your entitlement reaches the full flat rate level or you stop paying NI. You'll probably end up getting both the contracted out money and the full flat rate, depending on just how long you work after it comes in.

If she's eligible for child benefit and you've just stopped claiming it to avoid having fill out a tax return, that was a bad move and you should probably not do that again. The cost of buying a year is many hundreds of Pounds, way more than the tax return filing hassle.

mrklaw

We stopped claiming CB because the government sent us a letter saying 'if you earn this much you can't claim CB so fill this in', so we did. I didn't realise - nor was I told - that this would impact my wife's NI contributions, otherwise I would have done a tax return (although I'm only PAYE so normally don't need to)

Triumph13

You can get the NI credit without doing the tax return. The trick is to 'claim' the benefit, but opt out of having it paid. This is what should have happened with anyone who was already claiming it when the rules changed.
The only people at risk of missing out should be those who have kids after the rule change came in and completely fail to claim it rather than claiming but opting not to be paid.

mrklaw

Thanks. Fingers crossed we got it then. Have to apply for a statement online with that horrible government ID thing that I think we registered for but can't remember

atush

And of course if you pay more into a pension, you'll get the CB back?