Pension questions

Farside

My wife has never paid any NI as she is not from the UK (She is now a british citizen though), but never worked here.

I was born in the UK and have worked my whole life, please can someone tell me if i die before or after i start claiming my state pension, will my state pension go to my wife? If not then she will have nothing at all, i always thought that the spouse would receive the pension if the other died? I won't retire for another 30 years yet, but even if my mrs started working now she wouldn't get enough NI contributions for a state pension until she was over 80 years old lol.

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension

Farside

Already looked through it and i don't understand it.

Farside

Looks like when i die my new state pension cannot be given to my wife, so she will have nothing, no money at all? I do not retire until 2048, for a spouse to get my pension i needed to have retired by 6th April 2016? Is this correct.

p00hsticks

Farside wrote: »

I won't retire for another 30 years yet, but even if my mrs started working now she wouldn't get enough NI contributions for a state pension until she was over 80 years old lol.

How old is she ? If she earns/pays/gets creditted with a minimum of ten years NI she should be able to earn at least a partial state pension. If she's as old as you seem to be suggesting and you are still thirty years off retirement age, surely the likeihood is that you will outlive her ?

Farside

she's 46 i'm 39. Due to my medical condition i will not be alive by the time i can retire. There's no way anyone can survive on part of a state pension.

Malthusian

She should be eligible for Pension Credit which for a single person is essentially the same as a new State Pension, minus a few pence a week.

Silvertabby

Do you have any private/occupational pension rights?

TcpnT

Between the two of you you still have many years of work ahead of you before retirement. It's never too late to start planning and investing for the future. You may need to make some financial sacrifices now in order to provide for your wife in the future. Do you not have any savings or pensions in place already after 25 years of working ? Relying on the state pension is not your only option.

lisyloo

Farside wrote: »

she's 46 i'm 39. Due to my medical condition i will not be alive by the time i can retire. There's no way anyone can survive on part of a state pension.

I'd agree.
She would get more e.g. at the moment topped up with pension credit a single pension is allowed £159.35 to live on. There may then be housing benefit, council tax benefits, warm fron grant, winter fuel allowance.

I would say £160 is not enough to live on, so you need to make your own provision.

If she's 46 and has a state retirement age of 67 then doesn't she have more than 20 years to make some provision for herself? (sorry if I've missed some reason she can't work/save earlier on in the thread).

Farside

no savings as i dont earn much, i can barely cover the monrhly bills due to my wife not working, she can only do part time as we have a young son, so she has to be able to take and collect from school. I have a work pension but i only just started it after reading online that the government changed the rules so now my pension cannot go to my wife. I cannot put much into the work pension as i dont earn enough.