Pensions?

hamburger200

Can someone explain please, as i have often heard on the news when they do the budget. What is the married couples pension .
Does a married couple get a pension between them or does everyone get their own.
My husband will be 65 in 2012, and i will be 60 in 2011.
We have been married nearly 40 years and i have not worked very much at all. Will i get a pension. Thankyou

seven-day-weekend

Right, very simply: If you have paid or been credited with enough full Class One National Insurance Contributions, you will get a pension in your own right. Whether you are married or single, male or female.

As your husband and yourself have retirement dates after April 6th 2010, you will each have had to have paid them for 30 years to get a full pension of your own.

If one of you has the full amount and the other one hasn't then the person with the shortfall can claim a pension based on the other spouse's contributions; this is 60% of the full amount. However, they will not be able to do this until the other one has reached State Retirement age.

That's it simply, but then there are other things to be taken into consideration which might mean you could claim some pension of your own.

Have you worked at all and when? Did you pay full stamp (not the married womans' stamp)? Have you stayed at home to look after children after 1978?
Have you ever claimed any State Benefits and if so what were they?

If you can answer these questions, there may be other options.

Hope this helps.

hamburger200

Thank you for replying..

Well as i say i havent worked much at all . Did 2 years when i left school at 16. Must have paid full stamp. Done the odd bit of evening work and probably paid married womans stamp. Done another 3 years part time in the 80's, i think that was probably m/w/stamp. I am working part-time now been there for 2 years , will probably stay until 60 if not more.
My last child was born in 77 so yes i stayed at home and he went to college, if i remember rightly i claimed family allowance until he left college.
I myself havent claimed any benefits although my husband has .
Hope you can give me any further info. Thanks

seven-day-weekend

Right, if you had a break and then went back to work after 1978 you would have paid the full stamp (if you earned enough to pay NI at all).

You would have been credited with Home Responsibilities Protection after 1978 when you were not working but claiming Child Benefit; this would reduce the years that you need to pay NI to get a full pension. However, I don't know how many years it will count for under the new system, someone more knowledgeable than me will have to answer that.

So you may have some pension entitlement in your own right. It may be worth getting a pension forecast from the DWP, but I don't think they are doing them at the moment. It may be worth ringing them and asking.

There are lots more things to say, but I'm not a pensions expert, this is only what I've learned from reading these boards and asking questions myself. I have only told you the things I am pretty sure about.

The experts will hopefully be able to help you a bit more. They'll probably be around tomorrow, so keep checking!

magpiecottage

There is actually a very easy way to do this - go to http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/resourcecentre/br19/home.asp
print out the form, fill it in and post it off to the address on it.
It might take a little time but you will get a personal forecast.

dunstonh

paper requested pension forecasts are on an 18 month delay. You may still be able to get it online quicker though.

jamesd

hamgurger200, if you phone the DWP they will be able to tell you which years you have counting for the state pension and that will help them to give you some idea of what to expect even if they can't tell you what the pension will be. That would be particularly useful because at present it's possible to pay extra contributions going back the last ten years and that might help to make you entitled to a full basic state pension in your own right.

EdInvestor

Under the new rules, You will need 30 years NICs.HRP years at home in receipt of child benefit after 1978 count as full years

You can pay missing contributions over the last 10 years in arrears (but not before 1996.)

Under the new rules you should be able to get credits for part time and intermittent work, but you can't get a forecast of how much they will add up to until after Oct 2008 when they have reprogrammed the computer.

But I would call them now and see what they got on your file already and what they advise about paying voluntary years. If it's definite that you'll need to pay them, it may be wise to start now.