Any ideas please!!

The_Economist

Ok some one i know has just reached state pension age and has been told that she is not gonna get a state pension. :eek: The reason is because she has not paid enough NI. She has spoken to the pension service and they said that if she pays some thing like £1500-£1600 she will be able to claim £20 a week. She has only paid around 6 years of NI contributions over her working life because her husband has always been the bred winner. Also she had children to look after over the years.
Does this sound right. If so is there anything she can do. £20 a week wouldn't go far.

dunstonh

What about her husbands state pension?

The_Economist

dunstonh wrote: »

What about her husbands state pension?

As far as i know she has to wait till he becomes of state pensionable age before she / they can claim as a couple off is NI contibutions.

EdInvestor

The_Economist wrote: »

She has spoken to the pension service and they said that if she pays some thing like £1500-£1600 she will be able to claim £20 a week. She has only paid around 6 years of NI contributions over her working life

What they are suggesting is that if she pays 4 years of NI conts (about 400 a year) she will then have 10 years, which is the minimum to get any state pension at all.

But she could get more than that, because once she has clocked up the minimum 10 years she is eligible for "Home Responsibilities Protection, so she gets credit for the years she was looking after the children after 1978 (as long as child benefit was paid in her name).

She can at present also pay up to 10 back years from 2006 back to 1996 (so that would be an additional 6 years on top of the 4), so she could end up with quite a bit more than 20 quid.

BUT, if she can't make up more than about 24 years, it probably won't be worth it, as she will get a pension equivalent to this 60% of her husband's when he retires) anyway for free.

See the thread further down by Martin on this very subject.