State Pension Inequality?

DT2001

fred246 wrote: »

Child benefit basically always given to mother. So there are loads of women getting free state pensions but very few men. Seems a bit unequal?

No not always. I get the child benefit. It was our choice as I earned less. I would have had some years of my state pension entitlement for ‘free’ if I hadn’t earned enough from self employment.

It is not even a bit unequal as lisyloo pointed out bringing up children is considered putting into the system. A house husband/wife’s value has been calculated in earnings terms so surely deserves recognition in SP terms. Do you fred246 not agree?

molerat

From 2010 the NI credits from child benefit can be transferred to a spouse / partner so no inequality there.

lisyloo

fred246 wrote: »

After starting this thread I was thinking about it again. I had loads of money when we had children and I would have liked time off. So could I have got my state pension contributions paid too? No they only go to one parent. How do they decide which parent? When our children were born the midwife gave the paperwork straight to my wife and she posted it off. It's the only paperwork I can think of that my wife did without my involvement. When I look on the internet there are loads of dads trying to get child benefit paid to them without any luck. Child benefit basically always given to mother. So there are loads of women getting free state pensions but very few men. Seems a bit unequal?

Women have different body parts to men and are capable of birthing a child. That seems unequal to me.

Child benefit was originally given straight to women to make sure they actually got some funds at all.

fred246

When we had children I would have liked to have time off to look after them with my wife. Obviously I would be putting into the system so I should get a credit. But I wouldn't. My wife would be the only one getting a credit unless she agreed to give it to me. I only googled it for a few minutes but it seems almost impossible for a dad to get child benefit unless the mother agrees. Many dads are looking after children while the mother receives the child benefit. I have a filing cabinet with bank statements, mortgage, council tax, gas, electric, water, broadband, house insurance, car insurance. She has a filing cabinet with child benefit. It intrigues me what the midwife must have said. She gives me all the bills and paperwork to sort out but she did the child benefit and posted it off without showing it to me at all. To be fair we wouldn't have done anything different but I don't call it equality.

mgdavid

fred246 wrote: »

When we had children I would have liked to have time off to look after them with my wife. Obviously I would be putting into the system so I should get a credit. But I wouldn't. My wife would be the only one getting a credit unless she agreed to give it to me. I only googled it for a few minutes but it seems almost impossible for a dad to get child benefit unless the mother agrees. Many dads are looking after children while the mother receives the child benefit. I have a filing cabinet with bank statements, mortgage, council tax, gas, electric, water, broadband, house insurance, car insurance. She has a filing cabinet with child benefit. It intrigues me what the midwife must have said. She gives me all the bills and paperwork to sort out but she did the child benefit and posted it off without showing it to me at all. To be fair we wouldn't have done anything different but I don't call it equality.

nobody said life had to be fair.

LHW99

When we had children I would have liked to have time off to look after them with my wife

Not sure how long ago you're thinking but when we had children the (very few) dads that were on their own with children would be working and the children would have childminders or other relatives looking after them. Those who stayed at home while the wife worked were regarded rather suspiciously.
Nowadays there is a lot more flexibiity with parental leave, options for gransparents who care for grandchildren etc. CB has also become a bit more flexible. Its called progress.

Pollycat

fred246 wrote: »

When we had children I would have liked to have time off to look after them with my wife. Obviously I would be putting into the system so I should get a credit. But I wouldn't. My wife would be the only one getting a credit unless she agreed to give it to me. I only googled it for a few minutes but it seems almost impossible for a dad to get child benefit unless the mother agrees. Many dads are looking after children while the mother receives the child benefit. I have a filing cabinet with bank statements, mortgage, council tax, gas, electric, water, broadband, house insurance, car insurance. She has a filing cabinet with child benefit. It intrigues me what the midwife must have said. She gives me all the bills and paperwork to sort out but she did the child benefit and posted it off without showing it to me at all. To be fair we wouldn't have done anything different but I don't call it equality.

Maybe the bit in bold says more about your wife than it does about the system, especially reading back through your original post.