A new chapter, An empty nest, Drama school & Last year of Uni

badmemory

Hope you don't mind me saying this & it certainly isn't a criticism.  You are the poster girl for why women can get to retirement age & find they haven't got a full state pension.  I know you are aware but so many women aren't & surrender their financial life for family life, then get to retirement age & the proverbial hits the fan.  So many caring roles are not enough for the benefits for the future but are incompatable with working & certainly with working full time.

Spendless

Thank you @badmemory. I have looked online and I do have enough NI credits for a full state pension. That's because I worked f-time from leaving school at 17 till I had kids in my 30s, I then received child benefit during my stay at home years which gave me a credit , followed by me returning to work f-time when kids were older and I no longer received a NI credit from CB. I've got 3 missing  recent years from DD becoming ill and the pandemic but *don't think* I need to pay these - though this is something I'll double check. It came as a surprise to me that I had it, I didn't believe I had as I contracted out of Serps when I was younger.

I think when we see the FA she'll be surprised by what we found re my private pensions. She quite correctly asked us to go away and look into what I actually had because she said she didn't wishh to give us financial advice on not the full picture. So glad she's said this - just my surname to sort out! 

For anyone reading this who wishes to check their state pension forecast, I used this link.

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

badmemory

Good for you for checking.  There is an awful lot of room for error.  Someone retiring today has 50 years worth of records & a lot of those would be manual.  The first brush I had with computers was in the mid 60s about the 1961 census.  That computer took up a very large room and only had a very small capacity.  As in any smart phone these days has many many times the capacity.  Transcribing errors happened & were inevitable.  NI number errors also.  A few years ago they were still finding people who had both been issued the same NI number.  There were also a lot of employer NI number errors or handwriting errors or misreading errors.  Vital to check & then check annually the updates are correct.  After all you wouldn't forget to check your bank account was correct.

Spendless

Yes, I fetched up with my Mum only today  about whether she is one of the woman without a credit for the  years she claimed CB. She doesn't receive a full state pension because she was self employed and paid that stamp and said that different Governments changed what she paid. Briefly looking into it, I believe she needs to ring a HMRC helpline and see if she is one of those  affected. 

Mum was also worried about whether she'd need to downsize (she's already in a bungalow) from her beloved home if she was left a widow surviving on my Dad's reduced pension and her not full state pension. I've given it a little thought and suggested 1 or 2 alterations she could make which would reduce the cost of heating her home should this happen/

badmemory

The reasons for not being credited with the child benefit part could be it being in your fathers name but they are in the process of trying to change that.  Could that apply.  It just shows the importance of keeping end of year such as P60s and P45 paperwork for a long time & not just the 6 years they say.  Do her records show her as employed in the years she thinks.  I would suggest a bit of reading on the pensions part of here.  They are really very helpful if more abrupt than we tend to be on here.  Abrupt as in busy people not rude.

satchmo1

I'm one of the WASPI set, but thankfully I had always intended to work until at least 65. As it happens, ill health scuppered me at 65. Also thankfully I had always overpaid into my private/work pension. I was also fortunate in asking my brother if he could advise a Financial Adviser and my niece connected me to her ex-employer who is top notch and gave me a great deal because he thinks so highly of my nice niece.

Spendless

That my pensions are ok seems to be by accident rather than design. I got talked into my 1st private pension in my early 20s and agreed cos the bloke was good looking! I then was interested in working part-time when I had kids, it was a colleague coming along who had children and showed me that f-time would be manageable that helped. Today I will try and sort out my surname.

@badmemory - Mum received CB not Dad. I have recollections of her doing so when I was a teen and she confirmed she did when I saw her. Mum spent most of her working life self employed (hair-dresser) and paid whatever the SE NI stamp was called. It is that I believe that has meant she doesn't receive a full state pension. If she is one of the woman who receiving child benefit that protected her rights hasn't been taken into account then maybe that would increase her entitlement. Currently my parents are fine because my Dad receives a private pension. My mum's concern is if Dad goes before her if she'll manage because she would then be in receipt of half his pension. 

Last night DH received £125 from a bank switch we saw on here (I was declined) but it took so long for the bank to do it we thought we didn't qualify. He's going to use this money for any spends he needs whilst visiting his Aunt. That suits me - it reduces the amount needed from our bank account and I can try for as many NSD whilst he's away.

My car has a puncture and I was putting off sorting it till the end of the week after DH is paid, but I've already had to turn down free tickets to the cinema because of it and I'm due to see a friend on Thursday and would have to cancel and since we've been trying to arrange a meet up since October am reluctant to do so. Puncture will have to be dealt with today. 

I have sent DD her money to live on for the month with a message saying it will be exactly a month till she receives any more, how much this roughly works out a day to live on, to ensure she budgets for nights out and plans her meals since she was bought a grocery shop! Fingers crossed she listens!  

cafelady

Hi Spendless. Please ignore if not helpful…when my daughter was at uni she used to burn through her money, so she asked me to send it over weekly instead of monthly. This seemed to help her manage it and worked better for her. 

Spendless

cafelady said:

Hi Spendless. Please ignore if not helpful…when my daughter was at uni she used to burn through her money, so she asked me to send it over weekly instead of monthly. This seemed to help her manage it and worked better for her. 

Hi, Not at all, all suggestions welcome. I did try giving weekly money when she  first started at her previous place. It was DD who requested monthly  instead because she said that if there was a social event  planned and she also needed to get groceries  she wouldn't have enough money in a weeks allowance to cover both whereas with a monthly one she could see when she needed to spend more.

She still drives me nuts with not budgeting though! I may re-visit the would she be better off receiving her money weekly. When she goes into yr2 I am considering doing things a different way round but we've got to be in diff circs first.

badmemory

If she hit retirement age after 2006 & she has missing years from them they can still be bought I think.  She really needs to check which years are missing.  There is lots about finding out on here.  At least it could let her know what she is going to have to deal with & at best give her a lump sum & an ongoing increase.