Pension for female in 40s?

honeybee1234

I'm female, 44, and have no pension to speak of and I'm panicking! I've 3 pensions I've paid into at previous workplaces, but these will be nothing substantial, around a year for each for part-time work. Having checked online, I've paid enough NI for the state pension. I don't own a house nor do I have any savings. I'm currently separated, was married 10 years, my H pays into a workplace pension where he's worked maybe 4 years, and I'm unsure whether he has other pensions he paid into while we were together. 

I currently don't work due to my health, so I receive Universal Credit and PIP. I can't say with any certainty whether I'll go back to work because of my health so I'm trying to work out what my options are regarding a pension. I've been reading but it's hard to work out if I have any worthwhile options as I don't work - nearly everything I've read up to now either says about claiming a state pension and checking I'd get the full amount, or making sure I'm enrolled into my workplace pension, I can't find much about opening a pension for someone in my position. 

Can anyone offer any thoughts on how to proceed? Bear in mind I'm pretty clueless about pensions so please feel free to state anything you feel may be obvious. 

xylophone

Having checked online, I've paid enough NI for the state pension.

What exactly does the forecast say?

Does it indicate that you need to  continue to contribute NI to reach your forecast?

Presumably you are receiving NI credits in your current situation?

I've 3 pensions I've paid into at previous workplaces, but these will be nothing substantial, around a year for each for part-time work. 

What kind of pensions and where are they held?

If you have no "relevant earnings", you can still contribute to a pension and receive tax relief but your contribution would be limited to up to £2880 (net).

The pension provider would claim tax relief of up to £720 and add it to your pot.

powerspowers

Have you spoken to anyone about your rights to husbands pension if you got divorced? 

Money advice (government service- used to be money and pensions service) has an explainer and offer free consultations, although you would probably need a solicitor to proceed. https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/family-and-care/divorce-and-separation/divorce-or-dissolution-how-we-can-help-with-your-pension

L9XSS

Morning. You could open a SIPP (Self invested personal pension). There are lots of Providers. Some of the larger ones being Vanguard, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown & AJ Bell. I’ve used all four, however I find Vanguard to be have the best web site for ease of use. It’s easy to set up and you can opt to invest in different lifestyle funds tailored to your anticipated retirement date or pick and choose your own funds. For every £1 you deposit as a lower rate tax payer into your pension the taxman will add a further 20%, basically £1 invested by you becomes £1.25 in your SIPP.

MallyGirl

honeybee1234 said:

I'm female, 44, and have no pension to speak of and I'm panicking! I've 3 pensions I've paid into at previous workplaces, but these will be nothing substantial, around a year for each for part-time work. Having checked online, I've paid enough NI for the state pension. I don't own a house nor do I have any savings. I'm currently separated, was married 10 years, my H pays into a workplace pension where he's worked maybe 4 years, and I'm unsure whether he has other pensions he paid into while we were together. 

These should be fully disclosed as part of the divorce settlement process

honeybee1234

xylophone said:

Having checked online, I've paid enough NI for the state pension.

What exactly does the forecast say?

Does it indicate that you need to  continue to contribute NI to reach your forecast?

Presumably you are receiving NI credits in your current situation?

I've 3 pensions I've paid into at previous workplaces, but these will be nothing substantial, around a year for each for part-time work. 

What kind of pensions and where are they held?

If you have no "relevant earnings", you can still contribute to a pension and receive tax relief but your contribution would be limited to up to £2880 (net).

The pension provider would claim tax relief of up to £720 and add it to your pot.

I've just checked, and I need to pay 7 more years to get the full amount of 185.15. Yes, I'm receiving NI credits at the moment.

What kind of pensions? I don't know the correct terminology, but just the kind where I contributed from my pay and my employer contributed. One was Equiniti, one was through Asda, and the other was Legal and General.

Thanks for the info, I'll look into this. 

honeybee1234

powerspowers said:

Have you spoken to anyone about your rights to husbands pension if you got divorced? 

Money advice (government service- used to be money and pensions service) has an explainer and offer free consultations, although you would probably need a solicitor to proceed. https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/family-and-care/divorce-and-separation/divorce-or-dissolution-how-we-can-help-with-your-pension

No, I haven't, I've just had anecdotal advice from a friend in a similar situation about getting advice about his pensions. The link is really useful, thankyou! 

honeybee1234

L9XSS said:

Morning. You could open a SIPP (Self invested personal pension). There are lots of Providers. Some of the larger ones being Vanguard, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown & AJ Bell. I’ve used all four, however I find Vanguard to be have the best web site for ease of use. It’s easy to set up and you can opt to invest in different lifestyle funds tailored to your anticipated retirement date or pick and choose your own funds. For every £1 you deposit as a lower rate tax payer into your pension the taxman will add a further 20%, basically £1 invested by you becomes £1.25 in your SIPP.

Thankyou for the tips, I'll look into these. I didn't realise any other funds would go into a SIPP in my circumstances, so this is good to know. 

honeybee1234

MallyGirl said:

honeybee1234 said:

I'm female, 44, and have no pension to speak of and I'm panicking! I've 3 pensions I've paid into at previous workplaces, but these will be nothing substantial, around a year for each for part-time work. Having checked online, I've paid enough NI for the state pension. I don't own a house nor do I have any savings. I'm currently separated, was married 10 years, my H pays into a workplace pension where he's worked maybe 4 years, and I'm unsure whether he has other pensions he paid into while we were together. 

These should be fully disclosed as part of the divorce settlement process

This is good, thanks. I'm just a little concerned as in the nicest way, he's not the most organised and I'm not sure he'd know pensions from previous jobs. 

Albermarle

For every £1 you deposit as a lower rate tax payer into your pension the taxman will add a further 20%, basically £1 invested by you becomes £1.25 in your SIPP.

The OP does not work, so the max they can add is £2880 pa + £720 tax relief will be added.

OP- as mentioned anyone can just open a new pension ( normally online nowadays) regardless of any other pension they may have. The slightly more tricky bit is that you have to choose what your money is invested in within the pension. 

It may well be possible to instead add to one of your current small pensions, which could be simpler. You would need to call them to check if this was possible. 

Brie

honeybee1234 said:

What kind of pensions? I don't know the correct terminology, but just the kind where I contributed from my pay and my employer contributed. One was Equiniti, one was through Asda, and the other was Legal and General.

my guess is that they will be defined contribution plans which means they are likely to be pots of pension money that you would be allowed to transfer into a SIPP if you wanted.  All of these should be sending you regular (yearly?) pension statements.  If you aren't getting these it may be that they don't have your current address and haven't been able to trace you.  You will need to contact each of them to find out what they hold for you.  To do this you will need to provide your name (including any previous ones if relevant) address, NI No., date of birth and it may be helpful to say when you paid into the schemes and who your employers were.  Some schemes are great at replying within a couple of weeks but others will need to be chased if they don't respond within a month or so.