Mother's pension

Silvertabby

p00hsticks said:

DBdoobydoo said:

Silvertabby said:

Pollycat said:

Silvertabby said:

Pollycat said:

Flugelhorn said:

Britannia12345 said:

Because I have no idea and she can't remember anything about a married women's stamp. All she can remember is she knows she paid full ni all her working life. 

I honestly suspect she didn't - it was pretty standard for married women to pay the "married women's stamp" and rely on their husband's contributions instead - "why pay twice?" they used to say and preferred to have the money at the time.

Me too.

The OP's Mum was born in 1926.
My Mum was born in 1932 and only paid a reduced stamp. 
I was born in 1953 and the majority of the women I worked with opted to pay the reduced stamp.

I think the OP has had some very good responses, especially considering the vague information provided.

When a friend got married in the early 1970s our already married colleagues insisted that she 'claim back her stamp, as the money was better off in her pocket than the government's'.  That was the norm at the time - and they laughed at her for her 'stupidity' at opting to keep paying the full stamp.

When I got married I received the same 'advice' from my mum - to get 'my money back, as there was no point in paying more than I had to'.

This was after 1978, so I just said that it was no longer an option.  I didn't say that, given the choice, I would have paid the full whack, because she would have seen that as 'throwing away good money'.

I was lucky enough to work in the pension department of the company I worked for.
I started work in 1970.
I qualified for a marriage gratuity payment when I get married in 1974.
The money would have been very useful.
But I wanted to keep my pension entitlement.
As it turned out, I retired age 50 and 2 months with a pension bases on 39 years and 9 months.

My first pension was a Leyland Motors DB in the 1970s.  As I left (to join the WRAF) with just a few months service/was under age 25, my only option was an automatic refund of my contributions.

These DB pension benefits, with 48 years of cost of living increases, would have been way more valuable than the £80 refund I received - but that was a lot of money back then, and came in very useful when I went shopping for all the new things I needed (ok, wanted) for my new life.  

I more than made up for it with my 42 years of public sector DB pensions.  

The rules were changed a few years later& nowadays contributions are only returned if you contribute for less than two years.

I'm not sure if its the same in the NHS, but many organisations (including the Civil Service) will, rather than just returning your contributions,  also give you the option of transferring what you have built up, including the nominal emplyer contributions and associated tax relief,  into a pension scheme of your own. I left one job just shy of two years and by setting up my own SIPP I got far more than what I would have been refunded.

Transfers out are subject to a minimum of 3 months service, at least in the LGPS. 

In my day, a good 90% of those given the choice  between a refund or (the much better option of) a transfer went for the refund.