Uk state Pension

MaryJW

I am a married woman in my 80s,s  I am aware that during my working life, I did not make full NI contributions and as such received a reduced pension, however circa 2003/2005 I received a phone call from the DWP telling me, that  me if I wished I could catch up on these contributions and receive an enhanced pension backdated to my retirement date, after discussing it with my husband we decided to go ahead and called the DWP and informed them that if they could tell us the amount required to make this happen we would forward them a cheque, but was informed that would not be necessary as the amount would be deducted from my back payment, and so it was and I received a back payment, I cannot remember how much but it was in the low thousands, I have always thought I was being underpaid, but never had the time to investigate, however I have recently discovered that a neighbour of a similar age is in receiopt of a full Uk pension, my current pension equates to  £11.72 more than a married woman pension using the 60% calculation, i have tried asking the DWP to explain how my pension is calculated, but get non answers or answeres that do not help, any advice would be welcomed.

molerat

Check your NI record to see how many years you are showing as full and work it out from there, £156.18 / 39 x Y full years.  Your annual increase letter will show how your pension is made up.  Under the old scheme it often did not make full financial sense topping up missing years when you were guaranteed 60% for doing nothing.  DWP did not offer advice, they merely stated fact.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

MaryJW said:

I am a married woman in my 80s,s  I am aware that during my working life, I did not make full NI contributions and as such received a reduced pension,

do you mean you opted to pay the reduced rate/small stamp?

MaryJW

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

MaryJW said:

I am a married woman in my 80s,s  I am aware that during my working life, I did not make full NI contributions and as such received a reduced pension,

do you mean you opted to pay the reduced rate/small stamp?

When I started working no, but when i married it was the thing every married woman did at the time.

Silvertabby

MaryJW said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

MaryJW said:

I am a married woman in my 80s,s  I am aware that during my working life, I did not make full NI contributions and as such received a reduced pension,

do you mean you opted to pay the reduced rate/small stamp?

When I started working no, but when i married it was the thing every married woman did at the time.

No they didn't - it was optional and the consequences were made quite clear on the application form.

My late aunt always regretted paying the 'little stamp' but back in the late 1950s/early 1960s the reduced rate NI was the difference between being able to afford their mortgage or not.

When I first started work, in the mid 1970s, a couple of married colleagues used to gloat about how much more money they had as 'spends' because they had opted to pay the married woman's stamp.  When another colleague got married, they urged her to do the same - but she refused, saying that paying the full rate of NI would eventually give her a  State pension in her own right, which would be far more valuable than a bit extra now.  How they laughed at her.  I bet they are not laughing now.