State pension rates for very elderly parents

TwoGuitars

I wonder if anyone knows about the old rules regarding married couples and their state pension?  My Dad is 101 and Mum is 97.  She gets a higher rate state pension than he does.  They both paid their NI/stamps all their lives.  I think it is because on an old rule about married couples.  Can anyone shed any light on this please?

p00hsticks

They should each receive a letter from DWP early in the year (before 6th April) to explain how their pension is made up. What does that say for each for them ?

As an aside, given theirages, hopefully they are claiming Marrried Couples Allowance to reduce their tax
Married Couple's Allowance: Overview - GOV.UK  

Billxx

Could be one or the other was contracted out or in SERPS. 

LHW99

Did mum have a higher paid job than dad?

It would be unusual (though not impossible) and that way she could have had S2P on top of the normal amount and dad not.

Marcon

Are they receiving any income from private pensions? If not, has anyone checked to see if there's an unclaimed pension lurking around somewhere?

Linton

If they were both working for most of their lives, perhaps the OPs father had a job with a pension eg civil service whereas Mother did not.  Then Mother would have received a higher State Pension because of SERPS/S2P whereas Father would have been conttracted out.

TwoGuitars

Hmm, yes that might be it.  My mum was a deputy head teacher, dad was a gardener.  I think she was contracted out for a while.. Thank you for your helpful comments.

BlackKnightMonty

TwoGuitars said:

I wonder if anyone knows about the old rules regarding married couples and their state pension?  My Dad is 101 and Mum is 97.  She gets a higher rate state pension than he does.  They both paid their NI/stamps all their lives.  I think it is because on an old rule about married couples.  Can anyone shed any light on this please?

When did they retire; how many decades of state pension have they claimed?

german_keeper

BlackKnightMonty said:

TwoGuitars said:

I wonder if anyone knows about the old rules regarding married couples and their state pension?  My Dad is 101 and Mum is 97.  She gets a higher rate state pension than he does.  They both paid their NI/stamps all their lives.  I think it is because on an old rule about married couples.  Can anyone shed any light on this please?

When did they retire; how many decades of state pension have they claimed?

I don't understand why that's relevant to the question. When they retired is certainly irrelevant and I don't think when they claimed state pension is relevant given at their age it is clearly before 2016. Or is there another even older version of the state pension rules that you think applies to them. Even if so with the information about their ages you can work it out near as dammit.

GrumpyDil

TwoGuitars said:

Hmm, yes that might be it.  My mum was a deputy head teacher, dad was a gardener.  I think she was contracted out for a while.. Thank you for your helpful comments.

Your answer is opposite to Linton's suggestion. Was your father self employed as a gardener as I'm wondering if the answer is he didn't pay all his NI contributions whereas your mother probably did. Does your mother also get a teacher's pension? 

BlackKnightMonty

german_keeper said:

BlackKnightMonty said:

TwoGuitars said:

I wonder if anyone knows about the old rules regarding married couples and their state pension?  My Dad is 101 and Mum is 97.  She gets a higher rate state pension than he does.  They both paid their NI/stamps all their lives.  I think it is because on an old rule about married couples.  Can anyone shed any light on this please?

When did they retire; how many decades of state pension have they claimed?

I don't understand why that's relevant to the question. When they retired is certainly irrelevant and I don't think when they claimed state pension is relevant given at their age it is clearly before 2016. Or is there another even older version of the state pension rules that you think applies to them. Even if so with the information about their ages you can work it out near as dammit.

Your statement “ They both paid their NI/stamps all their lives.” suggests they only retired very recently.