Not paying into any pension, no prospect of ...advice needed

littlejaffa

I worked since leaving school (15 years ish) and paid into a personal pension for 4years ish.
Since stopping work to have a family, and with no intention of going back to work (also not claiming handouts/benifits etc) am i right in thinking nothing at all, not even government contributions are being paid into a pension for me, and so i'll have peanuts (if i'm lucky) when i retire?
If so, is there any way to get at the very least government pension contributions started again?
And if i were to split the amount we pay into my husbands pension (bout £300 each month) so it was 50/50 into his pension and mine does that make good tax etc sence?
I don't pay any tax as i have no income if it makes any difference.

Hope someone can help as i'd rather sort this out when i was still young enought to do something about it, but surely all the full time mums don't go without pensions?

seven-day-weekend

You can pay voluntary contributions into the State Pension scheme. They are just under £8 a week. You need 30 years of contributions, either paid or credited, to get the full State Pension.

But if you are claiming Child Benefit you will be covered by Home Responsibilities Protection which counts towards your pension and I think it applies if you ar claiming Child Benefit for a child under twelve. So you would not need to pay voluntary contributions whilst you are covered by this..

This link should help.

http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/atoz/atozdetailed/homeres.asp

margaretclare

No, in fact it applies if the child is still in full-time education. My daughter has just stopped receiving CB for her youngest, when the said youngest reached her 20th birthday and is still at college.

Margaret

dunstonh

And if i were to split the amount we pay into my husbands pension (bout £300 each month) so it was 50/50 into his pension and mine does that make good tax etc sence?

Yes, providing your husband doesnt reduce any employer contributions to achieve this. Free money takes priority over a split. i.e. he pays 5%, employer pays 5%.

Anything above the free money amount should then be looked towards you.

You both get a personal tax free allowance of £10k in retirement (it will be that within a couple of years). So, between you that means you can earn £20k a year tax free. However, if that £20k is in his name, it means that he will have to pay 20% tax on £10k of that income. This is £2000. So, not using you will cost £2000 a year in extra tax in retirement. If the income was likely to be higher than 20k (in real terms) then there is a penalty applied from £20,900 which increase the tax even more which is another good reason to split income.

For many people gaining this £2000 a year back just means altering their pensions so there are two direct debits instead of one. It doesnt need to cost any more (i.e. instead of husband getting all the money in his pension, you pay into two pensions)

littlejaffa

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

...if you are claiming Child Benefit you will be covered by Home Responsibilities Protection which counts towards your pension

Am i right in understanding you need to apply for HRP you don't just get it, and if i work even one hour a week I won't get it (the bit that says "
If you are a woman, you cannot get HRP for any year you are entitled to pay reduced NI contributions for married women and widows, while you are working") and that if me or the kids go into hospital i have to tell them and the payments will be changed/stopped? ("You must tell us as soon as you go into or come out of hospital. You must also tell us if someone you get benefit for goes into hospital") How much money are we actually talking about here? cause that seems a lot of bureaucracy for £8 a week.

On the splitting the amount paid in two front, my husband does get a huge employer contribution as a % of what we pay to his pension so we would loose that, and it's probably more of a loss than putting it all in his and loosing the tax at the other end on payout. But, i don't want to be one of those stupid women who put all their eggs in one (husbands) basket so would really like our future finances to be shared.

seven-day-weekend

You get HRP automatically if you are claiming Child Benenfit. As long as you do not earn enough to pay NI you will get it.

The 'reduced contributions for married women' it refers to is a reduced NI that married women could pay and it didn't count towards your pension, but that option stopped (quite rightly imho) in 1978, so doesn't apply to you.

I think the other thing about going into hospital refers to Income Support or Tax credits, not Child Benefit.



I was a SAHM for five years and then worked as a lollipop lady for ten years (but not earning enough to pay NI) and I have 13 years HRP.

seven-day-weekend

margaretclare wrote: »

No, in fact it applies if the child is still in full-time education. My daughter has just stopped receiving CB for her youngest, when the said youngest reached her 20th birthday and is still at college.

Margaret

Yes, Child Benefit can last that long, but I think under the new rules you only get HRP credits for a child under 12.

littlejaffa

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I was a SAHM for five years .

:rotfl:
I completly misread this as 'it was a SHAM for five years...and for the first time i understood something about pensions! Thanks for raising a smile :T

exil

When you say "no intention of going back to work " do you literally mean - never? even when kids have grown up?