Anyone else with virtually no pension?

[Yogapoga123]

Cheery post for the weekend

I’m 49, and have pretty much zero in my pension pot. Wonderingly if it’s now really too late to start - there seems little point at my age unless you can afford to squirrel away £400+ a moth. Which I can’t!

I’ve never earned enough to put anything significant away. Anyone else in a similar boat?

Me. I've been a sahm for about 13 years now and didn't pay into a pension when I did work. I'm in a position now where I could work part time but am
finding it impossible to get a job. Covid isn't helping.

Me too OP. I'm nearly 47. It keeps me awake at night. I have nothing helpful to suggest, but following your thread with interest and making notes.

Thanks for the replies. It seems like there’s a few of us in the same boat. It’s scary, yes. It’s the one thing that really keeps me awake at night, the 3am fear.

Even though I get the tax advantages of a pension, what I’m not sure about is pension contributions and what that’ll actually amount to. I put in £100 a month to my employers scheme - I think this is the People’s Pension, I’m embarrassed to admit I’m not sure - but really, what’s that going to translate as, in the end? I think I come from the generation where pensions were generally mistrusted. Somehow that view has become a bit outdated though.

Yes my self employed dh. Nothing.

Im in the same boat

Thai does worry me as I am a stay at home parent to my dc.

My pension is Dignitas.

If you end up with a low state pension you'll get topped up with pension credit and if you are renting and get pension credit your rent is paid in full and council tax. It really not a bad amount to live off.

You're not in an unusual position OP but everyone should be saving something for retirement, even if it's only a few £ a month.

The best time to start saving was in the past, the second best time to start is today. Just start with whatever you can.

So nest isn't just for workplace pensions?

Full state pension works out at about £760 per month It really isn't a lot. My bills come to that even being mortgage free, when you take CTax, water rates, oil and electricity into account, plus the phone/broadband bill, insurances etc.

if you have been contracted out at any time by dint of having been in public sector employment, the full amount is restricted, as your employers pension is supposed to make up the difference.

I get state pension and £1200 a year work pension. I didn't pay any work pension until I was 49. If my DH dies first, I cannot pay more than a small fraction of the bills. I'm scared and you have every reason to worry.

I feel cheered if the pension is as much as that as I only earn 1000 a month now so should be able to cope somehow then.

I can see if you have worked nmw you may not have earned enough to have money “ left over” as such but what was the plan for SAHP’s? Keep your fingers crossed or are you hoping your partners pension will be enough.

@Divebar

I can see if you have worked nmw you may not have earned enough to have money “ left over” as such but what was the plan for SAHP’s? Keep your fingers crossed or are you hoping your partners pension will be enough.

SAHPs get national insurance credit for the years when their children are young. Beyond that they can choose to pay the minimum NIs even if not working. Tbh it isn't viable to be a SAHP long-term unless the couple can afford to make private pension provision for both people from the one salary, or there are other sources of income.

Who is to say there will be a state pension in the future, the topic has most certainly come up in government.

Then if they remove the triple lock, what you get might not keep up with living costs.

You need to stop burying your head in the sand, how comes your not even contacting HR at work to find out about your work pension, christ to be saying you don't even know that. It's not exactly complicated to get the information from your workplace.

@Babyroobs

If you end up with a low state pension you'll get topped up with pension credit and if you are renting and get pension credit your rent is paid in full and council tax. It really not a bad amount to live off.

It’s not really a great ambition for retirement though is it? Most of us would like a life rather than just surviving.

Yup-me, became disabled in my 30s but always worked before. before pensions were compulsory and barely made enough live never mind a pension scheme. I only
get NI credits now on benefits so will not get full pension but should qualify for pension credit if such thing still exists to some sort of basic subsistence level.

Yep I fully admit I haven’t been the best at sorting out this part of my life. I put it down to a combination of general ignorance about pensions and how they work, a certain amount of mistrust about them (grew up in the 80’s and remember various pension disasters) and most importantly, not ever earning enough for most of my life to think ‘I can and need to sort it out’.

Unfortunately I don’t have an HR person at work to ask. Small company, with just one very unapproachable accountant /FD who sorts out payroll. I will need to ask him tho...

So what’s going to happen to us all? Women of a certain age, living on the breadline, quietly going hungry

Yes I think we will fall through gaps. I’m late 40s so everyone 35 or under was made to get a private pension. By the time we retire it will be assumed everyone has amply private and state will be reduced.

Hard when your peers go on about their future and you not going have one. If you can’t work or low paid you probable rented all your life. Have nothing to sell, I can see us all being made live in HMOs to save money as paying housing benefit to people like us will Been seen as wasteful.

ON the plus side I’ve never had bugger all so it will not come as a shock

Same here OP, I was actually going to start exactly the same thread this week!
It’s my ‘wide awake at 3am’ worry too.
I’m self employed, age 43, and have just always - stupidly - pushed pensions to the back of my mind.
When I was employed by other companies, none of them offered a pension scheme, so I never thought about it.
I’ve always focused more on owning a property, and have luckily done well (more luck than anything else) on buying and selling, and have a lot of equity in my current house.
The plan has always been to move to a much cheaper part of the country in around 9 years, pay off the mortgage and put the rest into pension savings, but I’ve realised I can’t rely just on this.

I actually had a free appointment with the pensions advisory service just yesterday, and they were fantastic. I’ll post a link to the information tomorrow.

Well if we are all poor and single, we can pool resources and form a wonderfully happy female commune where we knit our own yoghurt.

Count me in!

I’ve only got a bit of a NEST pension, DH has an ok-ish work pension. We rent and have zero savings.

Our plan for the future is to be unhealthy enough that we are dead before we hit 65. We can’t afford old age.