Retiring without working

[MewMew101]

My Aunt is approaching retirement age, but she has never worked a day in her life. How would she be able to pay her bills when she does reach retirement age etc.

I’m assuming won’t have enough NI contributions to even get the minimum amount of state pension, since she has never worked? Let alone a workplace pension…

This is something that is baffling me! I would be terrified if I was in her position…

How does she pay her bills now?

How is she paying them now?

How does she afford to live now? I imagine benefits and pension credit which is there for people with little to no income and don’t get the state pension. Does she have a widows pension? Inheritance?

Did she have a partner? Children? care for someone? Other means of passive income?

NI contributions continue if you are claiming certain contributions.

She probably be better off than most.
Pension tax credit
Winter fuel allowance
Rent paid
No council tax to pay.

Pension credit is available for those who don't have income over £11k. Plus housing benefit etc if she rents. Same as now basically.

Unless she has a partner who pays for everything now, then she must be receiving some sort of benefits to pay her bills now, surely. She will continue to receive a form of benefits once she retires, so no difference really.

She’s married and her husband works as a lorry driver. They had a mortgage, which I believed has been paid off

Presumably he has a pension? Or is going to keep working? Not sure what relevance her reaching retirement age has to their situation?

She will live off her husband’s pension. Hopefully he has been paying her NI contributions over the years to give them something a little extra.

If she was raising children/ claiming child benefit I think she'd have had NI credits for home responsibility for some of the years. Otherwise basic state pension. It would be up to her and her husband to discuss and work out finances for their retirement though. Maybe they have savings/ investments

You get ni credits from the birth of your first child until your last child is 12. Then you can pay voluntarily to fill any gaps. Most women should be aware of this and taking advantage of it

We had this issue with my grandmother, never worked her whole life. They lived off my grandad's pension but when he passed away we were worried she'd be left destitue. She ended up on pension credit, that came hand in hand with the winter fuel payment and other entitlements and she had never been so well off. Obviously I'm glad that it worked out for her but the entire system is absolutely ridiculous.

If they have paid off their mortgage they are not in a bad position...that is usually people's biggest expense.

They will get by with his pension and benefits.

She will carry on as she is now….living from her partners money

If her partner is state pension age then he is expected to keep her from his state pension and any private pensions. they can look at pension credit/ housing benefit ( if they rent) and council tax support if their income is low enough.

I’m fairly sure she’ll get the basic state pension and if her DH claims his pension and retires they’ll qualify for benefits if below a certain level. I’d actually be better off financially if I’d not paid a private pension as I’m taxed on the whole State plus private and no benefits.

If she's never worked and won't have qualified for the sort of benefit that pays your NI contributions for very long, she's unlikely to get the full state pension. As she's had DC there'll likely be partial contributions from child benefit years, but on the info given I can't see how there'd be anything else.

There are top up benefits like pension credit, which they might qualify for depending on her partner's private provision. If they don't, he'd be expected to keep her.

She may have made voluntary contributions and will get a full state pension.

Yes that's true. And if she hasn't, it may not be too late for some.

OP how old is your aunt? If she hasn't already, she should go on the government gateway and see how many years contributions she has. Should be able to give an estimate of what she'd get. She may also be able to make some voluntary contributions now, particularly if 'approaching' means a few years away rather than a few weeks.

On the subject of payments she may have made that we don't know about, nothing to say she doesn't have a private pension that they've made payments into from household income either.

This is where the whole system is so wrong.
if you’ve never worked you still get a pension, albeit the bare minimum, plus
pension credit and winter fuel allowance which compared to someone who has worked hard, paid in contributions, small private pension but who now get just over the threshold so now not qualify for winter fuel payments which to a pensioner was so important. Home all day in the winter, many with compromised immune deficiencies which mean they feel the cold even more so have to keep the house warm.
Does it pay to work, like heck it does. You end up with more benefits if you’ve never worked in your life.

As others here have said If she has been at home with children, then this will count toward pension payments.If not then there will be raft of benefits she is entitled to ,She should maybe contact CAB for help and advice

Same with my mum, she's even better off now on her pension and doesn't pay council tax on her large bungalow either. She's also entitled to lots of other payments.

She still moans about everything to do with the country though, despite not working most of her life (did a couple of years part time) while all us idiots work our arses off and won't have as comfortable a retirement.

Does make me laugh when she tells people she's retired - how can you retire from sitting on your arse?

I'm not sure this is anything to do with the benefit system, more the economic circumstances (and attitudes) throughout the "boomer" generation which allows comfortable retirements with little effort.

Most women of my mum's age either didn't work or worked very part time. All retired in their late 50s/early 60s.

Presumably her DH is ok with her not working. He'll have a pension.