Pension for life-long SAHP

[LindorDoubleChoc]

What happens when you reach retirement age if you have always been a stay at home parent and your partner retires and doesn't have the income to sustain two people?

Quite niche - but we were talking about relatives of our inlaws where the wife SAH forever, the husband had an above average paying job and reasonable pension I guess (but by no means flashy or wealthy). Now he's retired and not working so will receive state pension and his company pension.

What is the SAHP entitled to in terms of state pension? Are they now better off than when they weren't working? Is it means tested in terms of family income?

Go back earlier than the 2000s…. When I had my first baby, a woman could have a baby as a single parent and not even have to look for work, just claim benefits until the kid was age 12! And then of course could pop out another kid and the whole shebang would start again!

However, anyone relying on benefits for all of the majority of their adult life is in for a shock once they can’t claim child- related benefits and when they realise they have the bare minimum to survive on in older age. Even the full state pension is pretty crap when you think some people only rely on that.

It was 16 years when my mother went back to work in 2000
She had had part-time jobs up until that point but she was under no obligation to do so until my brother turned 16 at which point the pressure was on
But I believe she was 43
She had been completely retrained College with none of these loans or student finance

OK so I am firmly on the judgey-of-the-workshy end of the spectrum but surely you can't argue that fostering children is easier than working! I would rather do pretty much any job than be a foster parent (I really admire anyone who could do it, I'd find it way too hard).

£1.3 trillion
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/public-sector-pensions

How did she access her pension at 50? Retirement age for teachers was 60 and is now 67

It must have been available earlier than 60 @Superhansrantowindsor , I am a teacher and my grandparents were both teachers, both retired by 55. Grandad died at 92, gran still alive at 93, 30 years of pension and living well on it! Meanwhile I pay a huge contribution of my salary to pensions every month and at the moment I'll be allowed it at something like 68. Fully expect that will just disappear though 🙄

I find it amazing how so many people on here know so many people who are 90+. My father medically retired at 58 due to ill health and was dead a few years later at 64 (before official retirement age). My mother died a few years not long after official retirement age at 69. My uncle got a very decent police pension which I believe he took at 60. He was dead by 71. My aunt was a care worker with no work pension but it didn’t really matter in the end as she was dead by 64.

Also everyone on here almost seems to imply that those older people getting decent pensions and living a long time have almost done it on purpose and are saying ner-ner to everyone younger. If you know a 90 year old who retired at 55 I really really doubt they did it deliberately thinking great if I retire now and do my best to live a really long time my children and grandchildren will have to work until they are 70+ and have a terrible old age!!!! In reality I doubt many of them expected to live that long and naively assumed everyone would get the same later on. It’s funny though as I thought it was boomers and boomers alone who were the world’s destroyers. If someone is 90+ they aren’t a boomer.

My mum was born in 1947 and never worked a proper paid job. She did some agricultural work and cash in hand home working such as ironing and childcare. Also had a large family with 16 years between first and last. She got her pension at 60. My dad is well off with a huge company pension so it was a bonus for them and personal spending money for her

I have a friend like this. She had her first child at 18 and her last at 46 with several in between. It’s not impossible to be a SAHP all your life, just unusual. She gets a full state pension due to NI credits.

It’s funny you mentioned that but if you actually read my post she’s had heart surgery in her 60s and now she’s going to have heart surgery again so yeah she’s doing it on purpose
I don’t know whether I would have such intrusive surgery even in my 50s but then I suppose I don’t have quite so much to live for, certainly not three grand a month
And it’s funny of you mentioning it, but she is actually the only elderly person I’ve ever met that’s made it over the age of 75
I wonder if that’s because she retired at 55
Clever woman

Early retirement (with a reduced pension) is 55 for teachers.

And it 50, forty years ago when she first accessed hers.
I can remember talking about pensions with my dad when I was 20 and him telling me how I could retire at 50 and that was only 30 years ago
The goal posts have been moved

Something is wrong when a grown adult has spent her entire life living off the back of someone else.

Had she worked and paid into a pension they would have a decent retirement. Shame her husband won’t.

You wouldn’t want to extend your life once you reach your 50s? I find that mad. I’m mid 40s and if I’m diagnosed with something in 5 years I’m certainly going to try and save myself if I can. And I’m self employed. No workplace pension at all. Quite frankly I’m fucked in old age. I’m still not planning on letting myself die at 55.

Also I didn’t mention any specific comment or 90 year old so my post wasn’t aimed just at you. Just that I always see people mentioning 90+ year olds on these threads but I don’t think I’ve ever met one in real life. It’s certainly not the norm in my circles.

I think we need to give serious consideration to quality of life and the quality of those that we’ve created and that we’ve left behind.

Spending money just to exist sat in a chair pissing yourself is madness
I watched a friend slowly die of cancer for four years at the age of 44 and you wouldn’t have allowed a dog to go through it.
Everything has to be weighed up and considered
And of course they don’t chop you up like a side of beef anymore for heart surgery
But they would’ve when she was 60.
It’s a lot for anybody to go through physically and mentally

It’s not a relationship I’d want - on either side. Either living off someone else my entire adult life, or being the partner earning to facilitate that.

So has she been sitting in a chair pissing herself for the last 30 years since her heart op at 60ish? Or has she had quite a lot of decent years since then? I actually agree with the quality of life issue. If you truly are sitting in a chair dribbling and not knowing who you are then no you shouldn’t be having any serious life changing surgery (and I’m not sure doctors would do it either). But at 50s/60s with a decent quality of life for another 10-20 years? Absolutely I’d be doing it.

There's an old saying "Don't count another person's money" and I think this applies here.

No she hasn’t. She started to deteriorate. I would say at 80
So she had 10 good years post op, another 10 okish
I definitely wouldn’t be having this second operation that was what I meant. The last 10 years of her not knowing what day it is, is sad to watch.

And I seriously question the motivation behind it given that she isn’t even spending the pension money anymore. It’s dripping straight into the exes pocket.

Without generous pensions that only pay out at 67 for most people and 57 for those lucky enough to have private ones
We will need to start thinking about life-prolonging surgeries and treatments from 60 onwards.

Very true. There are always complexities to people’s finance and personal circumstances. There are aspects of my health my own mother doesn’t know about. People could be claiming all sorts and you wouldn’t know. People might have inheritance or a lottery win and you wouldn’t know. People think they confidently know people’s personal finances and unless they have power of attorney or complete access to someone’s entire financial records they won’t know everything.

If you’re going to stop any life saving surgeries for anyone 60+ then what about younger people with severe disabilities? Someone with severe learning disabilities aged 20 needs heart surgery. Do we let them die? They don’t know what day it is either.

Obviously, we’re going down a different rabbit hole here but we’re talking about very different numbers in terms of the cold hard cash being delivered into the family
People with disability benefits aren’t getting three grand a month, plus lump sums of capital etc
I appreciate that their care costs a lot more.

The husbands salary? If he has a reasonable workplace pension and state pension they should be able to manage. Why did the wife choose not to work after the DC became adults?

A few people have stated that if her state pension is low enough she'd be entitled to Pension Credit to top it up. I just want to clarify that Pension credit is calculated on the couple's joint income and savings, not the individual's, so she wouldn't necessarily be entitled

I don’t think she’d be entitled to Pension Credit as it’s assessed on household income so his pension may take them above the threshold. She may be entitled to a small pension in her own right but I would imagine she will have to be supported financially by him. Not a great position to be in and leaves her vulnerable but depends what their relationship is like.