Women and pensions

[Gin96]

AIBU to think women are short changed when it comes to pensions? The amount of women I speak to who don’t have a private pension. A lady I work with is 67, she only has a state pension and can’t afford to retire. Ladies in there 40’s with no pension at all, they don’t think it’s a problem as the state will provide for them. Why are we not taught in school about finances and pensions? As I get nearer to retirement age I am suddenly taking an interest and it is a mind field trying to work it out.

My mum wasn’t allowed to go back to work. She worked for a big bank and they didn’t employ mothers. It was only in the early 80s women got maternity rights. In the civil service married women weren’t even employed in the 70s.

Where do people get this gibberish from? I works in the city in the 80's, as a school leaver and it was full of married women. DH worked in the civil service, full of married women. BTW Maternity Allowance as it waws back then, came in in 1911. The 'Mariage Bar' was reduced in the 1940's and completely doen away with in the 1960's

www.striking-women.org/module/workplace-issues-past-and-present/maternity-and-paternity-leave-and-pay
The Marriage bar was done away with in the 1940's.

Things are not any better for disabled people, unable to work on benefits; and SAHPs, caring for a disabled child, particularly with medical conditions, because of lack of specialised childcare, all the appointments and paperwork - who can only get carer’s allowance!

But you have access to a host of other financial benefits.

There were lots of scandals around private pensions in the 80s and 90s (not the workplace ones). They weren't seen as a good investment at all. High fees, no transparency, losing value, a black hole of being sold on to faceless corporations that name-changed. They are more transparent now.
That's partly why ISAs were well-received and taken up by almost everybody - low earners included.

@MyOpinionIsValid
My mum was not allowed to return to Lloyds Bank as a cashier when she had me in 1978. They definitely didn’t allow it.
She found other employment but some areas did still reject the idea of working mothers. I can’t comment on whether this was legal-but she certainly had no choice (and if it was illegal then she certainly wasn’t equipped to challenge it).

I think people need to take responsibility for themselves. If people want to retire, they are going to need money to pay for that and the state pension won’t be enough.

I appreciate there are some who cannot afford to save into a pension, but it is a matter of prioritising putting a little money away to save for retirement is they can. Unless you are 100% sure you are getting a decent inheritance to pay for your retirement or are able/prepared to downsize everyone needs to think about this, of both genders. It is boring but necessary.

A lot of my generation don't like pensions, we've seen too many people pay substantial amounts and be left with nothing.
Just because a person hasn't got a pension doesn't mean they haven't made provision.

If asked I'd say I didn't have one, but provision is most definitely there.
I was a sahm for 30 years, you don't need to be employment to make provision.

They are taught in schools about finances and pensions. The curriculum has evolved in the 40 years since I left school

So that's OK.

Kids don't hand in homework on time, or know how to use the apostrophe and you really think they're going to pay attention to teachers about pensions?

We started pensions for our kids as a savings scheme when they were born. We are only paying in £20 per month per child, but starting so early gives them a big head start.

And unlike other forms of savings, they can't fritter the lot away when they're 18 or 21.

My two older children who are in secondary now have been taught about pensions. At least the basics of "join the scheme, make the contributions" and about the importance of saving for retirement.

But you have access to a host of other financial benefits.

Like what in respect of pensions?

This thread is at risk of getting derailed by other issues. If someone can’t work at all due to eg: having a disability, then that’s an important issue and worthy of discussion. But this thread is about women and pensions and the particular issues that affect them as a group, and the importance for women to take financial responsibility for themselves

Echt - I tend to agree. I think in very general terms it’s useful for schools to play a role in discussing the basics, but tbh they can’t be expected to do more than that and children probably wouldn’t take much in. I do think pensions are talked about more now though than ever before, and auto enrolment is an excellent thing in forcing you to at least think about it.

Women have not been short changed,.

Women haven't been shory changed. Everyone needs to take responsibility for themselves

Another thing expected from schools. Tell your own kids, don't rely on others.
parents owe it to their dc to educate them with life skills.

I was a mother in the 80's. I took financial advice about pensions which was one of the reasons I returned to work as soon as my youngest was at school.
Some posters even today are in denial about pensions and seem to think that they have a right to either not work or have a part time job that pays minimum wage.
Even if you are partnered and relying on his pension, if anything happens to him his pension is cut in half

Isn't part of the issue some women paid "married women's stamp" and therefore didn't build up their own NI entitlement?

I'm sure that's why my MIL doesn't have a full pension.

I set up a pension for DS when he was 5. We pay into it now, but as soon as he starts work, we'll get him paying in instead. On the school's point, DS recently did a finance course at lunchtime which did include pensions, credit cards, bank accounts etc.

If one of your relatives have helped out with child care and you claimed CH and were working, you can apply to transfer the CB credits to them. That boots their NI years and can give them a higher pension. Think you can go back to 2011. If you look on gov.uk about transferring childcare credits to another adult it's got the info there.

A lot of people expect to be 'pensioners' with a good standard of living for 30+ years. That paradigm was never meant to last. It's a Ponzi scheme.

Even if you are partnered and relying on his pension, if anything happens to him his pension is cut in half.

Even with a SIPP - assuming the capital has been left intact, doesn’t the whole sum pass on, in accordance with the will or laws of intestacy and therefore the whole income arising from it?

Even today, when pensions are common and fair and well advertised people opt out. My pension is LGPS. You can't get better than that, yet colleagues still opt out.

@mrsmuddlepies that’s not true that you get half of a partner’s pension if they die. It entirely depends on the type of pension and any scheme rules for it.

Final Salary scheme? 50% is common, but not guaranteed - and you may not be the nominated beneficiary if you’re a ‘partner’ not a spouse.

Defined Contribution - possibly you’ll get 100% of it.

Defined Contribution that has already been converted to a single life annuity? You’ll get nothing.

Mother worked in private industry and had a really good pension, I was public sector and then higher education so have two decent pensions.

We were taught some financial things in school in the early 1980’s, how to write a cheque springs or mind. My general studies teacher who was a militant labour supporter told us about the evils of the stock market. I had never even heard of it, he did me the biggest favour as I decided to find out about economics and money.

My sisters are in the low pay, part time work and lots of time spent raising dc and not doing paid employment pension trap. Which is what your referring to.

Schools can’t teach everything. They do teach some financial awareness I believe though. But I think it should anyway be limited to teaching children to think, budget and plan. No point in covering details of current pension legislation that can and will change.

Responsibly lies with parents, but it also lies with people themselves. It’s not rocket science that you’ll need money to live on when you stop working.

OP, you say you’re interested now but it’s a minefield. Then ask questions! What do you need to know? There are plenty of women on MN who know about pensions.

Another here who has a good pension (LGPS). Also saving what I can into S&S ISA & overpaying mortgage.

My (male) partner's pension is rubbish.

Agree that everyone has to take responsibility for themselves.

Most people will have to go on working it seems

They are taught in schools about finances and pensions.

Adds are 15 and 18 and go to an outstanding school. They have not had any teaching on finances or pensions other than how interest is calculated in maths.