Page 9 | To be shocked if this is true . State pension and benefits …?

Springtimesoo · 2023-03-01T15:22:34+00:00

I have worked all my life apart from 4 year degree( 3 year plus prof qualification ) and a period at home when I had 2 dc under two and we could not afford nursery fees. have just checked my pension forcast Which says that although I have paid 35 years in full , i will not get a full pension . it seems that to get a full pension i need to pay just over 3k . my friend , who is by choice long term unemployed. ( long story) says that she will get a full pension as she is on benefits . how is that fair ? Its not true is it ?

HumourReplacementTherapy · 01/03/2023 17:41

So Is there anything you can do for years you were contracted out (as opposed to missing years )
Mine says my state pension cannot be improved but it does have a figure to show a reduction as contracred out I've been working (not always full time) since I was 16. I'm now 52.
Civil service pension since 1998.

ancientgran · 01/03/2023 17:41

Elodie09 · 01/03/2023 17:34

Have a look at the WASPI f/b page ,the amount of women in that group who have worked for 50 years ( left school at 16) and still won't get a full State pension.
Their campaign is not about the age rise to 66, it is about the lack if information and notice given to allow people to prepare for a massive age hike from 60-66.

I think younger people might be aware now of how Govt can change things quietly without people being made aware.

If I was relying on a state pension I would not be voting Tory, the think tanks are already discussing this.

That's true. I wonder how many people who are complaining about this had any sympathy for the WASPI women?

Notellinganyone · 01/03/2023 17:41

I assume though that you will also have a supplementary pension through work. The full state pension isn’t really enough to live on.

xJoy · 01/03/2023 17:41

lljkk · 01/03/2023 16:03

I've lived in UK for 31 years.
I was SAHM for 8 years.
I worked part time a lot of the other 24 years.
I presume that claiming Child Benefit isn't what thread is moaning about. It's the only benefit I claimed.
Somehow I have a full pension entitlement already.
Says the Govt Gateway. Not sure how, but maybe my situation isn't fair either.

Something along the lines of a credit for being at home while your children were at school I'm guessing.

This was only brought in relatively recently but before brexit, to protect women from always having shitter pensions. I am paraphrasing.

Imthegingerbreadwoman · 01/03/2023 17:44

Just checked mine as you prompted me. I'm quite surprised that my Saturday job at 15 has been Included! I'm 31 and I had 52 weeks contributed at 15 years old according to my record.

It also says I need to contribute another 37 years to contribute before 2059 and that I have also made 15 years contribution already at aged 31 so by 2059 I would have made 52 years contribution at the age of 67.

It also says I will get the full state pension if I pay into another 19 years worth before 2059.

At the moment I would be entitled to £86.32 a week when I reach pension age. But if I pay into another 19 years before 2059 I will get £185.15 a week.

Mossstitch · 01/03/2023 17:45

FirstnameSuesecondnamePerb · 01/03/2023 17:01

I am 55 with 37 full years of contributions. I expect to lose some due to being contracted out. But if I don't retire until 67, I've got another 12 years of non contracted out contributions. I wonder if they will offset my contracted out years.

I think it might. I took NHS pension early after being in the scheme for about 13 years (59) at which point I checked and said wouldn't get full state pension due to contracted out (first time I had heard about it, nobody explains these things to you and I think it is beyond ordinary people to understand the systems especially when they keep changing the rules!) But having recently checked it now says that I will get full pension, i have been doing bank shifts without paying into pension for about 5 years and have I think it said 44 full years NI contributions😳

IClaudine · 01/03/2023 17:47

HumourReplacementTherapy · 01/03/2023 17:41

So Is there anything you can do for years you were contracted out (as opposed to missing years )
Mine says my state pension cannot be improved but it does have a figure to show a reduction as contracred out I've been working (not always full time) since I was 16. I'm now 52.
Civil service pension since 1998.

The reason your state pension amount can't be improved is because there is a maximum anyone can receive. If you are still working you have plenty of time to keep contributing in order to get the max amount.

The part you contracted out for was additional State Pension, over and above the main state pension. You will get that as part of your civil service pension.

Imthegingerbreadwoman · 01/03/2023 17:48

I assume you can apply for UC at pension age if renting? As I can't imagine I would survive by 2059! Not able to save due to how much everything costs and unlikely to ever have my own property.

Fredoraly · 01/03/2023 17:48

I am 56, entitled to full state pension and cannot now add more or improve the forecast.

ancientgran · 01/03/2023 17:48

I don't understand what is so hard to understand, people who benefitted from paying reduced NI or some of their NI going into their private pension will lose what was S2P and is now the new state pension.

Works pension were a good deal, reduced NI, employer contribution means you should more than cover the reduced state pension.

Schoolchoicesucks · 01/03/2023 17:49

Can anyone confirm whether they still reduce the pension if you were only contracted out for a short time and have over 35 years of full (non- contracted out) contributions?

I will have paid NI for 40+ years by retirement, was contracted out for 2 of those years. So will have paid 38+ years of full contributions. Will I still get 2 years knocked off from the full state pension amount?

RattlewhenIwalk · 01/03/2023 17:50

I hope not as I'm too late too pay for missing years and I don't think I'm capable of working to 67+.

I wonder how many people will be.

ancientgran · 01/03/2023 17:51

HumourReplacementTherapy · 01/03/2023 17:41

So Is there anything you can do for years you were contracted out (as opposed to missing years )
Mine says my state pension cannot be improved but it does have a figure to show a reduction as contracred out I've been working (not always full time) since I was 16. I'm now 52.
Civil service pension since 1998.

Have you got 16 years till retirement? You were contracted out in civil service pension for 18 years so you will be almost there, maybe you had some non contracted out years before the civil service? You may well get the full pension or at worst a small reduction.

evilharpy · 01/03/2023 17:52

RedCarsGoFaster · 01/03/2023 15:36

Have you also checked your proper forecast with HMRC? It's very clear on their portal what you'll be entitled to. I've attached mine. FWIW, I'm early 40s with 24yrs full NI contributions and 2 partial where I didn't earn enough at university to get qualifying years.

Mine is exactly the same - also 42 and have 2 years where I didn't contribute enough in the early 2000s. I've worked part time for at least 9 of those years. I need to contribute another 9 years.

IClaudine · 01/03/2023 17:53

ancientgran · 01/03/2023 17:48

I don't understand what is so hard to understand, people who benefitted from paying reduced NI or some of their NI going into their private pension will lose what was S2P and is now the new state pension.

Works pension were a good deal, reduced NI, employer contribution means you should more than cover the reduced state pension.

Yeah I don't understand either. People seem to think they have been ripped off because they aren't going to receive an element of their state pension which they opted out of contributing to via the state scheme. Whereas in fact they will receive it, just from the pension provider they redirected those contributions to.

But hey, it is all the fault of those benefit scroungers.

Oblomov23 · 01/03/2023 17:53

I need to check mine out. It all seems very unfair to me.

Bramshott · 01/03/2023 17:53

Schoolchoicesucks · 01/03/2023 17:49

Can anyone confirm whether they still reduce the pension if you were only contracted out for a short time and have over 35 years of full (non- contracted out) contributions?

I will have paid NI for 40+ years by retirement, was contracted out for 2 of those years. So will have paid 38+ years of full contributions. Will I still get 2 years knocked off from the full state pension amount?

I believe they don't reduce it in this scenario. I was contracted out for a few years in the 90s, then contracted back in again and now my forecast tells me I have enough full qualifying years to get the full amount.

SlouchingTowardsBethlehemAgain · 01/03/2023 17:53

Not right to be moaning about people on benefits. Research coming out over the last few days showing how benefits are no where near enough to live on. Also please note that most people receiving benefits are also in work.

AlwaysLatte · 01/03/2023 17:53

That doesn't make sense. I'm 52 and have 30 full years but my forecast says I only need to pay two more for a full pension. I'm hoping I can pay this in advance for the next two years as I'm retired and youngest has turned 12 this year so I believe I lose the stamps contribution. Does anyone know if you can pay the 'gaps' in advance? If so I'm keen to do this before April when you can no longer pay for the gaps.

LakieLady · 01/03/2023 17:54

AmandaJonah · 01/03/2023 17:16

I did not contract out. I paid a private pension and the pension provider did this. I would have stayed in SERPS if I could have. I could not unless I did not take out a private pension. We had no choice. We were not even told our state pension would be reduced as a result.

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I was in SERPS for a fair chunk of my working life. The extra pension I get above the full state pension amount is £4 and a few pence a week.

I worked for 49 years before I got my state pension. My MIL, who only worked for 20 years in her entire life gets a small SRP, topped up by pension credit. Her income from the state is only £7 a week less than mine. Plus she gets full housing benefit for her lovely 2-bedroom council house and doesn't have to pay any council tax. She gets much more from the public purse than I do. I don't resent it though, because she spent most of those years out of the workplace bringing up 4 wonderful human beings.

Thankfully, I get a small pension, approx £260 a month before tax, from the years I worked in the public sector. I'm still working, partly so that I can tart my house up, flog it, and release some equity so that I have some capital to enjoy myself with before I go gaga and end up in a care home.

VanGoghsDog · 01/03/2023 17:56

AmandaJonah · 01/03/2023 17:10

@Riddlydiddlydee Nobody was told at the time. And you did not have a choice if you had certain private pensions. You either had no private pension or you had to accept being contracted out. The government at the time explicitly said less NI was to encourage people to take out a private pension.
I think people who are younger probably do not understand. We had no real choice.

This isn't true. I joined my co pension scheme in 1999 and I was definitely told it was contracted out of SERPS and that I had a choice not to contract out. I knew exactly what it meant because it was all explained.

So you cannot state "nobody was told". Some people were.

closethedrawer · 01/03/2023 17:57

Not read the full thread but I was contracted out for a few years, this is what it says about it for me on the government website. Therefore it doesn't come out of your state pension but the private pension you were paying into, for me it was a company pension.

To be shocked if this is true . State pension and benefits …?

Daisymaybe60 · 01/03/2023 17:58

I haven’t noticed anyone on the thread saying that they are in this position, but just in case it helps anyone….

If you left paid work before state pension age, as I did, to help out with childcare for grandchildren, you can get transferred to you the credits a working parent of the child would have been entitled to if they were a SAHP. You don’t have to do full-time childcare to be entitled to this. Basically it’s a way of making up extra years without having to pay for them. The parent has to have registered that they are eligible for Child Benefit, whether claiming it or not. At the moment you can backdate your claim to 2011, but I don’t know whether this is going to change soon in line with the ability to buy up missing years. Claiming is straightforward, or at least was when I did it. 😊

www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-credits-for-adults-who-care-for-a-child-under-12-fact-sheet/specified-adult-childcare-credits-fact-sheet

AnybodyAnywhere · 01/03/2023 17:58

ancientgran · 01/03/2023 16:36

So have you got a private pension, a pension from your employment? If so were you contracted out? If you were you weren't paying full NI and you should get the benefit in your private pension.

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This is a very good point which I hadn’t considered, or even been really aware of …

I DO have a work pension so I shall try to find out.
Thank you!

Schoolchoicesucks · 01/03/2023 18:01

VanGoghsDog · 01/03/2023 17:56

This isn't true. I joined my co pension scheme in 1999 and I was definitely told it was contracted out of SERPS and that I had a choice not to contract out. I knew exactly what it meant because it was all explained.

So you cannot state "nobody was told". Some people were.

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In my case, you couldn't choose not to opt out without opting out of the whole pension scheme. So it was either opt out and get a work pension contribution, or pay full NI and lose the work contribution. There was no option to pay full NI contributions and join the workplace scheme.