To talk about pensions? No, don't scroll down!!

[JFDIYOLO]

So many women who come to this community are financially vulnerable as well as physically and emotionally.

Understanding your and your partner's finances is essential.

If you give up your career, income, savings, state and workplace pension to become a stay at home partner and mother … please think.

If you are married, whatever he tells you, you co-own everything in the marriage, including savings, pensions, assets. And that goes both ways.

If he won't marry you - if he's dangled the marriage mirage in front of you - yet you have given all that up to be an unpaid housekeeper / carer - you and any children are in a very precarious position.

You need to have worked and paid NI to qualify for state pension - details https://www.gov.uk/browse/working/state-pension 

If you work, your employer must automatically enroll you into a workplace pension https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/work/employment/automatic-enrolment-what-to-expect-from-your-employer 

Know your rights, and your finances - this is your and your children's future.

Your children can be beneficiaries of your pension, think of it as helping them out. Sorry to hear your life expectancy is reduced [bouquet]

Beneficiaries of a private plan that is, not your state pension.

I actually agree with you - but when you see advice on here with people pointing out the pension implications it's usually because folk are asking advice about leaving jobs or going part-time and GOOD advice on thinking about the pension implications, quite rightly should be included for people to think about, surely?

How the advice is worded is surely still just advice. And for some people leaving the Public Sector or going part time and depending on many things, including their age , may be strongly contra-indicated. People provide advice based on what they know of the person's circumstances

The Most important thing is, as you have said and with which I totally agree, is that any decision must be well-informed and people need to understand the impacts of different courses of action. Trouble is Pension rules are very complicated and many people have real difficulty getting their heads around them

I think she may be referring to the fact that her state pension contributions are paid whilst claiming child benefit.

Oh that makes more sense!! That's surely time limited though. It's definitely something women should think about sadly I've seen several female relatives screwed over and it made me adamant I was going back to work after Mat leave

@Willyoujustbequiet i think the poster meant the amount will be small because 18 years (and you don’t actually get 18, just until youngest is 12) is no where near a full NI contribution and the state pension you receive would be very small

@Willyoujustbequiet ignore me, just seen she didn’t mean that at all 🤣

I thought they were referring to the fact that they received it as income and we're saving it. I'm very sleep deprived though so misunderstood

You don't actually have to be receiving child benefit to get NI contributions whilst being a SAHP. We are not eligible for child benefit ( husband earns over the threshold) but I get NI contributions. You just have to register with the child benefits people to activate this. Unfortunately I didn't realise this for several years

DC are all spaced out though. I couldn't have mine in quick succession. Eldest is 16, youngest 6. That's a lot of time spent as a SAHM. No regrets though as I have long term health issues so it brings me joy seeing them grow up.

Bingo! Glad to see someone on the thread is paying attention.

A decent income for a single person on a pension is 20k.

The state pension is about 10k. Get a personal pension otherwise you may be struggling in retirement

Thanks, much appreciated. Long term health issues mean it's unlikely I will be out working in the career I studied for years ago. I am just enjoying my children as they grow up and supporting them with exam revision and so on. It's a shame people are so fixated on money. Unfortunately some of us can't have a tidy pension pot.

Agree with a lot of the points made so far.

I would also add that if you are claiming universal credit, any money you put into your pension isn't counted as income. So you may as well put as much as possible in. It's one thing you can do while on a low wage to help yourself in the future.

ex Public sector here. I went part time due to the diminishing returns as pension was based on whole time salary. Although I think this was changed, but I just couldn’t stomach the role full time

On the pensions ‘obsession’ : of course people should make the choice to take a period out as a SAHM, but people need to think about and make provision for the future. Pensions is an area of huge discrepancy between men and women’s financial health.

Taking time out isn’t just a matter of the cash. I would say, especially if you are not married, if one partner takes time out to raise kids, then pensions contributions should continue to be made from the total family income into the SAHP’s pension.