Do you have a pension?

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I've been a stay-at-home mum for nearly 14 years! Previously, I had a company pension. For the past 14 years I haven't paid into any sort of pension. I wondered if any of you stay-at-home mums have been paying into pensions and if so what sort. Am I right in thinking that if I paid an amount into a private pension, the government would make a contribution? Should I be trying to make up for lost years? I'm so confused! I'm wondering if I've messed up on pensions. Any thoughts much appreciated.

No

I don't have a pension, as I graduated 7 months pregnant, SAH for a few years, then once the DCs were school age my job was too low paid to allow pension contributions.
I'm now self-employed, and hope to be able to start a pension next year (at the grand old age of 36). There always seems to be something else the money could be better spent on, at this rate I'll be working until I drop.
Oddly, we've always saved for the DCs futures, but not my retirement.

After the announcement about the changes to pensions rules (no longer needing to take out an annuity), I took out a personal pension plan. I put in £2880 for the lat year year and £2880 for the current tax year and intend to do the same for the next 20 odd years. It won't give me a significant pension pot but it's a pretty efficient way of saving. You'd asked about the govt contribution- the govt tops up my £2880 by £720 so I have a total of £3600 as an initial investment.

I put £240 a month into a Hargreaves lansdown SIPP and the government pays £60. Been doing this for the last 4 years since I stopped my company pension after leaving the company. Regardless of whether it is enough, it's all I can afford and it's all I'm prepared to pay into a pension...who knows if I'll even live to pensionable age. I am 43.

I do not have a pension.
I have no intention of taking out a pension.
I fill up my ISAs each year and have other savings.
I also do not plan to retire.

DC pension schemes are an UTTER con. THE charges on them wipe out most gains on the funds, even with the new rules.

The charges for an shares/funds/equity SIPP are no different to an shares/funds/equity Isa for Hargreaves lansdown and fidelity. Plus you get the government contribution.

But I don't like the last of transparency around pension rules and they just keep changing....

Lack of transparency

but the ISA limit is a LOT higher than the pension limit for low earners, the money can be extracted when needed and the income will be tax free - unlike a pension

pensions are ONLY worth it for higher rate taxpayers.

private pensions x2 which will just about buy us a latte each every week!
rest is in property, premium bonds, work pensions and savings.
both plan on retiring at 55

Yes. It's v important that women do plan for old age, whatever route you take. I know several OAPs living in poverty and misery. Please do not leave yourself vulnerable. The likelihood is that we will live into our 80s, the stats don't lie. There will always be something else to spend on.

I've been paying into my teacher's pension since 94 but took an 8 year gap when I didn't Pay in much apart from about £4000 AVCs. My dh has an NHS pension

It all comes down to whether you plan to retire.
My profession has never done so. I do not plan to.
I intend to take every other month off as I get older, but I cannot envisage not working.

Pensions have been around for about 100 years. THey are no longer fit for purpose.
Best avoided IMHO

You really don't like personal pensions, do you TalkinPeace?

If they hadn't changed the rules around annuities I wouldn't have touched them. However, with both of us using up our ISA allowances, it's an efficient way to invest some spare cash. The only other way I can think to get a govt boost is through VCTs but there are some problems with them and HMRC right now. I'm not intending to use the eventual payout as a pension but as another pot of money available at retirement.

Taz that makes sense.
Pensions might have had their day as the be all and end all pot that you retire on.
Now having several different pots is probably the way forward, which in our case work pensions are 2 of those pots. private ones are not going to give us much, as I mentioned above, but it's still another pot. at the moment it all adds up to a decent retirement fund.

It's all about planning- putting away what you can, paying off your mortgage as soon as you can, not getting into debt if possible, but equally not getting obsessed with it all so much that you miss out on things now. that's a miserable life.
there's loads of threads on MSE about pensions/savings etc.

TBH, with the ISA limit at £11,000 per person per year, plus £3000 per child per year, those with enough cash to go on beyond that amount of savings per year are such a tiny minority that pensions really are an irrelevance

I post on debt threads : people who will never ever have proper savings and are often in jobs where if there is a pension its of the DC 8% total variety that will pay our burger all when they are too knackered to work any more.

hence why I plan to keep working - but only at certain times of year

I have a pension via work - was a teacher; now still in education.

DH saves a fair amount each month into a personal pension.

Ah, the golden land that is DB pensions ....

they went out the window in the private sector about 20 years ago

they add 20% to the cost of every public sector worker (well 19.6% actually)

Get your pensions sorted is my advice.

Took enforced early retirement from public sector. I'm sitting pretty on a lump sum which will pay off my mortgage and yearly income of £12k. That's after 23 years of working.

You just never know what's around the corner.

with no earnings or earnings of less than £2880, I understand that the most that you can pay into a pension is £2880 a year. The government will make this up to £3600 so I think it is worth doing for that alone.

this is what I do as I my earnings are less than that figure.

cash ISA about to go up to £15k I think. But good luck finding anything that pays near inflation.

Yes. One with my current employer and a private one I pay £10 into each month. And an old local government one from a previous job.

I was in a company scheme before my son was born. My working life was curtailed as I had to give up work to take care of my son who is registered blind and quadriplegic. the £60 a week paltry Carers Allowance does not allow me to save let alone contribute to a private pension. I will get the state pension but we all know that is not going to provide a decent amount to live on hence the Government pushing everyone to join pension schemes. They have forgotten about Carers (Shafted yet again).