STATE PENSION

Hi Brunette10, there’s a distinction between having to keep paying NI until you reach state retirement year because you are still working, and not yet having enough contributing years for the full new state pension. You could have someone who already has enough years of NI contributions to get the new state pension, have not yet reached retirement age, but because they still work have to keep paying NI even though it won’t increase their state pension.

I was wondering if it’s possible that you already have enough years of NI contributions to get the full new state pension, and what the website is telling you is the years you would need to keep contributing NI if you were still working.

The government site should tell you exactly how many more years you need to pay NI contributions for in orderly qualify for new state pension, and also tell you separately how many years you have to pay NI for if still working.

Thank you Tony2018 you have been very helpful-and patient

Tony2018 - thanks for all this information, it has helped me a bit. I will phone them soon and just see what they are saying. You have been very helpful indeed. It is minefield. I maybe should have looked more closely at it before now but it's just one of these things. Just thought it was the time element that had changed and not actually what I would receive. Anyway thank you so much once again. You've been great. - Brunette.

I maybe should have looked more closely at it before now

Why would you, Brunette10? We women of a certain age have been comprehensively shafted and certainly should not now be feeling responsible for the constant moving of the goalposts that has led to us not only having to wait 6 extra years for our pensions, but also finding that we are actually not going to get the much-publicised “universal” pension that isn’t.

Two things that haven’t been mentioned. Transitional arrangements are currently in place which mean that when you get to your SPA you will get either what you have earned under the current scheme or what you would have got under the old scheme, whichever is the higher. In my case, with a 41 year NI record and no longer working, I would get less than £100 under the new system, but had accrued about £130 under the previous one, so the higher sum will apply. With this in mind, it may not be worth your making up missing NI payments. You really need to request a personal written pension forecast, which will give you full details.

Also, re the specified childcare credits mentioned earlier. If you are looking after a child whose parents have not claimed Child Benefit, usually for tax reasons, you will not get the NI credit, unless they have rung to register their eligibility for the benefit they aren’t claiming. As I found out to my cost, having a child under 16 and therefore being eligible for Child Benefit does not count as being eligible unless you’ve done this and NI credits are not backdated.

Surely if you opted out of the full NI contributions and that money went into a public sector pension you are getting the money anyway? Isn't it just coming from a different route? Given the choice I think we would all opt for a public sector, inflation-proofed pension above any other.

What was to stop anyone going into the public sector, and paying into their pension scheme? I don't begrudge friends who worked in local banks, because I chose not to do that. They now have very generous pensions that paid out at 50. As they were also non-contributory they weren't opted out, and they will get full state pensions. Of course I wish that applied to me, but even with hindsight I still wouldn't have wanted to do their jobs!

In any case the new rules don't just affect the public sector. I opted out to pay into a company pension that was later embezzled, and I received nothing back from that. Another that cost me more in contributions and admin fees than I now have in the pot. Until 2016 these years would not have counted towards the SSP or SERPS additional payments, now they don't count towards the basic pension.

They did pay full normal NI contributions (could have been thousands of pounds each year). What they were opted out of was paying the extra NI for higher earners which would have gone towards building up the old ‘second state pension’ or SERPS - which no longer exists since 2016. That extra NI went instead to the public sector schemes. So I can understand the justification for having to do more than 35 years, as the new post 2016 full state pension is supposed to incorporate both the old lower pension and the old second state pension, that is why the new post 2016 full state pension is about £40 pounds a week higher than the old basic state pension, and why you need 35 years rather than 30 years to get it.

Tony Some of us needed 39 years to get our pensions! It went down to 30 too late for me to get a full pension because, in my day, there was no credit for time spent at home bringing up children. It has since gone up to 35.

Of course I support those who have to wait so long for their pensions but some of us also lost out. We were told to pay the married woman's NI stamp because we would get pensions based upon our husband's contributions but that didn't happen and we lost out for time at home when there was no state subsidy for nurseries.

If you have 'missing years' on your pension record, ring the Pension Service & they will tell you exactly how much you need to pay to get the maximum state pension possible. As Tony states above, it is about £700 per missing year. I was told I would need to live about three years past my retirement age to get my money back in increased SP payments..seemed a reasonable punt, fingers crossed! You pay the lump sum to HMRC, but I had to chase them after a few weeks as my record had not been changed online. They did it there and then when I contacted them though.

If you are paying voluntary NI contributions for the current tax year you can also pay weekly by direct debit at just over £14 per week.

I paid voluntary backdated NI contributions for a period when I was a self-funding postgraduate student. It was one of the best pension things I have done and I’m so glad I did it.

Very difficult to get any information from HMRC. They do not respond to phone calls and never phone back when they promise to. I thought I would get full pension as I had the adequate years but oh no. Apparently at some point in my 50 year working life I was contracted out. HMRC have reduced my pension by £30 per week. Trying to find out how this was calculated has been impossible.

I've had some helpful phone calls with HMRC. Try phoning in the afternoon, phones not usually so busy then.

I have had some very confusing and conflicting information within the past year, including from the HMRC and the NI people. Like Patcaf, I found it difficult to get through and when I did, found that they couldn't help me and kept passing me on. I know it has been covered lots of times here but I just want to add that I would like to know what the Government is doing with all the money saved from not paying 6 years worth of state pension to each of us. That's £48,000 a head before you take into account that many of us are struggling to find work that does not impact on how healthy we will be when we do get it. Recently, in this area, it was stated that women in their 60s should be trying to get taken on as apprentices. It made me smile ...but sadly.

I just happened to come across this old article today, Caledonai, which talks about the IFS identifying a significant boost to the public coffers brought about by our pensions being withheld. Gives one a nice warm glow, doesn’t it, to know that we’ve been so helpful? As for what it’s been spent on....

www.theguardian.com/money/2017/aug/02/a-million-women-32-a-week-worse-off-thanks-to-pension-age-changes-uk

Hi
50sWomen generate one fifth of the pension wealth of men their age due to the lack of such opportunities to do so.
We are campaigning to secure back the earned dues belonging to 50sWomen whose state pensions were twice deferred, by stealth for up to 6 years.
Michael Mansfield QC is in the High Court for us on 30th November.

The issue of having to pay voluntary contributions to retirement year is a bit of a concern - I am due to receive my state pension in May next year (50's child again) but will be finishing work at the end of this year due to redundancy. We did get a forecast from the DWP which showed we are eligible for the full amount less the amount when we were opted out for a time. Does this now mean I should pay until Apl next year in order for it to be the year of reitirement? I find the whole pension system totally confusing!

Anyone here affected by the rise in State Pension age? Sunday Times Money is running campaign about inequalities so do send in your stories. They are influential and have had success before in other campaigns. If enough response we will get more good publicity to a wider audience. Email: [email protected]

I don’t begrudge anyone their private pension at all ( lucky them
I say ) . I am slightly bitter that many women before me were fortunate to get their state pension at 60 whereas I and plenty like me, will have to work a further 7 years before we get ours. My DH and I had hoped and dreamed to retire together when I was 60 and he is 71 . Sadly I don’t think he will manage to work in his very physical and stressful role until he is 78 .

Exactly Gillybob. I have a small private pension as I was mostly employed p/t after the children and you weren’t allowed to join company pension until quite recently. Then it was what I could afford after family expenses etc. So after redundancy at 60 and no other suitable jobs available I am now just dependent on my DHs pension as NO income after 6months of JSA. Feel most aggrieved I have to wait 6 years when I always worked and paid in NI for 45 yrs believing I could retire at 60. No notification from DWP at all. That’s why I think it would be good for people to tell their story to a wider audience - so many still don’t realise the situation.

I have worked for 40 years with only a few months break after I had my son and daughter. By the time I get to retire (assuming the goal posts don't get moved again) I will have worked (and paid NI) for over 50 years ! Where's the justice in that?

To be honest GranJan60 I don't think the "wider audience" care very much as it's often a case of "I'm alright Jack" .

Also, please be very cautious of paying voluntary top ups for any year prior to 2016, as I have read that whilst HMRC will take your money, it's likely your contributions will not boost your pension pay out.

Ablulananny what do you mean? I have topped up years to make them qualify. Do they not count?

Granjan/gillyb
I think there is more support than you think among "the wider public"
I was lucky enough to be old enough to get mine at 60 but have discussed this with several people, who like me really feel for the waspi women. I really do feel furious with the government for you all ,don't know though of any practical way of helping.

I think that there is plenty of support for many of the Waspi women. Many have been treated unfairly, and should have been formally informed of changes in plenty of time.
However, I am irritated by some who are climbing on the bandwagon. I heard a woman on the radio, saying that she had visited gov.uk in 2010 and had been given the information that she would get her State Pension at 60. She gave her age - exactly the same as mine. I used the gov.uk website in 2010 as I intended to voluntarily retire early. So I know firsthand that she was wrong!
I accept that she could have been confused or have misunderstood, or even not paid her NI properly. But that was not her claim - it was that changes had happened since then.
Of course I have some sympathy for her, but she does not have the case that other Waspi women have, and it does muddy things.

I have been wondering if the changes made to our pension ages are, in fact, ILLEGAL or achieved contrary to other legislation and could be un-picked.
To take legal action would be costly but if the cost was shared by all of us affected and others who cared too then we might be able to fund a fight and, hopefully, win a reversal of the implementation of a swindle.
We all paid in to the system and trusted that we would get our State Pension at 60 if we had enough contributions.
THAT HAS BECOME A LIE now. We acted in good faith even though we had no real option at the time.
Can we get enough support together to test this in the courts?
I hope so. Please talk about this if you feel cheated and get others to as well. I think, if we all chip in we may achieve an over-turn of the 66 age 'finish line' for not much cost to each of us. (Perhaps £1 each if everyone ....)We have it all to win and not much to lose.
Are you willing to challenge our government? I am.

Granny1817 the problem is that the people of the age it affects with enough spare money to fight it and win are people who have private pensions and investments so they dont care