Middle-aged women worst hit by recession

And some women think the battle for equality has been won!

Yes, it reflects so many of my peers' circumstances Mamie. I wasn't expecting to retire myself until just a few weeks ago, but public sector squeezes led to lots of redundancies and when the offer came two and a half years ago, I took it because I knew I could help reduce my childrens' childcare costs, and the difference between carrying on working and taking redundancy levelled itself out with being able to live a cheaper lifestyle. But for a dozen or so other colleagues - all middle-aged women, the impact was awful. They lost chunks of potential pension, were out of work for months, suffered stress and depression, and ultimately found themselves in lower-grade jobs, having been middle managers with much higher incomes. One went on to study to be a solicitor and now works solely in employment law, she was so incensed at the way women got the brunt of the cuts.

when you were very fortunate with your redundancy payment and, presumably, pension as many of us in the private sector had the same experience but without the cushion it sounds as if you enjoy. Do you know how small the government minimum redundancy is?

There is another group of women who seem to be completely ignored by the state and the media. The early baby boomers who had no choice but to give up work when their children were born because there was no child care and because giving up work was the norm and what was expected of all but the poorest. We didn't get NI credits for years spent at home bringing up our children and as a result don't get a full pension because we don't have 39 years of NI payments.

Now it is only necessary to have 30 years and credits are given for time off to look after children. There is also going to be a minimum pension for them but the existing pensioners will not qualify.

I am fortunate not to be as badly affected as some but when I wrote to my MP who is supposed to be a pensions specialist she showed no interest or empathy at all!

That is such a depressing thing to read. I realised that things were not good for middle-aged women but I hadn't realised that they were that bad.

Home Responsibility Allowance to cover years spent child rearing was available from 1978 to 2010. I receive about 98% of a full state retirement pension, even though I had four years off for child care and another four years as a mature student. The shortfall is due to the time I spent working in Monaco and did not bother to buy myself a stamp.

Alison yes lucky with redundancy, as it made the difference between keeping or losing my house. I lost the potential for two and a half years of income as a manager, about £100,000, and received a small amount as compensation for that, but it was a relief to escape the extreme stress (I was in a hospital bed when the redundancy offer came, as a direct result of overwork, being on call when I should have been asleep, getting one hour of sleep three times in the week before I got taken to A and E, and four of my six manager colleagues were already off sick with stress). I suspect I was offered redundancy because they feared I would drop dead on the job - the week before I was hospitalised, they sent out memos saying definitely no redundancies! The union got involved!

I now live on a small pension and am perfectly happy to live on what I've got.

I got made redundant last year I am 56. I had not worked for this employer long enough to get any redundancy. I now have a part time job that pays a lot less per hour. I must have applied for 200 - 250 jobs before becoming employed again. Most do not even acknowledge job applications which is disheartening.

I notice there seems to be a few more jobs around so hopefully we are coming out of the recession. I have begun to think that my age now counts against me, yet with pensionable age now 66 I have 10 years to go to offical retirement.

What annoys me is that I am fit and healthy and not ready for the knackers yard yet!

I have another 9 years till I become of pension age,but I know for a fact I will not have made enough NI payments. I gave up work in 1974 when my son was born, I then went on to have two more children. I did not work I was a 'stay at home ' mum because there was no such thing as child care for under 5s back then.
Just as my youngest started school I though about getting a part time job. I only got as far as thinking about it, with in weeks of my youngest starting school mum became ill with Parkinsons disease and cancer so I ended up looking after her. After she passed away I was able to get a full time job thus paying my NI payments, but not for many months. Dad then become ill and once more it was down to me to look after him and I had to go part time at work and so did not earn enough for NI payments. After dad passed away, new owners took over my place of work and my hours were cut even more until the bad working conditions and ill health forced me to give up work so I know that I have a huge shortfall of payments.

But if the proposed £140 a week universal pension comes in, you will benefit from that, Annika. Which will not be much less than my own state pension, gained after more than 40 years' employment.

Thats nice for me but not really fair for you Anagram and others who have worked for 40 years or more.

Yes, but there are other women retiring within the next couple of years who will miss out too. My point was that with 9 years to go to retirement, you don't really have to worry about not having paid enough NI.

Surely the Home Responsibility Allowance covers the years spent caring for children or other relatives?

Greatnan I didn't know anything about Home Responsibility Allowance. In fact, I had never heard of it until I read your post. I never paid NI during the years spent child rearing full time (1982–1985) and no allowance of any sort was made (apart from Child Benefit, which is, of course, quite different). I don't know if this was because I was self-employed but, then, I never heard any of my friends mention it either. Equally, I knew nothing about it when taking care of my elderly mother. Too late now, but it should certainly be more widely in both instances.

It didn't come in until 1978, but after that you were credited automatically with NI contributions if you received child benefit. To be covered when looking after older relatives, you'd have to have been in receipt of carer's allowance.

You can get s State Pension Estimate see http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsandretirementplanning/StatePension/StatePensionforecast/DG_10014008nsion Estimate

If you have been receiving Carers Allowance you are credited with Class 1 NI contributions. Home Responsibilities are given if you had children (claiming Child Benefit) and were not working as far as I know. Mine had been automatically added when I checked mine.

Suggest you look at the site and get a forecast. If link does not work the page is called 'Getting a State Pension forecast' on the Directgov website.

anagram - I'm - my state pension is nothing like £140 a week despite all those years at the chalkface. I missed out on a few years after DD 1 was born (1975) then DD2 in 1977 and didn't think to buy them back untilit no longer seemed an economically sound idea. Got to live with it, but why does the grass always seem greener? At least I haven;t been forced to work until I am 67 so will stop whingeing!

gracesmum, you should have been credited with NI payments after 1978 if you were receiving child benefit. I had 18 months off work when DD was born and at least three years a bit later on, but that was in the 80s so I would have received the credits. I've also had a couple of gaps in employment over later years, and I, too, didn't take the opportunity to pay the extra as it didn't seem worth it.
Maybe I have worked for more years than you have? It does seem a bit odd!

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Older women also may have reduced income if they divorced before the ruling about entitlement to part of their husbands pension.

A very interesting article Mamie, raising issues that many GNetters will identify with. I am of that generation, like so many others, with periods of employment interspersed with caring for others. I also have been twice married and divorced. I find it hard to manage on my reduced state pension and teachers pension, as I am just above the threshold for pension credit or help with council tax and so on. I am not moaning about money, but would just like to make a point about social inclusion. I live alone and my family are all at a distance, so I see friends for lunch or invite them for meals at my house. I also belong to a group studying French, a book group, a choir and a social group that goes out on low cost outings. If I didn't make the effort to go out and about, I would simply stay in alone much of the time. However, I find that the cost of even a modest social life is soaring, and I begin to think I will have to cut back on some of my activities. I would be interested to hear how others view this and what they do. I have looked at volunteering, but so many of the openings seem to be aimed at young people, who are naturally desperate for experience to aid their search for work.