Any of your good ladies been affected by this gross injustice, my wife is 63 her last employment was just over 2 years ago, she has full NI contributions up to the last day of her employment. A redundancy was announced at her workplace within her unit of 5 being the oldest and all the others with young families it was only right and proper for her to volunteer. The employers with reluctance let her go, her health at the time wasn't good but she kept plodding on, since she has been diagnosed with COPD, and diabetes. So not going to work made it easier for her, i at that time was claiming Pension credit and was able to claim for her as well. We were then able to get by without her having to claim benefit or JSA. My circumstances changed and i was no longer able to claim . By then i was in receipt of my state pension and managing got a little tougher, so the wife applied for JSA only to be told because she had gone 1 week over 2 years without contributing for NI she was not entitled and her next entitlement would be her state pension at 66. There has been a lot of campaigning of late going as the government refuses to address this injustice, but i believe a High Court hearing is to be held at the end the month with hopefully a positive outcome. There must be countless stories like ours and even worse, but its not right.
Papa, has your good lady thought of signing on, would it be of any help ? Have you spoken to the CAB people or NPTC welfare rights officer in Neath.
Thanks Broke, as mentioned she has tried to sign on, but would have to go on a work program which she really isn't up to, we have also spoke to DWP with the same reply, she would still have to accumulate another 2 years NI contributions before receiving any benefit. This cruel none caring government expecting sick and ageing people to retrain for work is just madness, we feel like refugees in our own country.
I think that’s why people claim benefits or sign on because it keeps your NI contribution going when you can’t work
Thanks DB, she or we weren't told that when she formed a part of my pension credit claim, plus you would think with 40yrs NI contributions already paid that would be qualification for any benefit claim..
I believe this is one of those situations of sexual equality that wasn't thought of when the movement was created. I seem to remember not that long ago when claims of sexual inequality around car insurance where women with a similar driving record/circumstances were being given discounts based on their sex, this started again another whole chain of events and the revisit to pensions started. In an ideal world, they would have lowered mens ages of 65 to match the womens retirement of 60 but we are living longer and the outgoing money for pensions is vast and getting worrying so they raised womens age to match mens. There were national mentions and advertisements this was going to happen but not every individual was aware. Some who had planned for 60 retirement now had to wait till 65 https://www.waspi.co.uk/background-information/ Just as a seperate thought. My dad lives in a retirement block of 21 bungalows, only 3 have men in. An ex used to work in various nursing homes and the figures were roughly the same. My point here is of that generation, men would have paid most of the national insurance, women paid less but both now would receive the same payment amount. On average women will have 5-7 years extra payments because men tend to die much earlier than women but there is no allowance for that for men. Sadly as you mention Port and with any change to bring things in line with legal sexual equality legislation, there will always be some that miss out in that transition, it would be great if the amount of effected were at the absolute minimum. If you are caught up in that uncertainty of transition, I could certainly understand the anger and confusion.
Thanks Noobie, so it would be right and proper for those caught up in it to at least receive a transitional pension during this transitional period but the government has dug in and refused any consideration. Leaving couples like us having to get by on my state pension and two very small private pensions which takes me above the £11850 by a £150 personal allowance to live, plus also i pay income tax on the excess. Meanwhile my wife who as i have said is not in good health still volunteers once a week to care for the community with a group combined with the local community nurses to ease the demand on them, which is a great success and a massive saving for the NHS. She has cared for dementia clients for the best part of her working life, a bloody diamond if i say so myself. What a smack in the face, sorry to rant on i seem to do her share of it as well.
i think the big issue isnt the change to pension age, the waspi woman aint arguing about that, but the lack of information provided to inform them of the changes. apparently waspi woman didnt know of the changes
Sorry to hear about this proper shit show......have your Mrs tried to apply for Pension Credit? When you receive your Pension Credit, please apply to your local council to get your council tax reduced at same time. Good luck in sorting!
But Pension Credit is only for those over state pension age, and the problem for Portboy's missus is that she has not yet reached that age but faces difficulties in the gap between now and then. I fear it is all down to which other needs/means-tested (as distinct from NI contribution-based) benefits are potentially available for that period. As Finm has pointed out, there's not really a valid argument for different pension ages for men and women, but government communication has not been good - it was the Pensions Act of 1995 that started the harmonisation of state pension age for men and women, and as far as I know it was from then on that a woman aged 63 now (so only 40 then) should have been made aware that pension age would be 65, not 60 (since then increased to 66, as it has been for men of the same age too, with further increases for younger people). As we know, the state (HMRC, DWP, NHS etc... DVLA actually being one of the better parts) does not always communicate efficiently, and it seems that even women who asked for a pension statement from DWP (it's a good idea to do that - https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension ) did not have the situation made very clear to them for some time after 1995.
What is so unfair / unjust is that there are women out there in the same situation as my wife but without a husband or partner who can't support and provide for them now, how they would manage on their own if there NI contributions weren't paid for 2 years or more but they had 40 years plus contributions ?
I'm not sure if "good news" is the right description but at least anyone reaching (their) state pension age from now on will qualify for the new flat-rate state pension as long as they have 35 years of NI contributions and/or credits. One thing to watch out for with that is that anyone who was previously (before 2016) paying "contracted out" NI (generally where employee was also paying into an occupational pension) may not get the full flat-rate amount. That's another complicated topic, but there is good info available, such as: https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/money/retirement/pensions/paul-lewis-how-to-boost-your-state-pension Confusingly, National "Insurance" is not insurance, on the whole does not pay for the NHS (maybe 20%), and that what you pay in cash terms has virtually nothing to do with what you get out - it's years that count, and even then only for the minority of benefits which are now assessed on NI contribution record (state pension being the main one).
My wife had to wait a extra 4 years to get her OAP due to the government changing the rules She has a stroke in 2014 after which she couldn't drive so couldn't work she couldn't claim any benefits either despite having over 40years contribution luckily I had a well paid job
Hope she is doing alright now bud, nearly a similar situation as mine only she gets about alright walks everywhere helps with her diabetes. The only big difference between me and you was that i lost my well paid at the age of 50 with a mass closure back on the Isle of Wight, so had to take what work i could get then at much lower income.
It is not easy to understand what situation you are hypothesising here. As far as I can make out (correct me if I'm wrong): * a single woman leaves employment thus ceasing to earn an income or pay NI contributions, at an age when she is too young to be entitled to a pension * she does not claim any benefit nor earn any income nor pay any NI for two years (presumably living on thin air) * after two years she is still not yet entitled to a pension, but she now tries to start claiming benefits * she is denied all benefits, whether contributory or non-contributory and whether means tested or not * she therefore has to continue living on thin air until she reaches pension age * she would be in exactly the same position regardless if she was male or female Is this the state of affairs which you suggest is unfair and unjust, but only to women?
Your bullet points are correct in my understanding, the unjust and unfairness is because it was 1 week over 2 years without paying contributions that she was unable claim benefit without signing to a back to work programme which her health situation wasn't possible, i hope that is clearer. The so called thin air that you quote came from me originally pension credit which stopped and then from my state pension and private pensions combined.
In your post #11, you hypothesised a single woman - and this was the situation I addressed. Now in this post, the single woman is somehow being supported by you, her husband. Please make your mind up: are we discussing a single woman's situation, or a married woman's?
Sorry Pete, but i posted quite a long winded reply, which loaded up 3 times (i believe the forum is having a server Change) i ended up deleting them all. I am obviously not explaining myself very well, so i will say my point of raising this issue was to highlight a personal experience and combine it with Gross injustice being dealt out to 3.8 Million women ( led to believe ) in our country over the pension transition for women from the 50's.
It is not at all clear where the injustice lies. Are not women being treated in exactly the same way as men? What is unjust about that?
You are matey, a fella with a cast iron pension is just suggesting (in his own life-long civil servant way) tough luck. Them's the rules.
