STATE PENSION

[PanBiker]

I think they said if successful, the total cost will be enormous (£70 Billion from memory) - that will guarantee a robust response from Government.

It's only the money they have already robbed from the women and spent on something else. Wouldn't sound as bad if drip fed to all the recipients as it should have been.

[plaques]

From LizG's post. Currently you can draw on your super fund tax free once you are over 60. It also means that once you turn 60 you can continue working, pay a large amount into your super, at a reduced tax rate, and then draw on your super to make up salary, tax free. (Or you can just retire and live off super tax free.)
I'm glad you qualified it with the word 'currently' . Who knows what tricks they will get up to in 10..20..40 years time. These schemes are really directed at the big earners. You throw a couple of hundred grand into your pension pot. Pay no tax on it and then draw it out tax free or at a reduced rate. I wonder why those on minimum wages don't do it? Don't answer that.

[PanBiker]

On my pension I am going to ask them why I don't quite get the maximum ( about £10.00 pw light). I have 42 years of qualifying contributions and you only need 35 for the full amount?

[chinatyke]

I don't know if this helps:

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated

It has certainly got more complicated recently.

[PanBiker]

Done all that China and my NI record shows 42 years of full contributions and 7 years that I did not contribute. This was from when I was made redundant in 2011. I have worked part time on and off since but not earned enough to make further contributions. My 42 years though of full contributions should still count though as you only need 35 to qualify. I paid full stamp for the 9 years I was self employed so that should not have an impact. The gov site will not let you see the calculations once you have passed the qualifying age only your NI record, cant see why not but that is the case. Will probably have to write or ring unless I can find an online chat service for it. They have that for tax enquiries. If I do qualify for the maximum they are currently short changing me by nearly £500 p.a.

[Stanley]

When I was self-employed and paying my own stamp I asked why I had to keep on paying NI and got a dusty answer. Apart from that I can't ever remember having any problems with pension amounts or payment.
One of the biggest changes I have noted is not the government but the private pensions. When Tiz cashed his in we had an exchange about this. The terms I got in 2000 were far better than what he was offered pro rata. I think that once more the gods were looking after me because I never did any shopping round, just took what Pearl offered me. It's mounting up nicely now on 3% annual rise. Every birthday they give me a present!

[plaques]

My 42 years though of full contributions should still count though as you only need 35 to qualify.

My quick read of China's post is that once you have contributed 35 years worth you get their full basic pension offer. There are reduction penalties for not getting to 35 but no bonuses for contributing more than 35 years, There are small extra payments depending on how you have orgonised yourself in the past. Contracted out, etc, etc,

[PanBiker]

Indeed my NI record shows 42 years of full contributions. When I was made redundant in 2011 I distinctly remember ringing and asking If I needed to continue making voluntary contributions. I was told then that I had more than enough credit to ensure the full state pension. If you do continue to to contribute over the 35 years the majority of the payment goes towards the widows pension in the event of your early demise, I was told that the maximum difference that would make to that if I continued full payments for another seven years would be around £3.00 per week so not really worth the extra expenditure. I paid full stamp for myself when I was self employed and what really irks is that I also paid full stamp for Sally when we made the decision that she would stay at home while the kids were young, and we know what they did to her.

The gov gateway will not let you access the calculations once you have passed your official pension start date only the NI record. You can ring and request a recalculation which is what I will do. The written one I have been sent does not say why mine has been reduced from the full amount. It's seems to be designed as an example of smoke and mirrors, which I suppose is about right.

[Stanley]

You can't help getting the feeling that the overriding impulse is to use every loophole in the regs to reduce what is paid out. I know that's how I felt when they made me cash my fund in to raise my income so that I didn't qualify for extra benefits. I chased it down with Gordon Prentice and he did a good job for me but we found that the authority to make the change was all in the small print of the regulations and It surprised Gordon as well.
They may be bad at chasing the big guys but they are finely honed when it comes to the small fry like us, especially when self-employment comes into the equation.
I agree totally with you Ian on the subject of Sally's stamps and pension. That's retrospective tampering with what should have been a binding contract.

[PanBiker]

I forgot to post that I received a letter from the DWP on Friday, they have decided to increase my pension which will actually bring it up to what it should be for my full contributions.

Now, if they will just pay Sally the £40,000 that they owe her to date we will be straight. It will be £48,000 in another two years so it's a bargain if they do it now. She's off to a rally with the WASPI's in Skipton on Friday for International Womens Day.

[chinatyke]

... I received a letter from the DWP on Friday, they have decided to increase my pension which will actually bring it up to what it should be for my full contributions.

I can't understand why they reduced your pension in the first place. I hope the increase is back-dated.
I wish I could get my annual increases that they haven't paid me for the past 8 years!

[Stanley]

Good! I share China's thoughts about back payments.
China, they are using every cunning wheeze known to man to save money for HS2!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the expected verdict today in the High Court on the Judicial Revue into the question of women's pension rights. I hope they win!

[PanBiker]

We are watching the news Stanley. Ruling around 10am.

[PanBiker]

Very disappointing, the women have lost their appeal.

[Stanley]

I kept tabs as well. A great shame and very costly to pursue it further. Tell Sally I am sorry.

[PanBiker]

I have no doubt they will crowd fund an appeal. Various Labour Party MP's and the trade unions are in support of the cause. It would do the Labour Party in general no harm to fully support some kind of review into the deficit. There are 4 million votes to be had there. These are from the generation who do take the trouble to vote as well. We are having a CLP Labour Party bash as a pre election get together in Barlick on Saturday night. We are hoping to have a shadow cabinet minister present as a speaker. Sally will be having a word..

[chinatyke]

We are hoping to have a shadow cabinet minister present as a speaker. Sally will be having a word..

Ask her to put in a word for us poor pensioners that have chosen to live outside UK, don't cost UK Ltd anything, still pay UK income tax, and UK Ltd repays by them by not giving pension increases!

It's an unfair world!

[Stanley]

"It's an unfair world!" YUP!

[plaques]

"It's an unfair world!" YUP!

but only if you are at the bottom of the heap.

[Whyperion]

I see basic state pension due to rise 4% in April 2020. So far as I can see supermarket prices up 5% gas and lleccy a bit more.

[Stanley]

That's the only experience I have P. I suspect the ones at the top are no better off!

[PanBiker]

At last, the Labour Party has announced today that they will compensate the 1950's women robbed of their pensions by the Tories and Lib Dems. Compensation will be paid over the term of a Labour parliament.

[Stanley]

I agree with McDonnell, it is righting a historical wrong and further, a wrong that was so badly administered. So bad you can only conclude that it was demonstrating that women are second class citizens. (That should influence about 4 million voters!)

[PanBiker]

We wont get all of them but we should. The robbery effects all kinds of voters and some of the die hard Tories or the I hate Jeremy Corbyn members of the WASPI groups would rather bite their noses off to spite their faces it would seem from some of the comments on some of the Facebook groups Sally follows. Some peoples just don't get the fact that they should be voting for policy rather than the person, leaders can and will be replaced, lets get the policies in place first and a socialist government to support them. Their loss if they want to play silly buggers.

Sally's calculation as she is one of the worst cases of six years worth of robbery equates to £31,000 over five years and would be very welcome thank you very much.