Brit pensions

[Pancake]

Can anyone tell me what the monthly UK pension payment for a married couple is ?

[Patf]

The basic pension for a couple, with maximum contributions, is £134.75 per week. Single person £84.25 per week. Pat.

[Pancake]

Thanks Pat

[Benjamin]

[quote user="Patf"]The basic pension for a couple, with maximum contributions, is £134.75 per week. Single person £84.25 per week. Pat.

[/quote]

Does anyone know what defines a couple in the eyes of the Department of Work and Pensions?

Benjamin

[Logan]

[quote user="Benjamin"][quote user="Patf"]The basic pension for a couple, with maximum contributions, is £134.75 per week. Single person £84.25 per week. Pat.
[/quote]

Does anyone know what defines a couple in the eyes of the Department of Work and Pensions?


Benjamin
[/quote]

Husband and wife, married under matrimonial law. Anyone else is classed for pensions as a single.

[zeb]

Definitely best to be two singles!

[Benjamin]

[quote user="Logan"]

[quote user="Benjamin"][quote user="Patf"]The basic pension for a couple, with maximum contributions, is £134.75 per week. Single person £84.25 per week. Pat.

[/quote]

Does anyone know what defines a couple in the eyes of the Department of Work and Pensions?

Benjamin

[/quote]

Husband and wife, married under matrimonial law. Anyone else is classed for pensions as a single.

[/quote]

So, where does that leave a couple when one of them is of pensionable age and the other isn't. To be more specific, Mrs Benjamin receives the single person's pension but I don't because I'm not old enough. So why don't we get the State pension for a couple?

Benjamin

[Dick Smith]

Because you aren't of pensionable age?

[Sunday Driver]

From the DWP website:

Basic State Pension (per week from 10 April 2006)

Based on your own or your late husband’s, wife’s or civil partner’s NI contributions	£84.25
Based on your husband’s, wife’s or civil partner’s NI contributions	£50.50

So a couple where one party is reliant on the other party's former contributions will receive £134.75.

A couple who each have the full NI contributions in their own right will receive £84.25 each.

At least that's how I interpret it..... 

 

 

[Sunday Driver]

And as Dick so observantly noted - they both have to be of pensionable age....

 

 

[andyh4]

.............and does anyone know what happens when you have individual contributions through your working lives - but neither partner has full contributions?

[Junlesley]

That's definitely another reason for not getting married! [:)]

[Dick Smith]

SD - I'm learning!

[Sunday Driver]

[quote user="andyh4"]

.............and does anyone know what happens when you have individual contributions through your working lives - but neither partner has full contributions?

[/quote]

You can ask the DWP for an individual pension forecast.

 

 

[PeterG]

If you complete a form BR19 the DWP will give you a pension forcast based on your contributions. I think this can even be done online.

[Llantony]

Yes, you can get a pension forecast online - if 'they' have your correct details.  I got an online forecast no problem (except that due to the iniquitous 'married women's reduced contribution rate' I'll get hardly anything).  But it didn't work for my husband.  When he phoned to ask why he found

1.  they had the wrong address for him (we've been at this address 16 years);

2.  Said he wasn't married (30+ years!)

3.  Said he'd missed a years insurance contributions in the 1990s (has worked continuously since 1980).

Funny they got it right for me tho.

Has anyone heard that you have to be living in the UK at age 60 to get cold weather fuel payment + to get an extra 5 years NI credits??

[BJSLIV]

Has anyone heard that you have to be living in the UK at age 60 to get cold weather fuel payment + to get an extra 5 years NI credits??

That is correct. If you are living abroad when you qualify for the heating payment it will not be paid until you resume residence in the UK. Once you have received a payment in the UK entitlement follows you, even if you move abroad.

You are also correct concerning the credits given to people over the age of 60 who are not earning enough to pay NI contributions. These credits are only given to people resident in the UK.

[Cassis]

[quote user="Llantony"]

Yes, you can get a pension forecast online

[/quote]

Could you tell us the link for this, L?  I have been unable to find it and the DWP CNR said I had to fill in a form and mail it to them (presumably so that it could get lost in the post).

[BJSLIV]

The online forecast request is half way down this page. Last time I used it you had to register and they sent a PIN number through the post. I don't know if they will send one to France.

http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/atoz/atozdetailed/rpforecast.asp

Edit

Having plodded through a few screens it says You cannot get a forecast if you live outside the UK.

[Ron Avery]

You cannot even make an on-line pension forecast request if you live in France, you have to phone up Newcastle and request that they send you the form requesting a pension forecast.  The questionnaire wants to know your whole life history plus your partners details as if when you move to France you become more dodgy that in people in the UK.

[Cassis]

[quote user="Ron Avery"] The questionnaire wants to know your whole life history plus your partners details as if when you move to France you become more dodgy that in people in the UK.[/quote]

Oh.  Such is progress in this hi-tech world. 

We each got a forecast when we moved here but I was told by Nexcastle DWP CNR to do another one when I called them to ask if we should stop voluntary SE contributions (in view of the 30-year rule proposed in the Pensions White Paper).

You can download and print the form, rather than wait for them to send it to you.  It didn't take long to fill in but I was hoping to save on the postage!