Will a Wife receive a Widows Pension from the UK Government.

[PFMills]

3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Please don't leave large empty spaces on your posts. I had to scroll through a very long way to get to the end of your post.

Do you think I did that on purpose… if you report it a mod might fix

Edited August 23, 2021 by PFMills

[PFMills]

3 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

I seem to remember hearing about this when it changed many years ago.  They had some expat retiree chap on the radio saying "Who's going to look after my wife when I'm gone?"  What I thought was more likely the case was that part of the deal of him finding himself a pretty young Asian girl a third of his age, was that she would continue to get his pension after he copped it.

 

I think a quick village cremation and "accidentally" forget to tell ol' Blighty anything about it.

I get asked every year if I am still alive by the pension people so that is not really an option for long.

[Kwasaki]

44 minutes ago, PFMills said:

My wife is.  His wife isnt

His wife will not get anything unless they arrange go and live in UK and she becomes a citizen.

[ThaIrish Sean]

You'll usually need at least 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record to get any State Pension. You'll need 35 qualifying years to get the full new State Pension. You'll get a proportion of the new State Pension if you have between 10 and 35 qualifying years.

 

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated#:~:text=You'll usually need at,10 and 35 qualifying years.

[scubascuba3]

9 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Can't find it now, thought it would be in my history but I did find Effin2ret's reference

 

"You’ll need 35 qualifying years to get the new full State Pension if you do not have a National Insurance record before 6 April 2016."

 

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/your-national-insurance-record-and-your-state-pension

 

But no mention of how many qualifying years if you have a prior record? Which I do.

 

This may explain it. https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated

 

I set up an account with HMRC, also have the app, can easily see the NI contributions I've paid year by year, it even tells me what pension I will get. I have 29 of the 35 years so I will most likely top up nearer the time (17 years..). Easy to set up just check their website

[Chongalulu]

12 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

For a minimum pension you need 35 years to get some kind 

pension is 10 years. 

Will you be releasing a coherent version of that ? ???? 

[steve187]

14 hours ago, Eff1n2ret said:

That's for the maximum, I think. This is what the DWP website says:-

To get the full basic State Pension you need a total of 30 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions or credits. This means you were either:

• working and paying National Insurance
• getting National Insurance Credits, for example for unemployment, sickness or as a parent or carer
• paying voluntary National Insurance contributions

If you have fewer than 30 qualifying years, your basic State Pension will be less than £137.60 per week but you might be able to top up by paying voluntary National Insurance contributions.

old rues,  now 35 years and its about £190 a week, all people have to earn their own pension by NI contributions of at least 10 years, minimum age of 66, my wife will be 66 and 4 months when she can claim.

class 2 NI for self employed stamp is £3.05 a week,  £15.40 a week for Class 3 voluntary stamp

Edited August 24, 2021 by steve187

[Thailand]

12 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

To answer the OP.

 

No, the wife can't get the husband's pension but she can get a Bereavement Benefit (2,000 Quid last time I checked).

Nope

[dallen52]

14 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Surely a Pension should only be paid to someone who has contributed financially to the system.

Just because they are married or obtained a passport should not allow them to dip into the pot.

It does in Australia.

You get regardless of having worked or paid taxes.

[dallen52]

12 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Not anymore.

Correct.

 

[foreverlomsak]

15 hours ago, Eff1n2ret said:

That's for the maximum, I think. This is what the DWP website says:-

To get the full basic State Pension you need a total of 30 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions or credits. This means you were either:

• working and paying National Insurance
• getting National Insurance Credits, for example for unemployment, sickness or as a parent or carer
• paying voluntary National Insurance contributions

If you have fewer than 30 qualifying years, your basic State Pension will be less than £137.60 per week but you might be able to top up by paying voluntary National Insurance contributions.

Out of date, all new pensions are based on the "New State Pension" which requires 35 qualifying years to get the maximum which is around 176 GBP if memory serves, DWP have informed me that I will only be getting 32/35th's of the maximum and will also be losing about 16% due to having been in a contracted out private pension. The saving part of this is that you should not get less than the old maximum.

On the page that you got the above information from you will find a link to the "New State Pension".

 

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, nchuckle said:

Will you be releasing a coherent version of that ? ???? 

Well minimum was maybe the wrong word for some people.

As of now to get a full basic pension from the UK govt you need a minimum of 35 years N.I. payments that is achieved by working usually.

A long time ago I read on UK web site you need a minimum of 10 years N.I. payments to get any kind of UK govt pension.

If you live in UK and have less than 10 years N.I. payments and you reach retirement age you would get govt Social Security payments.

 

Is coherent enough or plain enough in my way. ????

 

 

 

[csmith]

Am really disappointed with how the UK Gov have nothing in place to support Thai widows

After a lifetime of NI contributions … and all those paid taxes …. 

So much for the caring society ….

[Kwasaki]

24 minutes ago, foreverlomsak said:

losing about 16% due to having been in a contracted out private pension.

With a private pension from a UK bank I was contracted out for some years it added more money to my UK govt pension when finally calculated when payments were due.

I was told when to contract back in when I retired early.

[crazykopite]

Dare I suggest you go to YouGov U.K. you should find out all the answers you could also send an email asking for verification straight from the horses mouth 

[Road Warrior]

a BIG NO this was ceased some 5/7 yrs back

[sead]

17 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I hope you are joking as that would probably be picked up when he didn't extend his visa, and the wife would IMO be in the doodoo.

So people overstaying are not getting their pension because they will think he I sdead. Don't think it works that way. In Sweden you don't have to report that you are alive to get you pension 

[Harveyboy]

16 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Surely a Pension should only be paid to someone who has contributed financially to the system.

Just because they are married or obtained a passport should not allow them to dip into the pot.

just send her into dover on a rubber boat  then can have everything..

[NoshowJones]

17 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Surely a Pension should only be paid to someone who has contributed financially to the system.

Just because they are married or obtained a passport should not allow them to dip into the pot.

If all the "asylum" seekers and the dingy people can get money from the UK government, why shouldn't those on pensions?

Gee's, some UK MPs have jobs on the side while drawing their full MPs wages, working as solicitors, company directors etc, then retiring on very big pensions while ordinary OAPs die of cold related illnesses every winter and have to choose between eating and heating due to extortionate electricity bills.

So who does the most dipping into the pots"?

[NoshowJones]

17 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

How would the UK authorities know he hadn't extended his visa?

 

If he'd married a much younger girl they might get a little suspicious if he was still claiming his pension when he was 125.

They probably wouldn't even notice it, they don't even have up to date addresses of about 40% of state pensioners. ????

[DefaultName]

I have an application in at the moment, didn't bother telling them about a Thai wife, no point.

[LongTimeLurker]

4 hours ago, dallen52 said:

It does in Australia.

You get regardless of having worked or paid taxes.

 And a few EU countries too, and their pensions are substantially higher than UK.

[sandyf]

18 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Can't find it now, thought it would be in my history but I did find Effin2ret's reference

 

"You’ll need 35 qualifying years to get the new full State Pension if you do not have a National Insurance record before 6 April 2016."

 

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/your-national-insurance-record-and-your-state-pension

 

But no mention of how many qualifying years if you have a prior record? Which I do.

 

This may explain it. https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated

 

The previous post was old info. It used to be 44 years and that was reduced to 30 years and then increased to 35.

Qualifying years are exactly that, a year where you have maintained contributions throughout the year. I have 48 qualifying years and one incomplete year, I was 65 in the middle of the tax year.

You do not have to pay NI all the time, if you are not working you have to claim credits or you could lose the year. From age 60 to 65 used to be automatically credited but not sure if that is still the case.

If you sign up to the Government Gateway you can access your NI record and see exactly how many qualifying years you have. There is no such thing as a "prior record", only one record based on your NI number from the date of first registration with the tax office.

[LongTimeLurker]

6 hours ago, sandyf said:

It used to be 44 years and that was reduced to 30 years and then increased to 35.

I think it was increased from 30 years to 33 years and then again to 35?

[LongTimeLurker]

17 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

I set up an account with HMRC, also have the app, can easily see the NI contributions I've paid year by year, it even tells me what pension I will get. I have 29 of the 35 years so I will most likely top up nearer the time (17 years..). Easy to set up just check their website

EASY??? <deleted> EASY you say??

 

I've just spent an hour getting back to absolutely nowhere.

 

How the heck do they expect me to remember when I got a credit card, it was so long ago!

 

I'll stick to writing them letters.

[rickudon]

Yes, the pension debacle struck 6 years ago. There i was, with 31 years ( by my calculation) so entitled to the full (old) state pension when i was made redundant at 55, was expecting a married pension for the Thai wife and a widow's pension for her in the future. Thought i had enough to retire to Thailand.

 

Then the new state pension was announced, but they were rather vague about rules and how you qualified for the full rate. No widows pension. No married pension. No bereavement allowance. And i needed maybe 4 more years of contributions. Finally, i discovered also because i was in a contracted out employers pension scheme i would loose up to one sixth of my State pension (i finally ended up with 2 pounds more than the old pension rate). It was easy to see how the government could 'afford' the new state pension. Bastards.

 

Had to work and/or claim benefits (got injured in the new job) for 2 more years before retiring to Thailand. Finally, the 2008 financial crash helped start the spiralling down of interest rates and exchange rates, so that comfortable retirement became a 'look for the yellow stickers in Tesco lotus' retirement! Not poor, but just scraped in for the married extension rate on my employer pensions until the new state pension started. Used up a fair bit of that redundancy money while waiting for it. My new state pension is 35 GBP less than the 'standard ' rate.

 

Ok, rant over. But yes for the OP, Thai wife will get nothing from the UK government unless able to live in the UK.

[foreverlomsak]

22 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

With a private pension from a UK bank I was contracted out for some years it added more money to my UK govt pension when finally calculated when payments were due.

I was told when to contract back in when I retired early.

Why one has to be careful when interpreting DWP rules, my pension was one for a state run industry, the SERPS payments (the difference between contracting in and out), were not collected by DWP, e.g. a lower NI contribution was made by me. Therefore the pension is reduced due to this non-collection.

My assertion of deductions is made based on a quote from DWP on what I will get on retirement, I'm not quite there yet.

Other Private Pension Plans could have different agreements with DWP on the handling of SERPS contributions.

 

[Chongalulu]

On 8/24/2021 at 9:28 AM, Kwasaki said:

Well minimum was maybe the wrong word for some people.

As of now to get a full basic pension from the UK govt you need a minimum of 35 years N.I. payments that is achieved by working usually.

A long time ago I read on UK web site you need a minimum of 10 years N.I. payments to get any kind of UK govt pension.

If you live in UK and have less than 10 years N.I. payments and you reach retirement age you would get govt Social Security payments.

 

Is coherent enough or plain enough in my way. ????

 

 

 

A much better attempt! Your detention is canceled! And as something of a pensions guru I can confirm you are correct. I would add that you can buy missing years of NI contributions and after 10 years minimum ,however many qualifying years you have will give you the pro rata equivalent pension (10/35ths etc). Whilst registered unemployed your NI contributions are paid for you so you don’t lose out. 
Now you can ask me about SIPPs ! ???? 

[Kwasaki]

4 hours ago, foreverlomsak said:

Why one has to be careful when interpreting DWP rules, my pension was one for a state run industry, the SERPS payments (the difference between contracting in and out), were not collected by DWP, e.g. a lower NI contribution was made by me. Therefore the pension is reduced due to this non-collection.

My assertion of deductions is made based on a quote from DWP on what I will get on retirement, I'm not quite there yet.

Other Private Pension Plans could have different agreements with DWP on the handling of SERPS contributions.

 

Well I only know that I got full UK pension amount and then two other payments were added to it someone told me one was for something Maggie did and the other was the contract in & out thingy, I didn't expect the amount I got but very happy, also because of the world money crash in 2008 I thought my private pensions were going to cop it but by 2012 they recovered quite well and was very happy and surprised with them too.

[Kwasaki]

3 hours ago, nchuckle said:

A much better attempt! Your detention is canceled! And as something of a pensions guru I can confirm you are correct. I would add that you can buy missing years of NI contributions and after 10 years minimum ,however many qualifying years you have will give you the pro rata equivalent pension (10/35ths etc). Whilst registered unemployed your NI contributions are paid for you so you don’t lose out. 
Now you can ask me about SIPPs ! ???? 

I didn't understand how I got what I did in the first place when it came getting my pensions just accepted what they gave.

I wish they had kept the help a bit for Thais wives but done away with and they couldn't wait to sent a proof of Life form.. 

UK really wants old people out of the way although they did drop a clanger and send me a winter allowance which they never took back. ????