Time to Move On

Article by Margaret Watts for Wessex Pensioners Convention newsletter - Winter 2004

The Pensions Act of 1975 abolished the married women's stamp option for those marrying or entering employment after 6 April 1977.

"We believe that it is no longer tolerable to treat women as second-class citizens entitled to third-class benefits", stated the Labour Government of the day, but politicians have paid lip service to women's pensions for too long.  Recent figures state that only 13% of women receive a full state pension.  The situation is likely to get worse.

Women have known for years that they are disadvantaged by the current pensions system.  Married women with gaps in their working lives are among the most disadvantaged. The many anomalies often penalise women whose working pattern has been fragmented.

One such group is the women who paid the married women's stamp. They often worked part-time, taking breaks to have and rear children. The jobs they did were often poorly paid with un-social hours, no nursery facilities, no family allowance for their first child and often their husbands earned very low wages.

Very often, except during the war years, the mothers were criticised for working when they had children and many would have preferred to stay at home to care for them, but they worked to supplement the family income. Because they worked, albeit part-time from 1977, they have lost the Home Protection Credits that are given to non-working mothers.  These women were poorly advised and consequently have lost out on their pensions in later years.

Unfortunately the married women's stamp is still paid today by 50,000 women workers, many of whom do not realise that they will not receive a pension when they retire at 60, but must wait until their husbands are 65 before claiming the married couple's pension.

These women will pay on average approximately £10,000 during their lifetime of work; many will pay much more, some less.  In addition, their employers will have paid their contributions at the full rate. It has been estimated that, since 1975, at least 4.5 million women have paid £8 billion at today's prices in reduced national insurance contributions. In the eighties, thousands of women paid more for their married women's contributions than colleagues paid for a full NI stamp.

Now, in addition to the 50,000 women currently paying the married women's stamp, we have an army of young women below the lower-earnings limit for paying NI contributions. Is history repeating itself? What will happen about their pensions? Is pensioner poverty their fate?

Most commentators are agreed that the pensions system needs a major overhaul. Women's important contribution to society should be reflected in their pensions. Women in retirement should not have to get out the begging bowl to survive. Where would we be without their children, who are now the workforce we all depend on?